During awards season, red carpet proves breast is best

ONE thing now unites music and film: the more famous you are, the less likely you are to wear a bra.

Jennifer Aniston started the bra-free trend for 2015 at the Annual Screen Actors Guild Awards in Hollywood.

EVERY awards season we owe a debt to celebrities for revealing a new universal truth. Thanks to the BAFTAs and the Grammys last Sunday, we have learned two things this year: if you want red-carpet razzamatazz, you have to look to the music world because actors have become so tasteful as to be soporific.

But we have also learned that there is one thing that now unites music and film: the more famous you are, the less likely you are to wear a bra. In 2015, bras on the red carpet, whether you’re in Los Angeles or London, are an endangered species.

Red-carpet observers believe that the bra-free memo originated last month at the Screen Actors Guild awards in Hollywood, when Jennifer Aniston — and sadly there is no more elegant way of putting this — got hers out. Look at the picture of our former favourite girl-next-door and you’ll see what I mean. So it was fitting, then, that it was once again the Hollywood A-listers who flew the braless flag at the BAFTAs.

Julianne Moore showed that it can be classy in elegant, scarlet Tom Ford; Reese Witherspoon, with an entirely unexpected cleavage swathed in ecclesiastical purple, showed that it could give a bishop a heart attack.

For the rest, disappointingly, hardly anyone at the BAFTAs looked a fright. True, Felicity Jones presumably could have found a vintage Dior frock somewhere that fitted her properly, but the fact she chose not to shows an admirable independence of mind.

Everywhere else, all was chaste and tasteful, from Amy Adams in white Lanvin with a jewelled belt to Keira Knightley in pretty Giambattista Valli, and Rosamund Pike elegant in black halterneck Roland Mouret.

Hannah Bagshawe, aka Mrs Eddie Redmayne, was in a beautiful lace and sequin Valentino gown with feathered shoulders. Sadly, its pale grey colour did even less for her English-rose complexion than the sludgy green dress she wore to the Golden Globes.

Over in Los Angeles, they might have been gaudy and occasionally frightening — step forward Rihanna in a bright-pink Giambattista Valli loo-roll holder — but they know how to put on a show.

Kim Kardashian put on a show all of her own in a tasteless gold and silver sequined dress by Jean Paul Gaultier. It was slashed not just to the waist but to the groin as well, while her face and body were covered in glitter, shimmer and highlighter.

Lady Gaga wore a large emerald instead of underwire, and Nicki Minaj’s bodice — two strips of black fabric — made you fear for the security of the large breasts it was barely holding in place.

Beyonce, who may or may not own a bra at all, so infrequently is she spotted wearing one, wore an elegant black Proenza Schouler gown with a deep V-neck to the waist and a train and huge emeralds on most of her fingers (pictured right).

Madonna came dressed as a matador in a Givenchy corset that did unconscionable things to her poor, squished breasts. Taylor Swift scored a miss in turquoise, while Miley Cyrus shocked every­one by looking almost classy in a backless black V-neck sheath with cutouts on hips and thigh, to show off her tattoos. Tattoos, along with emeralds, are the accessory of the season, which brings our number of new universal truths to three.

It is, however, only mid-February. Who knows what the Oscars may reveal? We await February 22 with bated breath.

THE TIMES