Celebrities are bringing back this ultimate underwear as outwear trend

It's the look du jour at Cannes. 

It's the look du jour at Cannes. 

From Alexander McQueen’s infamous ‘bumster’ jeans to Tom Ford’s bedazzled ‘whale tail’ g-strings at the (frankly iconic) spring 1997 Gucci show, Jean Paul Gaultier’s conical bras in the ‘90s and Kendall Jenner carrying the (Bottega Veneta) mantle for tights as pants, fashion has long had an affinity for underwear as outerwear.

Now the trend is reaching the red carpet, at the notorious dress code enforceable Cannes Film Festival, no less—and beyond—with exposed bras becoming the look du jour of the season.

The most recent inductees include Scarlett Johansson who wore a custom Prada strapless dress in a sugary shade of pink  with a cream, embellished bra incorporated into the ensemble (there is, to be clear, nothing accidental or wardrobe malfunction about these bra-exposing looks). Meanwhile Euphoriastar Sydney Sweeney, no stranger to turning up the glamour at a film festival, arrived to one of the festival’s events in a white silk slip dress with an ice-blue bra peeking out the top, model Rosie Huntington-Whiteley added sparkle with the sequinned bra paired with her Fendi haute couture spring 2023 look  and Irina Shayk opted for a Versace bra top with a pink skirt suit from the autumn/winter '23/'24 collection to a party at the festival.

Sydney Sweeney is seen at the Hotel Martinez during the 76th Cannes film festival. Image credit: Getty Images

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The ever so slightly risque look  was one on heavy rotation during the autumn/winter '22/'23 shows where the likes of Versace showed form fitting dresses with a bra outline detail and Valentino did PP Pink bras with saucy pencil skirts, while at Giambattista Valli spring/summer 2022, gorgeous puffs of floral tulle flowed from black bras at the neckline. At the Next Gen show during Afterpay Australia Fashion Week in May this month, designer Cameron Hill incorporated a bra into a sheer, orange knitted top, adding a striking dimension. 

The Cameron Hill look at the Next Gen show during AAFW. Image credit: Getty Images

All of it is proof that there’s no one one way to try the look—it can be sweet or vampy, dramatic or subtle, avant-garde or simply sexy.

The good thing is that there’s a way to dabble with the look, no matter what your level of comfort with exposure and also indeed the size of your breasts. It works  as well as a va va voom bodice style bra-top (and in fact covers more skin when paired with a strapless dress) as it does a sliver of bra exposed with a slinky low-cut  button-down shirt. Zoë Kravitz in a bedazzled silver bra worn under a Saint Laurent shirt for the star-studded Tiffany & Co. Landmark opening party in New York last month is the ultimate pin-up for this, and so too the endlessly sophisticated Sylvie in Emily in Paris. Or take Dua Lipa, for example, who wore her bra as a top, styling it in white with a cocoa brown two-piece.

Zoe Kravitz at the Tiffany & Co. Landmark opening party. Image credit: courtesy of Tiffany & Co.

Ultimately, if you're going to try out the look, opt for your nicest bras—the more bedazzled the better, and a contrasting colour works well—but you could also wear an oversized blazer over the top if it all feels too much.

The key element, whether you are Scarlett Johansson at Cannes or you at your high school reunion, is always going to be confidence. 

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Originally published as Celebrities are bringing back this ultimate underwear as outwear trend