Does Going Braless Look Better?
I fear I have said too much...but we're publishing. I examine dominant breast silhouettes over the years and beg the question: are we moving towards a braless future? Can big bosomed girls go without?
*Don’t want to read? Listen to me recite^ xoxo*
I almost didn’t write this because, is this topic gauche? I guess that’s what spurred me to write it to begin with, I’m genuinely curious. Also embarrassed. I’m baring myself for the sake of “journalism”. Perhaps sensationalism. Either way.
Let me just start by saying something people always find shocking, and to which I interpret as a compliment, I am dealing with a sizeable bosom. They’re not massive. But they’re not small. If we want to get real specific 30E or more generically, a 32DD. Which seems like a universal size at this point. So I am specifically qualified to discuss the topic.
I came to age during the Victoria’s Secret era when people obsessed over the runway shows that streamed on TV and stole thongs from their stores.
This was the time of the pushup bra that gave a very round shape, very circular, very symmetrical, very lifted. It’s kind of a look you can only really achieve with a pushup bra or small boobs.
I remember being absolutely captivated by the puckered line that would form in the fabric between the tas and the way the underwire would catch on the material emphasizing the curvatures. I thought it looked so pretty. I actually don’t really know why.
This type of shape raised me. In my youth, I was actually flat-chested. Forest Freihaut, one of my first boyfriends, neighbours, and also worst enemies, made fun of me for it. In front of everyone. I think he called me flat like a board. I know exactly where we were, in my favourite classroom that was west-facing, a different orientation to all the others.
Anyway, my boobs only ‘developed’ to their full size in university—coincidentally when I started taking the birth control pill. In the very short 8 months I was on it my body had transformed. This may also have had something to do with all the Oreos I was eating for dinner but, the fat distribution was honestly a sight to behold.
It was a difficult and disorienting experience that I believe worsened a lot of my already problematic body image issues. Nonetheless impressive though, because it took me a long time to realize I’d gained like 30 pounds since my body had stayed pretty proportionate; my boobs, hips, and thighs had simply exploded in size.
My mom is a rather hip-y woman, she pretty much has the same body type as the original Kim Kardashian. I used to fear I’d inherit her proportions, which most certainly comes from the skinny brainwashing passed down to me from doing ballet and loving fashion.
My mom has always been a modest dresser. She never has the tas on display, I’ve never seen her actually with any cleavage. Ever. She has always dressed to flatter, not to flaunt.
My older sister belonged more to the school of if you got it, flaunt it. My mom was always trying to get her to tone it down lol. Telling her when she thought her clothes were too revealing, if the top was little too “low cut”, if maybe it was not “appropriate”. She always tried to do it in a nice way. I’m not sure my sister appreciated it though.
My mom is a very classy lady and wanted to teach her daughters the same. Also why she doesn’t wear much makeup and also used to tell my sister to tone down the eyeliner lol.
My mom also did not want to buy us pushup bras. I can’t remember if I even wanted one? But I know I wasn’t allowed lol. We never bra-shopped at Victoria’s Secret, we were Aerie girls. Because that was appropriate. More modest. I think my mom wanted to make sure we knew we were still young girls. Just because you start wearing a bra doesn’t make you a grown woman with a license to hoe it up. Or something to that effect. At least that’s what I interpreted.
I can’t even remember if I wanted to wear a bra to begin with. I have a vague memory of my mom and older sister telling me I ‘needed one’. So I got one. I do remember going from a training bra to a regular bra and having a kind of Lizzie McGuire moment because it was so embarrassing in the gym locker room.
In high school bralettes were the cool it thing. I used to go on Rumi Neely’s blog, Fashion Toast, every day for hours trying to figure out how I could be just like her. She was my number one inspo.
It was the Brandy Melville era and there were a lot of loose gauzy or see-through tank tops. The point was to be able to see the lacy bra underneath.
This type of outfit was also extremely in and necessitated the same type of bra:
Because you couldn’t really wear a regular bra underneath it felt, somehow, too revealing.
I remember being frustrated that bralettes gave a triangular shape that I thought looked sloppy. Sometimes I would wear a regular bra under a bralette to temper this effect.
So that is what I’m here to talk about. The social conditioning.
Because why did I feel they looked sloppy? For a few reasons:
They kind of did, I think when they’re still developing the fat is distributed differently and it just doesn’t look as nice. It’s not as womanly of a shape.
The Victoria’s Secret round boob propaganda
My mom told me so
But there are really 2 main things going on here, 1. was the cultural influence and 2. was what was being taught in the home lol.
I love those videos that document trends evolving over time. Breast silhouette is one I find so interesting because it’s still taboo. Even if we talk about bras themselves, it’s rare to get into the shapes. The Madonna JPG cones were probably the most famous instance of this. And even then, nobody was talking about themselves or their preference, they were just observing something rather unique and shocking.
Business Insider published a piece on this very topic in 2022. I stole all the photos and included some of my own so we can explore the evolution:
Starting with corsets. Which I love. I think this was a great era for the bosom.
I think they really look the best all stuffed up into a corset. I can’t explain why. It sort of flattens them but creates a very nice silhouette at the top. Fertile maybe.
How elegant? Romantic.
I guess they wore corsets for a long time until the Industrial Revolution. The dresses were a little more covered up in the Victoria era so the girls were less on display. This period was more about the snatched waist.
Then, they invented something that looks similar to the modern bra. The 1920s was Coco Chanel’s peak era where she introduced a boy-ishness to women’s fashion. The preferred body type around this time was slenderer and the popular drop-waist and flapper dress silhouettes didn't emphasize the bust much at all. So I guess it didn’t really matter what was on underneath. Seems like this period was a minor liberation for women. The first free the nip, if you will.
Post-war 1950s, according to Business Insider, was about re-feminization. Women back in the home, domestic. The feminine silhouette was re-popularized through Christian Dior’s New Look. Sexy red lipsticked mamacitas were all that. Marilyn Monroe rose to fame and women like her, made having a rack cool again. They even invented inflatable bras.
When I look at this period I am shocked at how pointy the shape was. They really jut out. Bullet bras is apparently what they were called.
Supposedly this was a risqué look for the time. I can see why. They were called ‘Sweater Girls’, referring to women who wore tight sweaters with bullet bras to ‘show off their assets’. Funny because today we wear sweaters to hide them.
The shape came from the spiral stitching and structured cups giving that pointy effect and accentuating the hourglass figure. Today we use padding which is why the shape is rounder.
This exaggeration, that isn’t really that natural, was an attempt to lure the male. Makes sense given that the movie stars of that era have remained icons of femininity to this day.
The 1960s and 70s favoured a slimmer physique and with that, smaller boobs. Apparently in retaliation to the pressures placed on women of the 50s. Less sultry and more doe-eyed girlishness (Twiggy) this was another rebellion free the nip type moment. A lot of women at this time stopped wearing bras altogether. Hippies.
I did some more in-depth research, because the 60s and 70s were also about Sophia Loren and I just know there were other busty baddies.
My theory, which I think stands correct, is that even if they were rocking big boobs, they were still kinda whippin’ em out au natural. It seems like the ‘natural’ ‘organic’ aesthetic of the 70s meant that anything went. Seemed like, and if anyone knows please chime in, but, it seems like everything was embraced. There was less judgement. A body is a body and its beautiful in all shapes and forms. Lest we forget this was also the time of the bush.
Famously big-boobed Eve Babitz posed nude, body rocking, playing chess with Marcel Duchamp. Very iconic. In her books she talks about her body image issues, which, when you’re up against Joan Didion (who represented the slender ideal), must have been difficult but, Eve appears confident here. I think she also talks about her great rack being one of her assets. Anyway her boobs look great, very full. Gorgeous shape.
Then we have Adrienne Barbeau seen going braless, twice. Very natural, very beautiful.
Lynda Carter aka Wonder Woman. Also braless. Looking fab. The shape is not perfect, the top even doesn’t fit her properly because her boobs are too big. That’s one of my personal peeves, when the seam for the underbust cuts across the boob. Don’t think it looks good. Really bothers me actually but. She still looks great.
She looks absolutely immaculate here. The outfit is crazy. The boobs look perfect.
I guess the Wonder Woman costume is more reminiscent of the 50s, but done with a 70s flare. Her upper body looks great. They had such nice shoulders and collarbones at this time. There is still something natural about the shape of the top that doesn’t feel as manufactured as it would today. There’s something imperfect about it that I like and most notably, the girls sit rather low on her frame. They are not stuffed right up under her chin and they’re not peeking through the neckline even though they probably could, had the top been cut differently, more like a corset.
See what I mean? Way more cleave
Sophia Loren, another embodiment of femininity. Appearing braless here. Looking fabulous. Subtle.
Famous pic. Definitely braless here. Inspiring Kim Kardashian for years. Boobs look great.
Cheryl Tiegs, not sure if she’s really braless here but I love this effect in a t-shirt. Whether she’s wearing a bra or not, what I like is the teardrop shape and how low they are. Again, not stuffed up under her chin.
Susan Sarandon. An absolute icon for the big bust community. Here, she is braless. They were smaller I guess, because she was younger, and again the shape looks extremely natural and beautiful. Elegant and effortless.
We can barely see but, here, again, I would suspect no bra based on the height and the volume primarily at the bottom with less forward and more outward protrusion. I love this look. Best way to wear a t-shirt.
She really whipped ‘em out here. I don’t know how anyone could walk around like that comfortably outside the privacy of your own home. But I admire it. I guess the problem with all this is that it’s impossible not to be ogled but, she looks so beautiful here.
What I really love is the vulnerability of her chest; her sternum and collarbones feel elegant and raw.
When we avert our gaze lower and finally notice her breasts, they seem to foil the openness of her chest, which itself feels concave and empty next to the volume and fertility of her powerful and imposing bosom.
I think what I love about it is that it feels like what defines femininity broadly. It’s sort of the picture of the intricacies of womanhood. The power you can wield from being perfectly sincere and slightly sorcerous all at once.
Sorry I got a little art history on you there! But I hope you see what I mean.
This photo changed me. Having a womanly figure point blank period doesn’t go with fashion. Pretty much ever. There are very few fashion figures who have overcome that hump. Lara Stone comes to mind. And come to think of it, she too, keeps them very natural.
When I saw the below photo of Susan Sarandon it suddenly felt ok. The boobs are an accessory here. And they feel high fashion. It’s hard to define why. Maybe it’s that she’s wearing sneakers with a goofy sock and a worker-type pant with a blazer that clearly doesn’t go and NO TOP. It’s effortless and accidental. She feels boyish and yet she doesn’t. Like she just threw on the jacket to have a cigarette on the balcony with her lover. Her stance is assertive and confident, even masculine. Her gaze and hair blowing are coy and romantic. There’s so much going on.
It could feel vulgar but, for some reason, it doesn’t. It’s sophisticated but, playful. I think that’s what I love. She feels poised and put together. She seems comfortable. At ease. Embracing herself. Nothing about this image feels like she isn’t perfectly happy. She has a twinkle. I’m rambling but, this picture did something to me and the way I think about my own body. How I’m allowed to feel about it. And how I’m allowed to dress it. It gave me permission to embrace sensuality without the crudeness I have always associated it to.
Below here, too, we have the same effect. I love this look, a big shirt barely buttoned and, again, we see the delicate sternum with the slightest breast peeking out.
I might put on an outfit like that in my house when I play dress up and think how elegant I feel in it. I’d never wear it out. It feels ‘inappropriate’ somehow.
Here she is again, braless on TV. Very natural shape, undoctored. Same ripple I mentioned in the beginning but, less strict. More fluid. Again, they sit low. There’s no pressure for them to be strapped in.
Approaching 80s 90s, Wonderbra era. They were flattened down a bit but not as much as the VS era. There is still a slight triangular silhouette and less separation between them.
The advent of the sports bra. In order to minimize I used to wear a sports bra all the time thinking I was hiding. My sister told me it looked like I had a uniboob. I didn’t listen to her for years. Sorry, Daniella. She was right. Looked so weird.
Gwen Stefani in a Wonderbra. We’re getting more round here.
Then we enter full VS mode, full push-up bra, extremely artificial.
Barbie body. I think I just unlocked something. I asked ChatGPT to find me scholarship exploring the sterilization of Barbie because, I think whatever they did to Barbie that did something to our brains, Victoria’s Secret padded bras did to us.
Barbie’s body simultaneously signals ‘adult femininity’ (thin, sexualized silhouette) and removes signs of embodied adulthood—nipples, reproductive features, realistic genitalia—resulting in a figure that is both idealized and inaccessible as a real body form. This fits with cultural critiques that Barbie’s body can desexualize and infantilize the idea of the adult female form.
Barbie’s lack of nipples and genital detail, paired with hyper-idealized proportions, reflects a cultural fantasy body—a body not meant to be experienced as lived or reproductive, but as an idealized aesthetic object. This mirrors discussions in feminist cultural studies about how media and toys present fragmented, depersonalized female bodies.
And maybe this is what I’m talking about. Objectifying. I don’t like that word because I think it’s overused and buzzy. It’s something more like perfectionism.
It’s roboticizing or tweaking the female form (something we do to our faces too) that doesn’t allow for any imperfections. It’s a strict standard that we accept and expect for what a woman’s body is ‘supposed to be’. So if your boobs are slightly lopsided or one is bigger than the other or the size or colour of your nipple doesn’t line up perfectly with whatever we think of as the ‘ideal body’ then you should cover it up.
The padded bra basically gives you the Barbie boob. Which is inhuman and weird. But became the standard for a really long time.
This extreme perfectionism obviously led us to the body positivity movement of the last 10 years which is slowly swinging back to extreme pressures to be thin and the Ozempic era.
But, what we can see is that over the last 10 years we leave a little more room for the imperfect and the natural. You have the woke people who are usually flat chested (not always) going braless and not shaving their armpits and all that. Though those people are insufferable and bring the societal hotness average down, they clearly have helped us develop a culture that is more inclusionary.
I was doing some more research and if you look at the ecomm pictures that have some appeal you’ll notice that, that very fem bot barbie body that used to be the standard, and still is for places like Old Navy and Amazon, is no longer.
This t-shirt from Aritzia is worn by a model with a very natural-looking bust:
Los Angeles Apparel, a pioneer of this look, has always had a preference for fuller busted models who spill out of the clothes in an almost pornographic way.
Kotn, very hot new and cool, sits somewhere in between but keeps it pretty natural.
Garage is a great example of a brand that is doing a lot to remain relevant and it’s working and I think showing a t-shirt on a model like this is very interesting and represents a shift. That shape 10 years ago, I believe, would have been considered too slutty or improper to have on the site. Even though, it’s not. It’s natural and normal and effortless. It’s almost 90s? It’s almost Calvin Klein.
SKIMS, a brand that is interesting for this discussion because of the recently released bush thong and nipple bras, actually conforms to the sterilized airbrushed body type in their ecomm pictures.
Even Kim Kardashian rarely lets them hang in a natural way. There is something about her shape that doesn’t feel completely natural.
And the stupid part about the nipple bra is that it doesn’t look like it even fits properly anyways. It’s so heavily padded that it seems to have a very weird unnatural shape. Why they chose to photograph it with fake glasses is unclear to me. Feels like whatever the point was of this bra got lost. Whoever was in charge of concepting for the launch should be fired. It doesn’t make sense and I don’t think it had the explosive impact it should or could have.
Meant to provoke but presented in a totally sanitized way. Boring, in other words.
I googled nipple bra to find other SKIMS campaign photos and stumbled on this Viva Nipple bra from the 1970s. It serves much more of an intentional purpose. It’s executed properly, the photo looks real. You wouldn’t know she was wearing a bra at all. In comparing the two, I think my point is reveals itself.
In conclusion, all this to say, that maybe we are experiencing a slight return to the 1970s embracing of sex appeal in a way that doesn’t need to feel pornographic and vulgar.
Another thought I had was the pandemic’s influence on where we swung or where I, specifically, swung. Working from home/staying inside all day never getting properly dressed lowered my tolerance for the discomfort of wearing a bra. Something that I used to endure without much thought became almost unbearable. I’ve slowly re-acclimated to a full day wearing a bra but, mentally I don’t like it and don’t really see the big deal as much as I used to, of not wearing one. My mind slowly changing.
Not to be weird but, I compiled some photos of braless or seemingly braless looks that I think have a greater impact because of how natural the shape is:
Even here, someone like Paloma and even Sandra are pretty much always wearing a bra, even when the effect is still really natural. So my point stands, you don’t really see girls with bigger boobs go braless. But, what if we did?
I haven’t yet touched on my mom’s influence but, to sum it up, she has always remarked on so and so ‘needing’ a bra in a way that made it very clear to me that it was just completely inappropriate and gauche and unthinkable for ‘certain’ people to be braless. For no real reason. I think it’s just part of the modesty she grew up with and part of what we, as a society, understand.
The whole marketing of ‘needing’ a bra for ‘support’ which has been, to my knowledge, debunked anyway? I get it for exercise because if the sports bra had never been invented I simply would never exercise but, nobody needs a bra unless your boobs are so big that they’re actually heavy and that’s what they mean by ‘needing support’. But then we need to stop acting like it’s universal. And why do we do that? So they can sell more bras. It’s propaganda. And what I’m learning about myself, is that, though this is a shopping Substack in a way, I’m extremely anti-capitalist and the message in so many of my ‘thinkpieces’ is don’t fall for the marketing.
We need to stop associating big boobs with sex and vulgarity so that we can stop making women like me feel like it’s not appropriate to go out and let ‘em hang where they naturally would.
Not to blast this girl but she had amazing boobs:
and the patriarchy got in her head and she got a reduction:
And I never thought I’d be of this mind, because as we’ve established I never wanted big boobs, but she truly made such a big mistake in reducing. I hate to say that and I’m sure she’s happy but, I just think it’s sad to see. She had a perfect body. And I imagine her real issue was with how she was perceived and spoken to and judged which informed her issues with her body. But she was crafted immaculately by the hands of God. And she insulted his creation.
Lol I mean dramatic but. honestly, if you check it out you’ll see. Go find her on TikTok. The universe should’ve teleported her to Renaissance times, where she would have been adored like the queen she is.
The last thing I’m going to say on this subject, because I doubt anyone even made it this far, is that so many bras push all the fat up around your armpits and it basically just makes you look fat. And I think that is what I hate so much about wearing a bra.
I almost didn’t post this photo for the expressed reason I wrote this substack, I think the outfit looks great and elegant and effortless braless but, I just know my mom would be like…. you need a bra with that top
Here another braless look
This is why, btw, I always have my arm crossed over
Here I have bra on:
And off, which I just think looks cooler?
This is also off and also just looks cooler and more effortless
Very subtle diff here but this is on:
And off. Fitted tops like this are very tough but, in general I prefer braless
Off:
On. And this is a great illustration of what I’m talking about because i HATE this look I just think I look fatter than I am
On. Sterilized and weird. Weird draping that feels basic and I dont like it.
Cool sexy effortless. Bra off.
Off. Gorgeous décolletage and silhouette etc.
On. Restricted, stuffed, inorganic. Almost more vulgar in a way. In my opinion. It’s giving more like tractor bf, bartender gf.
Here is also bra on but I think I am just like 5lbs lighter than the previous photo so it’s not as bad. Still. Braless is better imo.
So yeah, basically that’s it. Sorry for making things weird. Looking at these pics I’m realizing that it’s probably my fashion brain telling me that braless is better and my ecomm pics do kinda make my point where the more expensive the brand is, the more organic the breast shape which is certainly infiltrating my brain.
I would absolutely love to hear your opinions on this. Do not leave me hanging weirdly on this. Thx xoxo
This is brilliant work honestly. That comparison of the Barbie body to the VS pushup era is something I never connected but it makes total sence. I spent most of my twenties thinking there was somethign wrong with my proportions cause the padded bra always felt like it was creating this weird artificial shelf. The pandemic thing is real too btw, once I stopped wearing structured bras daily it completely rewired how I see my own body and what actually looks good versus what I was told shoudl look good.
As someone who has MAYBE only “needed” a bra when I was pregnant and sporting a (finally) full A cup (gasp!) this was fascinating to me. I’ve always wanted boobs. To feel more womanly, like the Madonna herself. The internal work I have to do to tell myself that my AA (triple A?) cup is “fine” and doesn’t define my womanhood is a LOT. The flip side of having such a “burden” was great to read. I guess we’re all languishing under the weight (or lack there of) of our breasts.