On July 6, Drake made a request for fans to throw things at him during his It’s All A Blur Tour—but not phones, or other miscellaneous objects—although that has become a trend for live shows these days. Instead, he called for something much sexier to be launched at him: bras.
“Can we set a new stage rule for tour?” Drake asked. “If you’re gonna throw shit up here, just make it bras.” And when Drake asks, fans deliver just that (and then some).
At the Chicago show, one of the first bras landed onstage. “Oh yeah, this is definitely how I like it right here,” Drake gushed, while examining the lingerie. “Damn, shit… 38DD, never let me down before.” On July 21, during one of his stops in New York City, a woman pitched a bra onstage that left Drake in shock. “Damn, 36G?” he said, gobsmacked. “Locate this woman immediately!” The woman got so much attention from the viral moment that she ultimately landed a deal with Playboy. Since then, Drake has received bras from fans around the country, with cup sizes ranging from A to 36L (yes, L). In two months, he received so many bras that he shared a picture of him in a warehouse-resembling room in which the floors were lined with a rainbow of undergarments.
While Drake is a genius when it comes to creating viral moments and eliciting internet conversation, the array of bras—many of which happen to be on the larger end—has brought up some interesting questions. How common are these bra sizes? Are women throwing customized lingerie at the rapper? And if so, how much money are they essentially throwing away? Thankfully, Complex spoke to Carol Nicholson, a lingerie and bra expert who has been a bra fitter for over a decade, to impart her wisdom.
The act of unclasping a bra from your back and throwing it at a music artist onstage is far from unheard of. The trend has been around for decades. While early evidence suggests women usually hurled their bras at rock stars like Ozzy Osbourne and Elvis Presley, the trend has shifted to rappers over the years.
“It’s hilarious,” Nicholson says of the trend making a comeback. “That was happening way back when. I thought it was antiquated, but you know, they say save something for 30 years because it’ll come right on back.” As for why it’s coming back for Drake specifically, Nicholson speculates, “usually the bra is a sex symbol. So clearly these folks are seeing Drake during these concerts as a sex symbol worthy of having a bra thrown up onstage.”
What’s puzzling is not Drake being considered a sex symbol (he is a certified lover boy after all), but the cup sizes of some of these fans’ bras. “How many letters does it go up to? What comes after [L]? A-B-C-D-E-F-G-H-I-J-K-L?” Drake gasped during his New York concert.
“It's still funny that bigger cup sizes are still seen as far-fetched and foreign to people when there are thousands of people walking around daily with those size breasts.”
“He said back in the day that ‘I love my girls BBW,’” Nicholson says laughing, referring to the lyrics from the 2014 collaboration “Only” with Nicki Minaj, Lil Wayne, and Chris Brown. “So I don’t see why it’s that surprising that we’re getting G’s, H’s, and I cups. Those are the sizes that BBW's are wearing.”
Although she insists Drake should have more knowledge around the subject, Nicholson acknowledges there are plenty of misconceptions about the range of bra sizes available and how common they are to women today. “It's still funny that bigger cup sizes are still seen as far-fetched and foreign to people when there are thousands of people walking around daily with those size breasts,” she adds. “We have a mental image in our head about what cup sizes are supposed to look like based on porn, based on many things. You hear rappers talking about Double D's… We don't have any mental conceptions whatsoever, because there still is no cultural phenomena that has stuck that’s given us any kind of clue for sizes larger than that.”
“That's not an uncommon size at all. He was going ‘oh, that must be custom.’"
One of the biggest misconceptions about the larger bras is that they are all custom-ordered. Nicolson recalled a pink bra that Drake showcased, which was a 36L. Many of her friends tagged her in the video wondering whether it was customized. “I cracked up because I literally walked over to one of the branches in my boutique, pulled [the same bra] out and took a picture,” she laughs. “That's not an uncommon size at all. He was going ‘oh, that must be custom.’ No, actually, the bra that he had in his hand was the Elomi Cate 36 Double H in pink,” she reveals.
These bras may not be custom, but they’re not necessarily easily accessible either, Nicholson says. Major chain stores such as Victoria’s Secret, Ross, and TJ Maxx often only go up to triple D cup sizes, but Nicholson says there are a handful of boutiques for women looking for extra support and comfort. “There are places outside of Victoria's Secret that can and will give you cute, supportive bras,” she insists, specifically calling out brands like Elomi and Panache. “They are unfortunately a little bit harder to find because Victoria's Secret is darn near in every mall whereas these other brands are not. But they exist. There are plenty of options from strapless to you know, full coverage, to plunges, all of the above is available.”
The average cost of bra sizes ranges from $38 to $70, which is not an absurd amount of money in comparison to other clothes. Even so, some eyebrows were raised at the fact that even that much money is being thrown at a multimillionaire like Drake. “I’m like girl, you just threw a $65 bra?,” she exclaims, thinking back on the women who have forfeited their lingerie onstage. “Girl, you clearly got money if you got tickets that close to the stage to be able to throw that. Girl, you got money!”
Regardless of the discourse surrounding the size and cost of these bras, and why women are doing it right now for Drake, Nicholson says this trend is further promoting body positivity and hopefully helping more women broaden their understanding of cup sizes.
“Like I said, Drake said he loves him some BBW’s, so baby, you got some BBW bras coming up on that stage,” she says. “He needs to stop acting surprised, because if he really loved the BBW’s he would have been known that.” Drake has just one month left on his It’s All A Blur Tour, with upcoming stops in Houston, New Orleans, and Atlanta. It’ll be interesting to see what bras he’ll get next.
