Actress Carey Mulligan wore cabbage leaves on the red carpet because #breastfeeding

We’ve seen some pretty strange outfits on the red carpet before, but cabbage leaves as a bra may be the strangest thing yet. However, in this instance, they weren’t proud and on display like queen Lady Gaga probably would’ve done. (And probably done well, I might add.)

Maestro actress Carey Mulligan shared—well, “overshared” according to her—in an interview with British Vogue that she wore cabbage leaves under a show-stopping maroon gown she wore at a red carpet event.

“I had two kids by then,” she explained in the video, where she was looking at past photos of herself in a book. “My son was a baby, but I was stopping breastfeeding…” Mulligan then stopped and said, “This is probably an overshare, but…” cue uncomfortable mumbling from Mulligan, bless her heart. 

“But I was stopping breastfeeding, and this dress was quite busty, but someone had told me to put cabbage leaves to stop the milk, so in this photograph I am actually wearing cabbage leaves under my…I know I’m going to regret saying that,” she said, flustered. 

“And it works!” she concluded in the video. “I’ll make a separate video about that for the ladies,” she said. 

Celebrities are just like us! And the breastfeeding moms came to the comments in solidarity. One fan commented, “Women are amazing with what they have to put up with. Men could never.”

“I used them for engorgement and it worked perfectly,” said another mom. “Is it any particular type of cabbage?…asking for a friend…” a curious mom asked. 

“Carey Mulligan’s cabbage bra was not on my bingo card,” said another.

And this method of using cabbage leaves for engorgement is not just an old wives tale. There’s a study about the use of cabbage leaves for treatment on engorgement, which is what typically happens when weaning from breastfeeding. The study found that the use of leaves did indeed reduce pain and the hardness of engorged breasts. Per the My Nursing Coach website, “This unusual form of therapy is effective because the cabbage leaves absorb some of the fluid from the glands within the breast area, reducing the fullness in the tissue.” 

As for the mom who was “asking for a friend” about which type of cabbage, the website noted that you should use white cabbage only. “Many moms see some reduction in engorgement within 12 hours of starting it,” the website noted.