I believe that if just the strap itself is showing–a thin little strip of ribbon–it’s ok. But I’ve seen girls/women out with the triangle of actual bra material showing in the back, and sometimes the front! That’s right out, in my opinion.
guava, speaking on behalf of the men in your office, I’d rather see your nipples poking through your top 
Totally tacky, yup!
Minimizing the sometimes unavoidable peek of a strap with color-coordinating underthings helps, but the decorative ones being displayed annoy me to no end.
Amen.
Tacky, tacky, tacky.
Yes, it’s tacky in any old setting at all.
It certainly “used to be” tacky, and embarrassing in my day.
Today , the young women/girls/teenagers around here dont care at all, and seem to show them on purpose. You cant go anywhere in the summer without seeing younger women showing off their bra straps.
Furthermore, most younger women, when they do occasionally wear a skirt, rarely wear a slip underneath anymore.
I also am seeing more and more young women wearing black bras with white blouses. What is that all about?
Better a bra strap than a thong, which never fails to make me wince when I glimpse one in class or on the street. And better when lounging around the house than in the office.
I don’t mind straps that are decent looking. By which I mean thin and preferably some sort of presentable, attractive fabric. My rule of thumb would be “If it looks like it could be something other than a bra, then don’t worry about it.” Unless, of course, you’re going somewhere formal. On the other hand, tatty taupe straps with hardware are ugly.
I don’t think it has anything with acknowledging that women wear bras. I think it does have everything to do with how a woman presents herself, and to me, letting an undergarment show is tacky. I will not mock you if you choose to do it, nor will I judge your worth as a person, other than to think that you look tacky with your strap showing.
As if my opinion of other people’s fashion choices matters a whit… My daughter often wears tops that don’t cover her straps. I don’t like how it looks, but I’m not going to argue with her about it when she’s on her own time with her own friends. <shrug>
wow, I’m totally tacky… It’s hot here and I like wearing the spaghetti strap tank tops and there’s no way in hell I’ll wear a strapless bra for my weekends! I try to wear matching bras, or at least coordinating, and not the kind with the crazy huge straps with hardwear and stuff and almost always black (never that offwhite ‘skin’ color that doesn’t match my darker, golden skin). I think my brastraps look cute… I don’t let them show at work or at church (if I ever went).
By this argument, a visible tampon string would also be OK.
Me, I don’t need to reaffirm my womanhood by letting my skivvies (or anything else) show. I vote tacky.
As a slight aside (maybe irrelevant), I was in class a few days ago and a guy in my class bent over to pick up a sheet of paper and his pants were at his knees. I asked him why he even bothered to wear pants and he said he didn’t know why.
I think it looks decent if the bra straps are the same color as the shirt. A little side story: I know a girl (not the most attractive girl I’ve known) who likes to wear tank tops and shudder let her bra straps fall down over her arms.
I don’t like when my bra straps are showing when I wear tank tops, and I’m not the biggest fan of strapless bras. So I went to Wal-Mart and got this little clip thing that you use to hold your bra straps back. It’s a piece of bra-like material about 7 inches long with bra clasps on each end. You just tignten it around your back bra straps and it keeps the straps pulled back far enough that they won’t show at all. It was only like $2.
It depends on who is looking. It seems most other women may find it tacky. If that matters in that setting, then there’s your answer. But if it’s a bunch of other people likely dressed the same as you, very casually, then it’s better than pubes poking out of your bikini bottoms, innit?
Another vote for tacky. It’s very hard to look classy when your underwear is showing. And wearing a see-through blouse or a light blouse with a dark bra? Beyond tacky.
Tacky, but I freely admit that I am old and fashions change.
Ok, I’l slightly rephrase what I said…
If you’re wearing the tanktop and you’re making it so that you can see your bra straps on purpose, then, yeah, I think its not so much tacky as kinda… well, “easy”… it goes along the lines of wearing a black bra under a thin white shirt.
BUT if you’re wearing a tanktop and you are wearing a bra strap under it, like a black bra and a dark red tanktop or something of the like, then it’s no big deal. I just don;t like it when people where halter tops with bra’s, or tube tops with bra’s. Other then that, I think it’s fine.
But one thing I HATE is when I’m sitting behind a girl in class who likes to wear g-strings and wants the whole world to know.
“hey, honey, the whole point of wearing pants is to COVER your ass…”
shudder
Tacky. There’s a reason it’s called underwear.
StG
“Tacky” is not enough.