The Secret Only a Strapless Bra Can Reveal

By Tomima Edmark

Think you know your true bra size? There’s only one foolproof way to find out, and it might surprise you to hear it involves the much-maligned strapless bra. Sound a bit counter intuitive, especially given the prevalence of strapless fashion disasters? Here’s why it makes perfect sense.

Strapless bras are sized in the same way as all other bra styles. Some ladies make the mistake of believing they need to go down a band size to prevent a strapless bra from slipping and sliding. The fact is your strapless bra size should be exactly the same size as your best-fitting regular bras. That takes a lot of the guesswork out of strapless bra shopping and also reveals whether you’re actually wearing the correct bra size to begin with. The reason is simple. Bra straps aren’t supposed to shoulder the bulk of the weight – that’s the band’s job.

Try my advice and choose a strapless bra based on your regular band measurement. If you catch yourself incessantly pulling at the sides to keep it in place, you’ve likely discovered your band measurement isn’t what you previously thought. That goes for all of your bras. I suggest going down one band size. Conversely, you’ll need to increase your cup size when you decrease the size of the band in order to maintain the same cup volume as before.

Le Mystere, Simone Perele, Wacoal

Once you’ve determined your true bra size, you should turn an eye towards a bra’s construction. Well-made strapless bras feature a suspension design and underwiring with a spring-like capability. While at rest, the cups appear vertically narrow. When the bra is put on and secured in the back, the underwires splay and grab around the breasts. You’ll notice a good strapless bra has underwiring that’s taller in the center and on the sides expressly for this purpose.

via Sweet Nothings NYC

Women with DD+ size cups, in particular, will appreciate the added support this type of underwiring provides. For these ladies, there should also be boning incorporated into the seam lines. Silicone grippers are yet another necessity. To start searching, see the strapless bras voted best of 2013 by thousands of average and full-figure women representing a broad range of ages.

Fantasie

In my next blog for Lingerie Briefs, we’ll focus on shapewear dos and don’ts with special tips for petite and tall ladies.

Many thanks to Ellen Lewis and the team at Lingerie Briefs for the invitation to lend my voice to their discussion of all things lingerie. I look forward to sharing insights on behalf of HerRoom.com  and hearing from our readers.