cut chats

Should I Put on a Bra?

Photo: Jennifer Jordan / EyeEm/Getty Images/EyeEm

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With the rising panic surrounding the coronavirus pandemic, more and more offices are asking their employees to work from home. For the most part, this is a luxury. Not everyone has a job that allows them the flexibility to work remotely. Those who can are able to enjoy work-from-home perks like snuggling with your pet, lighting nice-smelling candles, not threatening the lives of immunocompromised strangers, and not having to get dressed up.

Just how not-dressed-up should one get, though? With all of the Cut staff working remotely this week, it turns out everyone has very different opinions about the necessity of one basic item of clothing: a bra.

Bridget Read, writer: Is everyone wearing sweatpants, or are you doing what people did in the Love Is Blind pods: dressing up unnecessarily?

Stella Bugbee, editor-in-chief: I am wearing clothes, but they are the same clothes I wore yesterday. Does that count?

Bridget: I’m halfway between pod and not. I’ve realized a bra makes me feel more awake. A soft bra.

Stella: I’m in a soft bra and embarrassingly stretchy GAP jeans.

Emilia Petrarca, fashion writer: Putting on earrings is as far as I’ll go.

Amanda Arnold, writer: I’m going to be living in bike shorts and a sweatshirt.

Stella: That’s a good TikTok outfit.

Amanda: Next time you all see me I’m gonna be TikTok famous. I will be one of those dancing girls.

Kerensa Cadenas, culture editor: I agree, re: The bra makes me feel awake. My work-from-home schedule is breakfast and doing emails and building things, and then taking a midmorning shower and changing into a bra and a more alive-feeling fit.

Allison Davis, features writer: When I was a perma-WFH person, I had to trick myself into structure. So I would get up, shower, get dressed, get coffee, and come back into my apartment and role-play coming into an office.

Kelly Conaboy, writer-at-large: I’ve found that a tightly fitted tank top seems to provide the same sensation as a bra.

Callie Beusman, news editor: I got drinks with a friend recently, and she was saying she got a new dog who would run all over her house and be destructive. Then one day she put a novelty dog sweatshirt on the dog, and it had a full personality change, and became docile and good. The same effect can be observed in a person working from home with a bra.

Matthew Schneier, features writer: Is there a term analogous to “commando” for bralessness?

Emilia: “Nips out.”

Callie: I think just braless!

Madeleine Aggeler, writer: Yeah, we don’t militarize our undergarments.

Matthew: Maybe this is a whole “white space” in the linguistic market.

Katie Heaney, writer: The L Word offered us “nipple confidence” as an option.

Rachel Bashein, managing editor: If you’re not wearing a bra and it’s cold out, then it’s “brick titties.”

Amanda: Boobs out. I refuse to put on a bra.

Callie: I’m not going to put on a bra at all.

Erica Schwiegershausen, editor: Yeah, I don’t miss bras either.

Madeleine: I will not wear a bra inside my own home. That’s messed up.

Kelly: No … Like putting on concealer.

Amanda: In general I think people should let their boobs out more.

Madeleine: I’m not anti-bra, it’s just an outside clothing item to me. Like shoes, or an overcoat.

Erica: I agree. I put on a bra to go for a walk, and then immediately take it off when I’m back home.

Amanda: I think the only place a bra should be worn is the gym.

Jen Gann, senior editor: Fresh off a season of breastfeeding and constant boobs out — I embrace the bra, whether I’m home or not. I relish the opportunity to keep that part of my body contained if I want.

Bridget: My soft bra is comfortable, but it feels like my breasts are ready to help me focus. It’s just easier to differentiate from being literally asleep or in my pajamas.

Kelly: It does make sense. Like putting on hard pants rather than soft.

Madeleine: Hard pants at home is also insane to me.

Emilia: I’ve only been wearing a sports bra around the house to feel more like Kendall Jenner. I self-isolate in my Calvins.

Should I Put on a Bra?