Viewpoints

When Underwear Becomes Outerwear

By Mariyum Raina Rizwan

Staff Writer

High school senior Ava Kazevani was sifting through the racks at Urban Outfitters, scanning some of the clothing that her parents don’t believe she should be seen wearing on the streets.

“My parents never seen me wear that [lingerie] and they wouldn’t let me because they find it’s far too inappropriate,” Kazevani said, laughing. “I do find it appropriate, despite what my parents believe. My parents think I’m literally going out naked.”

By that, she means her mom and dad frown upon the current trend of females wearing underwear as outerwear. Several fashion magazines have devoted whole features on how to do that in, arguably, the right way. But there’s debate over whether it should be done at all. Bralettes un-covered by blouses, slips worn as skirts, lace bodysuits overlaid by a pair of jeans, sports bras not worn as part of one’s workout gear. Those are some items signifying this fashion trend.

Kazevani has gotten in trouble over it. At her Washington, D.C. high school, said Kazevani, who was attending one of NYU’s summer camps for high school students, “I’ve been dress-coded for wearing a black bralette, fishnet leggings and jeans. I didn’t change, though. Nobody should tell me [how] I can and cannot dress.”

That doesn’t mean that underwear-as-outerwear is appropriate in every setting, said Anna Pappas, a high school senior from Charleston, N.C., attending the same summer program and shopping with Kazevani. “Like, if you’re going to work, I wouldn’t do that,” Pappas said. “ … But if it’s something more laid back, like a night out with the girls or going on a date …”

Once, at a music festival where she was in the crowd, she said, it seemed that “Everyone dresses like that. It’s just the atmosphere and the vibe.”

Most women buying bralettes to wear as blouses are usually “young and confident,”

Olivia Fox, a Pace University junior and a sales clerk at Azaleas, a Second Avenue boutique selling lingerie. “You see that black bra over there? I have that same one

and I wear that with high waisted jeans.”

Not everyone is following or supporting the trend. They have their reasons why. “I wanna say it’s because I’m not comfortable with my body just yet,” said Emily Cordonez, adding that she is a sophomore at a local college. “But I definitely think that when I learn to be comfortable with my body and how I look, I’ll take that step and do wear [lingerie] out.”

As she said that, she was holding to her chest a Calvin Klein bra that Urban Outfitters was displaying as outerwear. Even if she wouldn’t—at least not yet—wear that bra on the outside, she sees nothing wrong with others doing it. “It’s just clothes,” she said. “Anyone shouldn’t have an opinion on what someone else wears.”

Jenai Davis, an Albany College sophomore who grew up in New York City, said she would don underwear as outerwear when “it’s hot enough and cute enough.” Because she’s petite, she added, she can get away with wearing less, maybe, than a woman who’s heavier, curvier and so forth.

Even so, Davis said, “Even though I am small I know somebody is going to look at me, just, like, ‘Why is she wearing it like that?’ At the same time, I’m-a wear what I want. And because I’m smaller, if I don’t want to wear a bra, I don’t have to. Because half the time, can you even really see ‘em?” She laughed at her reference to her breasts.

“Once a girl reaches a certain age she should be able to choose what she wants to wear,” drug addiction counselor Amanda Watkins, mom to 17-year-old Sierra Watkins, 17, said as two Baltimore, Md., residents were walking through Washington Square Park recently.

“I trust that, at this age, if Sierra received unwanted attention because of something she wore, she would be able to stand up for herself,” Watkins said.

Her daughter, though, doesn’t even want to take part in the trend. “Even as a seventeen-year-old girl, I just think it looks slutty. Maybe when I’m older and going to clubs? But not now, when I’m still in school.”