If a scene isn’t well written they’ll drop your neckline to fill the void”, said actor Madeline Kahn a few decades ago. At a time when necklines are all mixed up because the lines between the outer
and inner wear are consistently blurred, here’s an attempt to look at the matter again.
Despite Kahn’s opinion on plunging necklines, there was a time in Europe just two centuries ago when women of means wore gowns with necklines plunging below their nipples. Yet, this same region, another few centuries back sported necklines with ruffles tickling the jaw line and more. The climate remaining a constant factor and electric heating having not been invented by then, it was basically the style that led to the rise and the fall of the necklines!
Contrarily, in India, necklines were clearly influenced by the prevailing climate, given the disparity of the weather within different regions of the subcontinent. Cholis were mostly low cut, shirt style blouses were not. Kurta wearing regions could play around with both deep and high necks.
Then came the age of the pret-a-porter: ready-to-wear western attire. A riot of necklines emerged in the decades to come: from turtlenecks that held snug and high around the neck to cowl necks that draped themselves in soft folds around, from boatnecks that shaped wide like a boat on the neck to expose the expanse of well sculpted shoulders, to Chinese collars that emphasised a slim delicate neck; from halters that hugged the wearer’s neck while showing the shoulders off to perfection to V-Necks to U-Necks; from sweetheart necks to square necks; from scooped necks to keyhole necks, the list became longer as women explored their freedom of attire in a post-war world.
In the world of bras too, necklines added the much needed variety to a garment where not much could be done to deviate from two cups, two wings and two straps.
Necklines distinguish bras in both fit and form. So, a balconette was a really low neckline that sat on the upper curve of the bust, while a gym bra was distinguished by an equally high neckline. A halter neckline went around the neck, whereas a scooped neckline was exactly what its name suggested. A strapless insinuated a no-neckline state whereas a plunge, well… it plunged, just as a cross-your-heart had straps criss-crossing the neckline.
Necklines in bras were and continue to be critical to the fit. The higher the neckline, the better the support it provides. The greater the stretch in the neckline, the less the snugness and support in the bra. The addition of a non-stretch trim to a neckline – which seems to be an aesthetic addition, but is indeed much more than that – of a bra completely alters its fit when compared to an identical bra without the trim. A critical mistake that most women make is in wearing really low cut bras and blouses when their bodies are actually crying hard for support!
“…my love is a winter’s mist, gently dissolving, through the window, at the nape of your neck,” writes the young Sanober Khan in A Touch, A Tear, A Tempest.
Aha!
The columnist is the founder-CEO of Necessity-SwatiGautam, a customised brand of brassieres. Contact: necessityswatigautam@gmail.com