Off the hook: a new generation goes braless

Why going braless was the year's most unexpected trend: 'It used to be people like Beyoncé all waxed and corseted up, or Britney in that sexualised school uniform, but now it’s about comfort. And freedom' 

Florence Pugh attends the Valentino Haute Couture Fall/Winter 22/23 fashion show on July 08, 2022 in Rome, Italy.

Bralessness always gets lots of ‘flaunting her curves’ salacious flak in the media, particularly when young women — famous ones — are photographed with actual nipples. Images of British actor Florence Pugh in a pink Valentino creation in Italy in July — through the fabric of which her nipples made a veiled appearance — caused much media meltage. It was reported in one Australian outlet, Perth Now, accompanied by a ‘WARNING – GRAPHIC IMAGES’ statement in all caps, as though the image depicted an Isis beheading, rather than a young woman in couture sitting next to Anna Wintour at a fashion show.

Another, with unintentional hilarity, referred to other high-profile women out and about without bras — Gigi Hadid, Lily-Rose Depp, Zoë Kravitz — as ‘the pert-breasted elite’. So far, so Benny Hill. Other members of the PBE include Gwyneth Paltrow (a long-term member), Rita Ora, Dua Lipa, Lily Allen, Kristen Stewart, Sharon Stone, Sienna Miller, Alexa Chung, Poppy Delevigne, and most recently Gillian Anderson, who said, with refreshing lack of ambiguity, “I don’t care if my breasts reach my belly button. I’m not wearing a bra, it’s just too fucking uncomfortable.”