Women love the push-up bra, so why are designers determined to make us hide our best assets, asks Hannah Betts
Nowadays, fashion and frontage do not mix.
As the owner of a 32E bosom, I was once informed that the Vivienne Westwood clothes I was eyeing up were for women who want to look as if they have breasts, not for those already in possession of them. On another occasion, a designer stared at my unclothed form and stuttered: "Hourglass!" in tones one might use to utter the word "paedophile". Most mortifying of all was the moment an Armani tailor waved her hand dismissively across my chest, before pronouncing: "These are not Armani!"
And now Vogue has joined in. Fashion director Lucinda Chambers makes it clear that a girl's best assets are worse than last season: they are over, over, over, and must be disguised at all costs.
In the latest edition she tells a full-chested writer who wants to know how the new spring look will work for her: "You need a minimiser bra." She brooks no negotiation. "Marks & Spencer does a brilliant one. This isn't the Eighties. It isn't a pay and display moment. Hasn't been for ages. Even Roberto Cavalli didn't put any breasts out there. Dolce & Gabbana? Elegant, quiet, ladylike cocktail dresses."
A boyish physique has long been the ideal in the lush, homoerotic environs of high style. But, of late, a glossy sub-genre has flourished in which flat-chested fashionistas scorn their well-endowed sisters, or urge them to "hide and disguise" in - ye gods - bandeau tops. Gucci and Jil Sander are mad for them this spring.
So why is it that British women - 3,000 of them - have nominated the push-up bra as the greatest fashion invention of all time? In a survey conducted by Debenhams, the cantilevering brassière scored a hefty 20 per cent of the vote, well ahead of more sophisticated stalwarts such as the stiletto and Hepburn's little black dress. With the strapless bra at number eight and the grisly chicken fillet at 15, it is safe to say that paying and displaying one's assets remains a pressing popular concern.
Breasts, one may infer, represent the difference between the haute and the high street. Where flat chests are chic and classy, so heaving bosoms are judged trashy, de trop.
This should come as little surprise. Throughout history, breasts have been the playthings of class. During the Renaissance, when Elizabeth I was wont to draw attention to her sexagenarian assets, the chic bosom demanded small and perfectly formed Diane de Poitiers-style orbs. Less than a century later, the upwardly mobile breast required the more lavish proportions of a Barbara Villiers or Nell Gywn. Victorian breasts were modest, Edwardian embonpoints; Twenties bosoms were flattened, Forties appendages were recrafted as missiles.
Currently flesh is déclassé. The fashion world is still agog at the spectacle of the voluptuous and braless model Lara Stone jiggling down Prada's spring/summer catwalk. Ms Stone is apparently a 33C, a rack that could be considered pneumatic only within the most concave milieu.
Where Hollywood once boasted sweater girls, now it favours bee stings. Even Eva Herzigova, she of the uplift that bellowed "Hello, Boys", has learnt to put them away. A straining cleavage has become the benighted preserve of the glamour model and aspiring Big Brother starlet.
However, fashion has yet to curtail Nature. Over the past 10 years the average bra size has swelled from a 34B to a 36C. Marks & Spencer reveals that a quarter of the bras it sells are a D cup or larger - a statistic that has doubled in three short years. Its sizing now extends to a J cup. Bravissimo, which specialises in lingerie for the bigger breasted, has three K-cup styles.
Learning to dress such breasts is going to be essential for the well-endowed woman who does not wish to take herself off to a nunnery (and a habit would not prove a good look). All the established Trinny & Susannah maxims will apply - subtle V-necks, soft tailoring, cinched waists, finding precisely the right level of support.
More important will be a sea-change in attitude. Just as diminutive breasts denote no lack of sex appeal, so more sizeable assets should cease being considered in inverse proportion to one's style, class, or expanse of brain. We have nothing to lose but our minimiser bras.
LET YOUR CUP OVERFLOW… IN STYLE
• Get yourself fitted. Rigby & Peller has proved the answer to many a big girl's prayers. Brigitte Razet is European fit specialist for life-changing American brand Le Mystère and is frequently to be found at Harrods (lemystere.com).
• Know your styles: balcony designs are particularly useless or unflattering for the larger bust. Experts recommend "falling" into your bra. Slot your arms through the straps and bend from the waist, letting your breasts drop into the cups. The cups should contain the entire breast, and you should centre your nipple in the fullest part. Hand-wash bras to prevent loss of support.
• V-necks, nipped-in waists, tailoring - all the old chestnuts work best. Think Jessica Rabbit proportions: an imposing bust offset by a clingy pencil skirt.
• Know which retro looks work for your shape. Hello Fifties wasp waists and Forties tailoring. Goodbye Sixties smocks and Twenties drop waists.
• This season, Vogue recommends: subtle prints, tuxedo jackets, the Fifties silhouette, Gucci or Jil Sander bandeau tops, a Lanvin black-belted coat dress and an Antonio Berardi jumpsuit.
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/
