If you’ll allow me the indulgence of a little bit of media reporting, I’d like to direct your attention to WWD‘s activities this morning. The trade mag always gets some pleasure from taking a dip in intimate apparel industry news, but today they’re putting themselves on the line for lingerie with two stories pushing innerwear-as-outwear:
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A “Strap Happy” street style series claiming that “this summer, lingerie slipups have become a must-do for New York’s stylish set.”
- An item about “Lady Bra-Bra*” which reminds us that “Lady Gaga has never been one to shy away from the innerwear-as-outerwear look — often showcasing her undergarments by simply forgetting to wear pants or a top.”
I guess the main reason that this seems bizarro is that it doesn’t seem like WWD‘s bra-mania is coming from the pure and happy place of style tips and trend reporting. The promised “stylish set” in the street style photos shows up in maybe three of the fourteen photos, the other bras aren’t exactly unfashionable, but scanning the photos gives me the distinct impression that they’re thinking “clothing, help me bear this heat” first and style second. The visible bra straps seem like an accident, or a symptom of I-don’t-care-it’s-so-hot-itis, rather than an intentional component of a put-together look. The four-slide Lady Gaga feature seems like a slapdash attempt to prove that exposed bras are really, truly in vogue.
Maybe all my nitpicking just comes down to one thing: I think bra reveals should be used sparingly, because most of the time they just remind me of junior high, when girls showed off their bra straps just to remind the boys that they were getting boobs (as if 13-year-old boys need reminding). Maybe WWD just wants to remind us all that women have breasts, or maybe it’s just a slow news day.
They Are Wearing: Strap-Happy
Lady Bra-Bra: Gaga’s Bold Brassieres
*With these headlines, one almost forgets that WWD is fashion’s news source of record
