Here we all are, back to normal — except, is it just me or is something different? Looser, less prominent. Not as much heaving. Not only are we leaving our masks at home these days, some of us are also barely wearing bras any more. Look around — subtly, mind, or you’ll be cancelled — and answer me this: has Covid killed off the underwire?
You might well still be strapped in as usual, but a change is coming. The only way is, well, down actually — a hoist-free hang that is less “hello boys” and more “twenty to four���, as nature intended.
“Our customers are definitely interested in non-underwired bras,” says Jeannie Lee, head of lingerie buying at Selfridges, where sales of what fashion types are calling “soft” bras are up 90 per cent in the past year. “They offer comfort and a sleek silhouette, but less lift.”
Perhaps this doesn’t matter in what increasingly feels like a post-lift world. Last month, queen of cleavage Elizabeth Hurley was snapped in a backless dress and not much by way of scaffolding at the front.
At the Baftas on Sunday Alana Haim and Daisy Edgar-Jones’s plunging necklines were a world away from the quivering blancmange of old. Having been deemed passé by Vogue in 2016, cleavage isn’t so much over as under. Enter the me-vage: a decollete left to its own devices. Even boob jobs come teardrop-shaped as standard these days, as opposed to immobile round roboboobs.
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The rise of loungewear during the pandemic has brought a switch to soft on all fronts. Kim Kardashian’s shapewear company Skims was this week valued at $3.2 billion and announced its foray into swimwear, but it was the brand’s £32 “fits everyone” bralettes that made hard cash out of soft bras (skims.com). I love mine, but I am not filling it with the 45DDD max capacity it purports to hold.
“Skims feel like modern lifestyle pieces,” Lee says. “But non-underwired won’t work every day for every shape — support and fit are key.”
This week comes the UK launch of the hip US underwear brand Parade. Valued at $140 million, its soft bras, mesh knickers and waffle comfies are all made from reclaimed nylon scraps and certified cotton.
Its Support+ range, designed to fit DD-F, comes in three sizes that boast thicker straps, a higher central band and extra hook-and-eyes to extend the soft look to those who have found it tough in the past (from £28, yourparade.com).
“We launched soft bras after many requests,” explains Cami Téllez, Parade’s CEO, founder and creative director. “I wouldn’t call time on the underwire for ever, but our customers wanted something ultra-comfortable and supportive in fun, bright colours.”
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Make no mistake, there is nothing come hither about this trend — and that is precisely the point. Rossell England’s soft styles come in a palette of front-row-friendly burgundy, camel, blush and navy made from geometric cotton panels that negate the need for anything more industrial-strength. Even better, its fastenings are deliberately off-centre, so they’re even easier to do up by yourself (rossellengland.com).
John Lewis sells a non-wired bra every 25 minutes — its £18 Anya style is a firm favourite. I know women whose children are at primary school who are still wearing their silk and jersey bras from the hip nursing brand Six (from £39, six-studio.com).
Brands have also been quick to cotton on to the fact that women are fed up of the old sort of lingerie — the kind that digs in, itches, leaves welts and must be removed through the sleeve of your jumper on the sofa so you can watch telly in peace.
The hosiery brand Heist — which successfully developed tights without the loathed gusset — has poured resources into this latest trend. Its £75 satin bra even emulates a classic balconette — without the wires and with what I would call a reasonable lift. It isn’t quite the crumb tray of old but, for now at least, goodbye boys.
Twitter: @harrywalker1
