Fashion Accessory?

I know this is stupid but I just gotta have my say. Maybe putting it out there in black and white will make it quit buggin' me so much.

When exactly did lingerie, specifically bras, become fashion accessories? Seriously. I'm not talking about the bra straps that peek-a-boo out from the little teeny boppers cami tops that everyone wears (including my own daughters). I'm talking the full on, hook and eye back strap that holds said garment on our bodies?

And here is where it really caught my attention: I am a fairly avid watcher of Sex and the City (the cut version for TV) and on NUMEROUS occasions I've seen Carrie wearing her bra as if it were a fashion accessory and my first thought is always...WTH? When she attends Smith's opening of his play with Berger in a stunning Prada dress...with a bra strap (again the hook and eye version) across the back of her open back dress. When she visits Big in the hospital after he has his "heart thing" (moment of pause for uncontrolled weeping), she has on this gorgeous plaid sundress that criss-crosses in the back and there again...that big ugly strap marring the whole effect. And finally (or to my recollection) when she attends Enid's party with the Russian, again wearing a backless (and sideless) dress with a bra visible in both back and sides.

So, what exactly is the point. Somehow I suspect that when Prada (or the sundress designer) designed the dress, it was not with the intention that the wearer use it as a frame for their underwear. And it's not even the pretty part of the underwear! Does it do anything for the overall effect? Yes, IMO, it looks tacky and ruins the designers "vision". Like...I'm not going to take the effort to provide the proper undergarments for this dress but rather, I'll "make it my own" by having my big ol' bra strap showing.

Carrie gets away with a lot in that show. Some fashion statements that were better left "unsaid", but for some reason this is one that I just can't seem to let go. I don't consider myself a prude (what with 1029 in my past, who could?) and yet this pushing the fashion envelope gives me pause. Oh, I'll let this one go, someday, because I know, someday, there will be something that pushes that envelope just a bit further.

Something like thongs...with charms...but I'll save that for another day.