Braless Millennials is New Fashion Trend

They're not burning their bras, like in the 1960s, so I guess going braless is about as rebellious as they're going to get.

Rebellion for the selfie age.

At USA Today, "Why Millennials are going braless":

Why #Millennials are going braless. https://t.co/jLjEOohSHX They got nothing else to get fired up about?

— Donald Douglas (@AmPowerBlog) July 20, 2016

Photos: Kendall Jenner Frees Her Pierced Nipples in NYC with Hailey Baldwin and Gigi Hadid https://t.co/Q7wWTFuOlY pic.twitter.com/FRyAS3EpuV

— Hype Life Magazine (@HYPELIFEmedia) June 26, 2016

Buying a first bra has long been considered a rite of passage for young women. These days, however, it’s the ditching of the undergarment (or wearing wire-free versions) that's empowering female Millennials.

Sure, going braless is nothing new — the concept is at least as old as the women’s liberation movement of the '60s — but young women today aren’t doing it with quite the political fervor as their feminist predecessors. Today, pushing back from push-ups — by wearing an unstructured bra or no bra at all — is a personal triumph, a choice to be comfortable and a trendy move. ShopStyle.com reports a 56% increase this year to date in shopper searches for bralettes alone.

For Victoria's Secret, the trend presents challenges. The retailer's parent company, L Brands Inc., gets about a third of its revenue from bras. L Brands’ shares are down nearly 30% this year so far. Analysts expect adjusted profit to fall 6.3% in the current fiscal year compared with last fiscal year’s levels, says S&P Global Market Intelligence.

According to Gabriella Santaniello, an analyst focused on fashion at A-Line Partners, "(Victoria's Secret's) message has been a very in-your-face sexy message for so many years: You need a push-up, you need to be sexy, models stick out their hip. Now, it’s good to be natural — so they’re a little late to the game."

Going natural and “not wearing a bra is a choice I find empowering and fun, but I think there’s less passion behind it (than when burning bras was done out of political protest),” says poet Savannah Brown, 19 from London, whose popular YouTube video “sav’s guide to going braless” has over half a million views. “It’s just a day-to-day choice (to skip bras or wear bralettes only). It doesn’t play a huge role in my ideology. It’s more of a quiet protest.” ...

The likes of Kendall Jenner, Demi Lovato, Jennifer Lawrence and Rihanna have been photographed in a number of bra-free outfits, from Jenner's thin black shirts shown on Instagram, to Lovato's nothing-under-her-jacket ensembles on the red carpet, Lawrence's bralette style at movie premieres and Rihanna's braless tour attire.

Costume designer Cynthia Summers, who works on Lifetime’s UnReal and Bravo’s Girlfriends’ Guide to Divorce, has incorporated bralette and bra-less looks into her shows..

Girlfriends’ character Phoebe (played by Beau Garrett), who lives in Silver Lake, Calif. and favors low-cut boho-dresses, “is pretty much braless all the time,” says Summers.