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For most, wearing vintage underwear is strictly verboten. But encasing myself into the 25 hook-and-eye buttons of a merry widow or slipping into a tea rose silk bullet bra with matching lace-up girdle? It’s just part of my morning routine—and I’ve been wearing old-school underpinnings since my vintage obsession started at age 15.
At Miu Miu’s fall 2025 show in Paris, I noticed a familiar silhouette on the runway: Models sported delightfully pointed breasts beneath candy pink knits and logo’d tops. Finally, the bullet bra is back.
After the show, designer Miuccia Prada asked the press: “Do we need femininity in this difficult moment to lift us up?” Is Mrs. Prada making a brassiere joke? I asked myself while reading Vogue writer Sarah Mower’s review, where she continued to reflect on Mrs. Prada’s questions. “The typical accessories of femininity: the bra, the brooches, the fur. The question is, what do we retain of femininity? Does it help in this really dangerous moment? In wartime?”
With that, the timing of Prada’s bullet bra makes sense. While the name sounds violent (another descriptor for the design is the torpedo bra), it came from the shape the bias-cut bra molded the breast into—though, ironically, the design was also popular during both World War I and II.
“When bullet bras came out, the saying about them was the pointier the better,” mononymic vintage lingerie dealer Illisa tells me over the phone. Her jewel-box shop, tucked into the third floor of the Manhattan Art and Antiques Center, stocks lingerie from the late 19th century to the 1940s, along with 1950s corsetry, and counts Addison Rae, Madonna, and Jean Paul Gaultier as patrons. “I’ve had a lot of young girls coming into the store asking about vintage lingerie ever since Bridgerton,” she says.
The look is a far cry from the globelike boobs of my teenagehood, which had been Victoria’s Secret–ified with a push-up that transformed a generation beyond recognition. But for me vintage-shaped breasts and the bras needed to get the look always made sense: A dress from the ’40s or ’50s sits better on the body with underwear that was in fashion in the same era.
Perusing Illisa’s shop isn’t for the shy. After you strip down to your less-than-skivvies, she’ll hunt through boxes, piles, and racks of pastel pinks to find the perfect fit. “I probably have about a thousand bullet bras from the ’40s and ’50s,” she says, all while transforming you into a Madonna-Gaultier dream. In my experience, vintage bullet bras are a lot like Goldilocks finding a place to sleep: You won’t know it’s a fit until you’re literally nipples deep.
If the idea of pre-owned underwear still isn’t your thing, you don’t have to wait until Miu Miu’s fall collection to go conical. According to the passionate posters of the A Bra That Fits sub, the Jeunique bra is the only modern bra that’s still cut like they used to be, with a catch: They are sold Avon-style, and the Find a Fitter part of the site isn’t working on my laptop or phone. Right, next.
Contessa Mills’s Seraphim collection includes a bullet-bra-and-knicker set made in shades of black and champagne silk. “My goal was to blend the timeless allure of full-coverage lingerie with modern comfort,” says Mills of the design, which was inspired by pinup models. “I wanted to craft pieces that not only evoked the spirit of a previous era but also celebrate the beauty of today’s wearer—comfortable, secure, yet seductive.” Slipping into the Seraphim set certainly was easier than my 80-year-old pieces of a similar style.
Araks’s Willow bralette—made of silk charmeuse and gossamer-like cotton—was a softer version of the triangular shape with one alluring detail not found in my vintage trousseau: a taste of the rainbow. Bras and bralettes come in bright, multicolored shades that remind me that modern underwear is as much about fun as function.
“The way you cut a bra pattern can completely change the shape of the breast and how it looks,” designer Araks Yeramyan tells me. “You can change the point of the breast based on how you cut the seams and place the darts. The type of fabric used also affects the shape—for example, woven silk doesn’t have as much stretch as a fabric with elastane, so you can get more severe shapes.”
It’s a lesson in sculpture—sort of. Other designs from the brand, like a kelly green balconette bra named Gita to the silk chiffon Beatrice, shape me into different variations of an acute angle. “I didn’t know you liked this pointy-boob look,” my partner says as I look at my reflection. “I just assumed you liked old stuff and old stuff made you have pointy boobs.” Not exactly, but at least the aesthetic was noticed.
“A pointier boob definitely accentuates and brings attention to the female form,” Yeramyan says, reflecting Mrs. Prada’s words. “It feels subversive in a time when women’s bodies are so heavily censored in the media.” Point(s) taken.
