And, at the other end of the comfort and utility spectrum, women are buying racy bras with open cups, which Jennifer Zuccarini, the founder of the luxury lingerie line Fleur du Mal, said the company couldn’t keep in stock. (Mr. Mick said he had noted the rise in provocative purchases, which he described as a “self-care moment,” but NPD can’t quantify sales in sexy. “It’s too subjective,” he said.)
“We’re seeing a lot of overlap about the way women used to talk about the corset and the way we talk about the bra now,” said Colleen Hill, the curator of costume and accessories at the Museum of the Fashion Institute of Technology.
The trend toward wireless and other more forgiving bras wasn’t created by the pandemic, only accelerated by it, Ms. Hill said. Modern wire-free bras are more than 50 years old — one of the first was a nylon “no bra” bra in 1964 — but Ms. Hill noticed a real shift in adoption some six years ago, when she organized “A History of Lingerie,” an F.I.T. exhibition in 2014.
That year, advertising for Aerie, American Eagle’s lingerie brand, created a sensation with its unretouched photos of models, offering an alternative to the pushed-up perfection of Victoria’s Secret. Companies like Knix, which sell soft cup bras exclusively, were springing up, while other brands began ditching wires and leaning hard into bralettes, which typically offer coverage but no support. For the debut of Rihanna’s Savage x Fenty line in 2018, the singer requested more soft cup styles, said Chloé Julian, the brand’s former designer.
“Rihanna champions a real natural shape,” said Ms. Julian, who in September introduced Videris, her own line of wireless-only bras designed to support both chest and mood. (Using principles from color therapy, you’d choose her deep amethyst bra to boost imagination.) Ms. Julian, who has designed lingerie for Stella McCartney and Agent Provocateur, stopped wearing underwire in 2014, when she was pregnant with her son, then couldn’t face being so constricted again.