From Runways to Red Carpets: The Rise of 'Undone' and Bra-as-Top Fashion

Key points

• Fendi and Erdem have featured bras as standalone tops or layered over shirts in recent fashion shows, normalizing the garment as outerwear.
• The 'undone' aesthetic, featuring slipping straps and mid-slide silhouettes, gained prominence at the 2026 MTV VMAs, with stars like Taylor Swift and Tyla adopting the look.
• Men’s fashion is seeing a parallel shift, with single-piece speedsuits moving from elite athletics to amateur runners, driven by aesthetic appeal rather than performance gains.
• The trend draws historical parallels to 1990s corsetry and slip dresses, suggesting a cyclical return to lingerie-inspired outerwear.
• Designers like Prada and Bottega Veneta have influenced the 'undone' look through runway presentations that emphasize asymmetry and strategic disarray.

Background

This development follows a broader trend in 2026 fashion toward unpolished aesthetics. Recent coverage noted that London Fashion Week 2026 emphasized 'messy girl' styles and unpolished silhouettes, while Burberry’s recent collections focused on youthful, accessible luxury. The current surge in bra-as-top and 'undone' red carpet looks aligns with this shift away from rigid formalism toward relaxed, expressive dressing.

How outlets are covering it

The Guardian frames the trend as a deliberate fashion evolution, noting that while bras were historically foundation garments, they are now reimagined as outerwear in collections by Fendi and Erdem. It also highlights the parallel adoption of speedsuits by amateur male runners, citing a Wall Street Journal interview about the 'audacity' required to wear them. Bustle, however, focuses on the 'undone' aesthetic as a red carpet movement, citing specific examples from the 2026 MTV VMAs and Emmys. It emphasizes the intentional nature of the 'messy' look, noting that garments are engineered to appear disheveled. Yahoo News Singapore’s source was inaccessible due to a technical error, so no perspective could be extracted from it. The outlets differ in emphasis: The Guardian focuses on the historical and gendered aspects of the trend, while Bustle centers on celebrity adoption and the 'undone' aesthetic as a new chic standard.

Why it matters

The normalization of underwear as outerwear and the 'undone' aesthetic signal a shift in public fashion norms, challenging traditional boundaries between private and public attire. This trend reflects a broader cultural acceptance of relaxed, imperfect styling in high-visibility settings, potentially influencing retail, design, and consumer behavior in the coming seasons.

What to watch

Expect continued integration of lingerie-inspired elements into mainstream fashion, with more designers and celebrities adopting 'undone' aesthetics. The trend may also influence men’s fashion, as speedsuits and other performance-inspired garments gain popularity among non-athletes. Retailers may respond by expanding lines that blend comfort, functionality, and deliberate imperfection.