Undies aren’t just peeking out—they are the moment

Perhaps designing collections during an extreme heatwave has gotten designers all hot and bothered. On the recent spring/summer 2027 runways, underwear refused to stay tucked in and was out and about everywhere, from Lovebirds, Aisling Camps, Mowalola, and KNWLS to Erdem, Fendi, Simone Rocha, and Prada.

First up: the bra as the top. We’ve been wearing contrasting bra straps and Calvin Klein underwear—just so they’re visible—for years. This season, designers skipped the tease and made bras the main moment. At New York Fashion Week, Sandy Liang presented lace-trimmed satin and polka-dot bras with skirts. While Lovebirds and Prada kept it simple with retro-style bras and bandeaus paired with skirts, others had more provocative styles on offer. Mowalola’s London Fashion Week show had a series of snakeskin bras paired with matching low-rise pencil skirts and pants, while Roberto Cavalli channelled the ultimate Milanese party girl with a glittery zebra-print bra and bikini in Milan. And across Altuzarra, Christian Cowan, Fendi, and Gucci, among others, shirts, dresses, and jackets peeled away to reveal colourful, lacy bralettes underneath.

If bras are tops now, bottoms are having their own identity crisis, replacing pants and skirts across several runways. The denim hot pants at Glenn Martens’s final show for Diesel weren’t quite underwear, but they were close enough to make us question where the line is anymore. At Erdem and KNWLS, the waistbands may have been high, but the inseam was almost non-existent. The former showed diamanté- and pearl-encrusted high-rise knickers, while the latter had a pink silk number as part of its offering.

In addition to the above, Cult Gaia showed textured bikini briefs and Yuhan Wang made a case for frills with checkered knickers layered on knickers, while at Simone Rocha briefs were abloom with florals.

The trend has recently even been spotted on the red carpet. Dakota Johnson arrived at the London premiere of her film Verity last Thursday in a lacy, sheer Colleen Allen maxi dress, with her black Fleur du Mal bra and underwear deliberately peeking through.

At the VMAs, Tyla showed up in a Mowalola bra-and-skirt look straight off the runway, while JoJo and Ciara Miller too sported bras as tops. During the show, Charli XCX, Madonna, Lisa, and Sabrina Carpenter all performed in itty-bitty bottoms.

The underwear-as-outerwear trend, of course, is nothing new, but with so many designers co-signing the movement this season, it’s likely we’ll be seeing a whole lot of bras and briefs in the wild. It makes sense for a season where dressing for the heat has become less of a styling exercise and more of a survival tactic. Just throw on a bra with a pair of trousers or a skirt—maybe a jacket—and you’re set.