The Cleavage Bra: Create a Look Your Date will Love!
The cleavage bra is a perfect bra if you’re wearing a close-cut top that you want to show off to best advantage! Particularly if this top also has a low or wide neck where you can really show off your cleavage. It’s also great for dresses! One of our favorite cleavage bras is the Fantasie of England Helena Balcony Bra 7710 – it creates a great rounded look, has wide-set straps so they won’t show under your wide-neck shirt, and gives you killer cleavage! But don’t take our word for it – just look at the 4.6 stars our shoppers give it, with 100% saying they’d recommend it!

The Demi Bra: Perfect for Low-Cut or Wide-Necked Tops
The demi bra is a bra with partial cups – hence demi cups – that won’t show under a low-necked or wide-necked shirt. Demi cups tend to hit just above the nipple, giving you support from beneath without providing too much coverage. One of our favorite new demi bra is the Chantelle Palais Royal Padded Demi Style 1372! This is an amazingly sexy bra, with a French-inspired cut that features an opaque lower cup and a sheer cup top. This bra is finished with beautiful embroidered detail that gives you a look you’ll love to flaunt – under your favorite date night outfit, or in the privacy of your boudoir after a successful date!

The Plunge Bra: Look Great in Your Deep V!
V-necks can be super sexy, but it can be tough to find a bra that won’t show in your favorite v-neck shirt or dress. This is where the plunge bra comes in! Something like our very popular (and very posh!) Empreinte Thalia Very Very Plunge Bra 3156 is the perfect companion to your favorite v-neck date night outfit. A deep plunge bra features a very low center gore – in some places, simply a narrow band that crosses below the breasts – and slanting cups that hide invisibly behind your v-neck shirt. It’s a fabulous look if you want to show off a bit more cleavage and enthrall your date!

The Push-Up Bra: Enhance Your Assets
If you want to make the most of what you’ve got, and even enhance your assets by making your bust appear up to a size larger, you need a push-up bra! Push-up bras are designed to give you a bit of extra lift, and many of them feature padding or a pocket where you can insert padding if you’d like to enhance your bust. One of our favorites is the Chantelle Rive Gauche Push Up Bra 3082! This beautiful bra features push-up cups that will enhance your favorite date-night outfit, and a look that your date will love if the night ends in intimacy!

Make the most of your date night with a hot new bra to enhance your favorite date outfit!

Question from Dinah:

What is a comfortable bra to wear for a lot of walking?
Is the Genie Bra all it’s cut out to be? Is it useful for busty ladies? I’m tired of straps that dig into my shoulders.

Answer:

If you’re planning to do a lot of walking, I’d recommend one of our super-comfortable sports bras! Walking is relatively low impact, so you can go with a low-impact or medium-impact sports bra for maximum comfort and not suffer too much on the support front.

If you like a good soft-cup bra, I’d recommend the Anita Active CoolMax Sports Bra 5521. Our shoppers love it – it has 24 ratings that give it 4.3 out of 5 stars, and all 24 ratings call it comfortable!

If you want a little more support, my personal favorite sports bra for wearing out and about is the Moving Comfort Maia Underwire High Impact Spacer Sports Bra 350011. I’ve had days where I’ve done 10 miles walking around cities and this bra has kept me comfortable and supported all day. It claims to be a high-impact sports bra – I’d disagree with that, as it doesn’t hold me firmly in place when running – but it is the most comfortable bra I’ve ever owned, and it’s rapidly made its way into my everyday wear.

If neither of these styles particularly calls to you, browse our collection of sports bras and look for something soft – avoid high-impact as these styles may be too constraining to qualify as truly “comfortable.”

Also – straps digging into your shoulders may be a sign of poor fit. The support should come from the band – not the straps – so you may be wearing the wrong band size. Check out our bra fit pages for help in figuring out your sizing!

Question from N:

What is the best sports bra to wear for heavy contact sports?
I need a heavy duty sports bra for my super active lifestyle (sparring, martial arts). In addition, what specific exercises can I do to reduce the size of my chest? I’m only 5’0 but wear a 32C/D and would like to reduce my size to a more athletic shape and to be able to wear tank tops without spilling out of them!

Answer:
My favorite sports bra for really active workouts is the Shock Absorber Level 4D Plus Max Sports Bra Top B4490. This bra offers the best support I’ve encountered for things like running and kickboxing – and I’ve tried a lot of sports bras!

As far as reducing the size of your chest – the breasts are mainly composed of fat tissue, so reducing body fat overall will help reduce breast size – to a degree. There really aren’t any exercises that specifically target the breasts, but some trainers recommend chest and back exercises to help target the general area. Your best bet, though, is to go for overall body fat reduction, because you’ll also lose volume in the breasts. Ultimately, if you’re super active and have a low body fat percentage already, there may not be much you can do to reduce the size of your chest short of surgery. But wearing the right bra size and fit can help your breasts look more natural and proportionate – so make sure you’re properly fitted and are wearing a good bra!

Anyone else have any questions for our Friday Q&A? Bring it on, ladies – we love to help you!

Question from an Anonymous Shopper:

What kind of bra should a woman wear if she has large breasts? Help! I have 36DD or DDD breasts (depending on bra brand), and I can’t seem to find a bra that offers enough support. Not only do my bras not lift enough, but I often bulge out of them and they stretch out within 6 months or less. I’ve tried MaidenForm, Victoria’s Secret, and Playtex. Nothing has worked so far.

Answer:
I can totally relate to this problem! It seems like there are a couple of things going on here, and first and foremost is poor fit. If you’re bulging out of the bra, the bra isn’t the right size. If you’re overflowing the cups on the top or the side, the cups are too small. The underwire or the edge of the cup should rest against your rib cage under the breast, and curve around the side of the breast against where the breast meets the chest wall. The center gore should lie flat against your rib cage between the breasts. From what you’re describing, it sounds like your band size is too large and your cup size is too small, which is the most common fit problem. Check out our bra fit guidelines, and measure yourself for a proper fit – that will make a huge difference in how the bra fits and getting enough support from it! This graphic says a lot about fit, and I think it shows the problem you’re having:

If you want some recommendations for brands that offer great supportive bras in larger cup sizes, some of our favorites are: Panache, Fantasie and Le Mystere. Although really, you can’t go wrong with most of our brands!

To the second part of your question: “they stretch out within 6 months or less” – there are a couple of factors at play here.

• First is the fact that the fit is wrong to begin with, and since the bras don’t fit properly, you won’t be able to wear them as long before the fit becomes completely unbearable.
• Second, how often are you wearing the bra? Ideally, you should have several bras that you rotate through as the week goes by. To ensure the longevity of your bras, you shouldn’t wear the same bra two days in a row – wearing a bra for one day and then storing it flat so it can retain its shape helps prevent stretching and prolongs the life of your bras. We recommend a minimum of 3 or 4 everyday bras to wear during the work week, and maybe some sports bras or casual bras for the weekend, to stretch out your bra wardrobe and help things last longer.
• Third, quality does matter. Playtex, for example, is a great value brand, but it’s not designed with the same high-quality materials as some of our pricier brands. The lower price tag for Playtex reflects the fact that it doesn’t last as long, so you’ll need to replace it more often than, say, Panache or Fantasie. It’s totally fine if you love the way a Playtex bra fits, or if you want a bra at a lower price point, but you should be prepared to replace it more often.

Hope this helps! Let us know if you have any further questions, or need any more clarification on the answer. And all you other ladies out there, send us your questions! Post comments here on the blog, or ask us on Facebook, Twitter or Google+!

Are you on Facebook? Big Girls Bras has a Facebook page, which we love to use to connect with our shoppers and fans! Whether you’re looking for a little humor about the challenges of being a woman, the latest news about our hottest swim fashions, early announcements about our fabulous sales, or even someone to answer your question, we’d love for you to visit us on our Facebook page! Like us for updates in your feed, and visit us often to see what other shoppers are talking about!

Find Out about Great Sales and New Items
Have you ever wished for an inside connection to your favorite retailer? Wanted to know about fabulous sales as soon as they’re up? Felt left out when all your friends were raving about a hot new item you hadn’t seen yet? Fret no more – Big Girls Bras has a great Facebook page that gives you exactly that! Be one of the first people to hear about our fabulous sales – and rush on over to stock up on your favorite items before your size is out of stock! Or become the person who’s always telling your friends about the newest hottest thing in bras, swimwear or shapewear. Fashion is in, so get your inside line on the underpinnings with BGB on Facebook!

Ask Questions and Get Answers!
Have a bra fit challenge? Want to know what replaced your favorite swimsuit? Or just looking for a recommendation? Our fabulous BGB staff checks in on our Facebook page regularly, and is happy to help with your questions! And don’t forget about the valuable resource that your fellow shoppers can be! When you ask a question on the BGB Facebook page, we’ll do our best to make sure you get answers!

Enjoy Some Humor and Relate with Other Women
Being a woman isn’t always easy. We all have our own challenges to face. Be it bra or swimwear fit challenges, the challenges (and joys!) of being a mother, the difficulty of being a working woman today… there’s plenty in the world to keep us busy and occasionally give us grief. We totally understand that at BGB. Our fabulous KC is always on the hunt for funny gems or relatable moments, which she shares on our Facebook page. And you’ll know you’re not alone when a bunch of our fans chime in! You’re going to love our Facebook page because it isn’t all about self-promotion – it’s about being a woman, and making our lives easier (and sometimes funnier!)

Get a Direct Line to BGB!
Don’t miss out on the chance to get a direct line to Big Girls Bras! Have a question or comment that you don’t have time to call with, and don’t want to wait on an email response for? Get a direct line to Big Girls Bras through our Facebook page! If our ladies who monitor the page can’t answer your question themselves, they’ll hunt down the person who can and get back to you ASAP. This is your chance to have a real ear directly in a retailer to ask questions or tell us what you think!

One of the most common requests we get on our Big Girls Bras Facebook page is info about a particular bra that is either no longer in stock, or the manufacturer no longer makes. Unfortunately, this is a sad fact of life: most of the time, when you find a bra you love, it has a limited shelf life and eventually it’s going to go away when the manufacturer moves on to new designs. If this has ever happened to you, you know what we’re talking about! So here are a few ways you can find the bras you love and avoid this sad problem:

Stock Up on Your Favorite Bras!
It should go without saying, but when you find a bra you really love, stock up on it! Don’t take the chance that it’ll go away and you’ll never be able to find it again! Buy it in every color, and buy backups for when you wear them out. But when your current bras are worn out – don’t dip into your backup stash! See if it’s still available, and buy some more (and a few more backups!) You probably won’t be able to keep using your backups forever, but it’ll keep you wearing your favorite bra long after it’s no longer available!

Take advantage of our Mega Clearance Sale to stock up on some of your favorite bras before they’re gone forever!

Contact Us to Find Out What has Replaced Your Favorite Bra
If you have a bra that you love but it’s no longer available, try contacting us to find out what’s replaced it! In many cases, a specific bra model goes out, only to be replaced by a similar model with new materials or minor design changes and improvements. If you know the brand and style of your favorite bra, give us a call, drop us an email or ask on our Facebook, Twitter or Google+ pages – and we’ll try to help you figure out what the new version of your bra is! If we don’t already know which model replaced your favorite, we can sometimes contact the manufacturer or scan our inventory to find out what’s the most similar to the bra you love.

Try us! It’s better than losing your favorite bra forever!

Check Out Alternatives
What did you love most about your favorite bra? Tell us, and we might be able to help you find an alternative that’s similar! Sometimes, a new bra in the same brand will have all the same features you loved in your favorite. In other cases, we might recommend that you go to a different brand that offers the features and design details that you love. Contact us to ask for recommendations – just let us know what bra you’re trying to replace, and what features are most important to you!

We all know the pain of losing a favorite bra, and we hate to see you suffer! Try these tips to stockpile your favorite and enjoy it for a good long time, or find a replacement that you’ll love just as much!

How Much Time Do You Spend in Your Bra?

How much time you spend wearing your bra is a big factor in how often you should replace your bras. If you only wear your bra for a few hours each day, and alternate it with several other bras in your wardrobe, you can keep the same bras for a long time. On the other hand, if you wear your bras for 16 hours per day, and wear the same bra several days in a row until you wash it, you’ll wear your bra out faster than if you alternate with several bras within your wardrobe.

If you want to extend the lifespan of your bras, keep several and alternate them frequently to reduce wear. You might also change into different bras after work to reduce wear on both your work and non-work bras, and to enjoy different fits and designs so you’re not wearing the same bra all day. If you keep many bras in your wardrobe and alternate between them to reduce wear, your bras can last for years.

How Do You Wash Your Bra?

How you wash and care for your bra also plays a role in how frequently bras should be replaced. Most bras have the instructions to hand wash them, and hand washing definitely provides a longer life span for your bras. When you put your bras in the washer and dryer, even on delicate cycles, the material in your bra is stretched and worn over time. Additionally, the cycles and detergent that most people use in the washer and dryer is extremely hard on a bra, and can wear it prematurely. To extend your bra’s lifespan, hand-wash it every time – either in the sink, or in the shower with you.

How Often to Replace a Bra

In the question of how often to replace underwear, Oprah herself has an opinion; everyone has their own ideas of how often to replace a bra. Don’t let yourself be swayed by what manufacturers and salespeople say about their products, and don’t let yourself be placed on an artificial replacement schedule based on what people tell you. The specifics of how often you should replace a bra depend on how you wear and care for your bra.

Do you notice that your bra is stretching, sagging and not providing ample support after only 6 months? Don’t wait to replace it, even if the salesperson told you the bra would last for years – it obviously didn’t. Wearing bras that need to be replaced can cause discomfort and can present health risks, if the bras don’t provide ample support. Bottom line: replace bras when they need to be replaced.

Tip

When you select your replacement, look for quality over quantity. You may pay a little extra per bra, but with proper care you should be able to get a lot more wear.

Try Forever New to wash your bras and lingerie.