It's no secret that fashion — and specifically runway fashion – has long had a problem with bras. Designers rarely prioritise the real-life need (or preference) that the majority of women have to wear a bra. Instead, catwalk looks tend to lean into the fantasy of bodies and breasts that stand proud without any assistance. Or, they make them central to a look, worn exposed and rarely by anyone bigger than a B cup.
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Yet, on the first day of the AW25 shows at Paris Fashion Week, American design duo Vaquera sent an entirely different message on the bra — albeit with tongue firmly in cheek. Amongst its 38 looks were two bras that find themselves unrivalled in the title for the biggest bras to ever take to the Paris Fashion Week catwalk. It's impossible to know where to begin in coming to understand the cup size of these exaggerated brassieres, but the message they send is clearer to deduce.
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Vaquera's designers Patric DiCaprio and Bryn Taubensee have long played with proportion to pervasive, subversive effect, and these two looks were case in point. Sure, they weren't options made for wearing in the classic lingerie fashion but they could be interpreted as a critique for their peers' rejection of the bra. The exaggerated styles re-centre the bra as a subversive fashion piece that exists outside of the realms of being a practical necessity or a sexualised object. It's a new way to look at lingerie that builds upon Vaquera's legacy of toying with it.
For some time, the brand's lingerie-printed T-shirts and dresses have become a favourite of the front row and celebrities alike. Here, these ad-infinitum extra size bra-cum-dress options add to the conversation, and, pretty convincingly, are cheeky fashion options Vaquera's loyal following will be quick to hook on to.
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