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The no-bra movement is taking over fashion — and it's leaving many women behind

All I wanted was a cute sundress to help celebrate the end of a miserable pandemic winter. As someone who’s been trying to reduce my clothing consumption and move away from fast fashion as much as possible, it had been a while since I’d purchased a staple summer dress that made me feel flirty and feminine. But I was in the mood to treat myself, so I opened the Aritzia website and started to scroll.

To my dismay, the experience wasn’t nearly as pleasant as I had expected. After just a few minutes of looking through the website and seeing dress after dress with an open back, spaghetti straps or excessively low-cut style, I found myself repeatedly wondering, “How the hell am I supposed to wear a bra under that?”

And then it hit me. I thought back to conversations I’d seen on Twitter, articles I’d read from major outlets and styles I’d seen on the streets of Toronto, and I quickly realized my shopping struggles weren’t just a fluke: they were the result of a rising braless movement born out of the pandemic.

Sure enough, a quick search of the term “braless movement” reveals a host of recent articles from major publications like The New York Times and Vogue, and more declaring that “2020 could be the end of the line for the bra.”

The pandemic allowed people all over the world to prioritize comfort over style and, in turn, enabled many women to do away with the uncomfortable and restricting bras they had come to resent. The push to make widespread bralessness a permanent fixture of modern life is surely meant to to liberate women from a tool used to oppress and objectify them for decades.

While I'm all for those who feel empowered by this change, as a busty woman who feels most comfortable wearing a bra (usually a wireless one, let's be honest), I couldn't help but feel excluded and frankly, inadequate to see countless outlets declare that bras should be banished and to watch bralessness trickle into 2021 fashion trends.

Going braless has rarely felt like an option for me. I went through puberty at a young age and developed breasts before most of my friends, and I have always felt most comfortable when the girls are supported rather than left on their own to succumb to the effects of gravity. Letting them hang free would attract attention not to mention the back pain that would come from carrying around their weight without help.

“I would totally be one of those people if I could be, but I’m not, so I’m watching from afar and very envious,” says Abby Seitz, a 24-year-old woman who wears the cup size 40F.

Seitz says she’d feel far too self-conscious and uncomfortable going braless in public, adding that she has a heightened awareness of her body and how it moves when she doesn’t have some kind of support. Even going out to meet the delivery man means ensuring her arm is strategically positioned across her chest to avoid unwanted attention, she says, but it wasn’t until she recently went shopping at her local H&M and Zara and noticed how few clothing styles were actually accessible to her that she felt discouraged about her body.

“I went shopping for the first time in a while for summer clothes and was shocked at how many tank tops and dresses were cut in a way that I would either need a strapless bra or no bra at all,” she says. “I don’t struggle with body image issues but I felt really gross and defeated after trying on several of the tank tops and realizing that even though they came in XL, they were not for me.”

A discouraged Seitz left the mall that day with a couple of long-sleeved shirts, but nothing she was excited to sport in public during the upcoming hot summer months.

Twenty-three-year-old Kelly-Anne Lemay has had similar experiences. As a size 34DDD (though it ranges depending on the store), Lemay says she’s been in countless situations in which her body has been sexualized and objectified in public because of the size of her breasts, and she feels most at ease when she’s not drawing attention to them.

The reality of physical discomfort is also a major factor.

“My chest weighs quite a bit, and it would give me severe back pain to go braless,” she says. “I would just not be comfortable with myself that way... It would cause me more anxiety than empowerment.”

But Lemay is also into fashion, and she too feels that both maintaining the support she desires while partaking in the trends of the season is becoming more and more of a pipe dream.
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Docdon23 · M
As an admitted breast lover, this article was a fascinating read. It brings up several points and questions, as someone who does not grapple with ample (sorry) every day. First, women should wear what they feel comfortable with---it is nonsense to say fashion should dictate taste and comfort. Having said that, I know you can only buy from what they make. Second, if in fact bras do serve the useful purpose of both supporting ample assets and also covering body parts the woman may not wish revealed, then this trend is wrong-headed, and geared for mostly younger and less endowed females. Third, I do wonder if one significant reason for bras has been to impress the men, to lift and shape breasts into a position where men can oogle and gawk...and if that is the case, this is a welcome trend. Women should please themselves.
SilkandLace2 · 46-50, M
I've also noticed in the last few years, not many women not noticing, or perhaps not caring how much of their bras show, and i don't necessarily mean just straps....also multiple straps, ei., a bra, a cami top, sometimes more than one cami tops, which I'm not being judgemental really, I've just noticed this
Jimmy2016 · 61-69, M
🤔.............I can see her point.....With that, I remember the braless years back in the 60's and 70's when I was growing up.......Back in my teenage years...........now it's back......
Docdon23 · M
I do believe, as your article points out, that the size of the breasts matters here. For example, looking at your pictures, you have firm and not overly large breasts--I would call them perfect. Going out without a bra for you would be classy and sexy and welcomed (by many of us I am sure). But someone who is overly large, yes, some sort of support or bra probably looks much better...but to each their own, and I am sure they would still look inviting.
R5000 · 41-45, M
How often do you wear a bra?
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Rayce · M
Yes, men just hate seeing braless women.

 
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