I Finally Found a Good Strapless Bra for My Big Boobs

For a moment in my adolescence, I was terrified I’d never grow boobs. Where I got that idea considering the bodies of women on both sides of my family is beyond me (or would be, except that I’m the kind of person who can always find something to panic about). By freshman year of high school, though, I was rocking a solid set of 36Ds — which meant out with the padded bras I’d used to mask my middle school insecurities, and in with the geriatric styles (or as I soon took to calling them, “titty scaffolding”) that showed if I wore basically anything other than a turtleneck.

So as you might guess, in my (38DD) adult life, my anxiety over flat-chested-ness has been replaced with that of finding cute bras to wear under shoulder-baring garments — especially of the strapless variety. But the search was over after I bought the Wacoal Red Carpet Full-Figure Strapless Bra (with ample sizes from 30DD–42DDD) on a whim from an actually useful department-store sales email. Seamless with a wide band, convertible straps, and most importantly in my eyes, four (four!) rows of hook and eye closures, this bra stays put no matter what. Unlike the Victoria’s Secret– and Target-bought strapless bras of my early 20s, which lost their shape quickly, slid down constantly, and rubbed along the seams, I have never once had to readjust the Red Carpet Strapless Bra (or my chest) through workday wears or evenings out on the town. It also comes in three different shades — black, beige, and brown — to suit different tastes.

Not only does it keep everything in place — it’s beyond comfortable, too. I once spent an entire night in it, having fallen asleep during a super-loud party at my own house (if you’ve ever experienced the constriction of a bad bra around a large chest, you know what a miracle this is). No, I’m not some Real Housewife who’s gotten too blitzed on Chardonnay; I’m just a girl, lying on her bed at her friend’s 30th birthday, “shutting her eyes for a few minutes” in a soporific bra. I still have plenty of anxieties, but for now, the threat of a wardrobe malfunction has been seriously downgraded. Big-boobed girls of the world, trust: This bra will take you from perpetually petrified of popping out to secure, spillage-free, and slumberous.

Writer Alison Freer tried a million different lingerie bags for washing delicates before finding these: “That’s why my new go-to set of lingerie wash bags is made of a superfine net material that allows soap and water in easily, but keeps all items safely inside. They feature a plastic zipper that obviously won’t rust, and even have a flap that covers the zipper to keep it from catching, unzipping, or clinking against the inside of the machine annoyingly. The biggest ones are perfect for expensive gym clothes that need a little TLC, and the smallest size fits one bra nicely. They will change your laundry life for the better, forever.”