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Woman & Home
Woman & Home
Lifestyle
Lucy Wigley

‘Swing low and free’: Fearne Cotton believes bras should be ‘illegal’ during heatwaves - will you be removing yours?

Fearne Cotton presenting the Happy Place podcast.

Another heatwave is upon us, and that means talk immediately turns to how to cool our beds and homes quickly, in a country that just isn't prepared in any way for extreme heat.

When it comes to what to wear in the heat, there's some accessible options available, but presenter Fearne Cotton thinks women should try one simple tip to stay comfortable in soaring temperatures - take off our bras.

Finding a comfortable bra can be a real undertaking sometimes, they can dig in to your shoulders and back, and underwiring can feel like an invention of torture similar to the racks of medieval times.

In extreme heat, sweaty boobs can just add to a long list of weather-related annoyances, but would you really "swing low" as Fearne suggests?

"Bras off for the heatwave ladies," she says during a clip from her Happy Place podcast. "Swing low, swing free, do your thing," she adds.

Fearne shares that at the moment, as soon as she gets home she doesn't even wait to take her top off before unclasping her bra, pulling it out through the sleeve of her top, and "lassoing" it away from her.

"I cannot bear it," she says, continuing, "I'm not good with wearing clothes in general, I find wearing clothes the most uncomfortable thing."

Asking whether any of her followers feel the same, the presenter shares that she sleeps "butt naked" because at night, "there's no chance I'd sleep if I had clothes on."

Continuing the sharing streak, Fearne says she "never finds knickers comfortable" either, because of the, ahem, places they ride up to.

A post shared by Happy Place (@happyplaceofficial)

A photo posted by on

She's not a huge fan of jeans either, explaining, "I'm wearing jeans today - every bit of it is uncomfortable. I should just live in some sort of nudist community."

Sharing the podcast clip to Instagram, Fearne even captions it, "Bras in the summer should be illegal," and although tongue in cheek, it's a very easy statement to get on board with.

The post drew huge amounts of engagement and comments, and it resonated with so many women who find bras uncomfortable not only in heatwaves, but all the time.

One person wrote, "I want to make not wearing a bra a normal thing for us girls! Why do we do it? I know I feel uneasy about not wearing one, especially around men. But I do want to quite literally break free from wearing bras!"

Another commenter said, "Swing free - it's almost worth putting it on just to enjoy taking it off. BEST FEELING EVER! I just wear painting overalls with no bra now, hooray for my menopausal brain who couldn’t care less what people think!"

Adding to the anti-bra sentiment, another person shared their thoughts on both bras and knickers. "100% this! Knickers are quite literally a pain in the arse, and whose idea was it that we have to keep 'the ladies' held hostage in a lacy, wired contraption for 16 hours a day?"

They concluded their comment with, "Commando Summers should become a thing, or maybe they already are but nobody has told me!"

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