Bras and bunions? Finally, women are taking back control
Gentlemen, I’m going to let you in on a little secret, which, if you have a wife or partner of longstanding, you probably already know. Women, as soon as they get home from work and have the chance (preferably facing a night in toute seule), immediately unclasp and remove their brassieres.
We know men like the look of them (a male friend who puts the sex in Essex moons over the “lacy hint” of lingerie) and yes, “support” does matter when you’re rushing around during the day. But try having an underwire clasped tight around your rib cage, or swathes of rough lace against your softest skin, and see how you like it. Quite.
But if we’re free to go au naturel at home, or even on the odd pyjama-clad traipse to the supermarket sans bra, then we certainly aren’t allowed to do so at work. But could that be changing?
Last week, a Mumsnet member posed the question about whether women might be lawfully required to wear a bra to the office. “It’s 2018 – I shouldn’t have to wear something because it will make people feel less uncomfortable, stop men looking or just because it’s the norm,” she raged.
I couldn’t agree more. And the positive news is that according to employment lawyer Hayley Johnson,
insisting on bra-wearing could count as discrimination since men aren’t required to wear an equivalently constraining garment. “The basic rule is that if you’re requiring women to dress in a way that’s more onerous than if she were a man, it’s discrimination,” says Ms Johnson.
Yet I think these debates will be moot before long. It’s now well documented that, in a trend led by millennials, we’re abandoning the fancy and restricting. Jan Singer, head of lingerie at Victoria’s Secret, resigned last week in the face of plummeting sales. Never mind that the brand held a fashion show featuring a milliondollar diamond-studded bra in the same week: in the world of normal people, a taste for comfort has grown.
It will no doubt be music to the ears of Michelle Obama, who has revealed in her new memoir that her breach of royal protocol in 2009, when she put her arm around the Queen, came as a result of both women complaining that they were uncomfortable in their heels.
Perhaps we need look no further than Emma Thompson’s recent visit to Buckingham Palace to accept her damehood. Instead of wearing the kind of shoes you’d expect for such an occasion, she plumped for a pair of white Stan Smith trainers to pair with her loose Stella McCartney navy suit. She looked profoundly at ease, though not exactly glamorous.
I enjoy embracing my femininity. But like many women, I like comfort even more. And there’s nothing more natural than that.