RIP Triangle Bras: Push-Up Bras Are Back

I was in high school when the era of the Victoria’s Secret Angel had reached fever pitch. The VS Fashion Show was one of the most significant media moments of the year, the Bombshell Bra—the highly-padded bras that added up to two cup sizes to your bust—was on every teenage girl’s wish list, and “bombshell” makeup tutorials were doing their best numbers on YouTube. We all wanted people to know that not only did we have breasts, but we had bras—real, grown up bras, too.

Fast forward to the mid 2010s and the height of indie sleaze wiped out this thinking. It was all about deep cut muscle tanks with our triangle bras exposed (thanks to Urban Outfitters for those).The smaller your lingerie, the more desirable the look. Thinness was back in a big way, and small chests were a marker of thinness. Our love affair with the ‘90s was reignited, and our love for scant, simple underwear with it.

Then, the lingerie trends took a girlier turn, underpinned by themes of innocence with vintage touches. Pointelle cotton, white bloomers, lace trimmed balconette bras with tiny satin bows. The mood is summery and nostalgic, with a girlish, coquette feel. 

But this summer, the push-up bra is back. We partially have celebrities the thank for this—especially at Coachella, where 2016 revival queen Addison Rae wore a glossy, red vinyl Agent Provocateur bra for her on-stage performance, PinkPantheress wore a tartan push-up bra with electric blue lace trim, and Olivia Rodrigo sported a pale pink leather bra with bows and studs like a sweet little dominatrix. It makes sense, given our current  Y2K obsession, with the return of the Victoria’s Secret Fashion Show, bouncy blowouts, and, yes, push-up bras. Cleavage is back, and so is the lingerie that supports it.

This all nods to a broader theme taking place in the fashion trend cycle, and we have designers like Demna to thank for the shift. At Gucci’s blockbuster Fall/Winter 2026 show in Milan earlier this year, the designer had everyone balking at the shrink-wrapped mini dresses and ultra sexy, skin tight silhouettes. The message was clear: overt sexiness was back. Elsewhere, we’re wearing Y2K- style booty shorts to work out, our shit is bedazzled, naked dressing is at an all-time high, and our padded bras are pushing our cleavage up.

The sex appeal of the push up bra is perhaps the least subversive of all lingerie trends because it celebrates a more direct version of sexiness. Overt sexuality is not a theme or visual we are lacking in our current decade, but I can’t help but feel that this style of lingerie feels more autonomous. I won’t go as far as to pretend that any lingerie trend is “empowering,” as if most, if not all, are set up in response to the male gaze; but at least we’re moving back into a realm of it all feeling a bit more obvious, and on purpose.  Instead of the ultra-thin, waif-like, girlish silhouettes that were popularized in the ‘90s and again in the late 2010s, the push-up bra silhouette signifies more than just a celebration of cleavage, but of the more grown-up expressions of sexuality. When we exist in a culture where the Lolita trope is so pervasive, it feels kind of good to see women in lingerie built for women’s bodies, instead of children’s bodies.

Women’s bodies, no matter what the trend, are never safe from commodification, perhaps it’s just a louder trend this season. Maybe that's why the push-up bra feels so timely. In a fashion landscape still obsessed with manufactured innocence, there's something refreshing about the return of lingerie that isn't pretending to be anything else.