After trying to get into what the cool kids want these days, lingerie veteran Victoria’s Secret has decided to stop trying to be trendy, and just stick with what it knows best: Bras with padding, wiring, and the ability to push things upward. [More]
bras
Amazon Wants To Get Into Your Underwear Drawer
By 2.10.17
Amazon has already been making moves to get into customers’ closets with the in-house apparel brands it launched last year, and rumors that it’s planning a new line of workout clothing. Now, Amazon reportedly wants to slip into something more comfortable: your underwear drawer. [More]
Victoria’s Secret Won’t Be Stuffing Your Mailbox With “Free Panty” Coupons Anymore
By 11.4.16
In the past year, the powers that be at L Brands — the parent company of Victoria’s Secret – have rolled out a number of planned changes: shilling more sports bras, ditching swimwear, and relying on its print catalog less. Now comes news that the company’s ever-present coupons promising a “free panty” will no longer be showing up to a mailbox near you. [More]
Science Sez: No Evidence That Bras Cause Breast Cancer
By 9.5.14
Some people believe that wearing a bra might interfere with lymph circulation and waste removal from the breast, possibly increasing the risk of breast cancer. But according to newly published research, there’s no evidence indicating that sporting a bra leads to a heightened cancer risk. [More]
Bra Is Either Working Overtime In The Padding Department Or You’re Smuggling $59K In Cash
By 6.12.13
We’ve gotta hand it to border officers: It can’t be easy to figure out that someone is smuggling a whole lot of cash in her bra without being creepy. “Eyes up here, buddy!” and all of that. Despite that potentially tricky situation, two Canadian women were stopped from entering the country after officials at the Detroit-Windsor Tunnel discovered $59,000 in cash squirreled away in their brassieres. [More]
Jockey Wants To Change How Bra Sizes Work. Can They Succeed?
By 5.31.13
The standard American bra size consists of a number and a letter: the measurement around the wearer’s body in inches, and the lettered cup size, which indicates the difference between the bust measurement and the measurement around the ribcage: in other words, how big the breast is. As anyone who has ever bought a bra knows, this system has its flaws, including vanity sizing, variations between manufacturers, and variations in sizes from one style to another. Jockey is out to change that, but does their new bra-sizing and trying-on system solve the problem or create more? [More]
Victoria’s Secret Won’t Be Making A Mastectomy Bra Because It’s “Complicated”
By 5.21.13
Back in January, the daughter of a breast cancer survivor started an online petition to ask Victoria’s Secret to design a bra for women who have undergone mastectomies. She wrote that she wanted the retailer to create the bra for her mother, and other cancer survivors because often “shopping for bras is such a discouraging, time consuming and frustrating ordeal.” Despite that petition garnering over 120,000 signatures, however, Victoria’s Secret says it’s opting not to make a mastectomy bra, because it doesn’t feel up to the challenge. [More]
Milwaukee Not Too Worried About Bar’s Bra Collection Burning, Reverses Takedown Order
By 5.17.13
Perhaps burning bras was all the rage back in the day, but fire department officials in Milwaukee were worried about a very specific collection of undergarments going up in flames. After a bar with a 45-year tradition of decorating its premises with bras and boxers had to take down the hanging intimates for fear of spreading fires, the business’ owner is now celebrating after the city said the clothing is probably harmless. Whew. [More]
Reader Fairly Certain That Men Are In Charge Of Shipping Bras At Kohl’s
By 4.17.13
Amy was disappointed with the condition that her bras arrived in from Kohl’s. Men, she insists, are in charge of packing the store’s lingerie. Or–let’s be inclusive here–people who have never needed to wear an article of clothing that has underwires. Or a molded cup. Not even all women understand the care with which delicately-constructed undergarments need to be handled. [More]
Female Athletes Beware: Your Boobs Are Your Own Worst Enemy
By 3.4.13 — Updated: 3.5.13
You don’t need to tell me twice––or even once, really––that for many women who are “blessed” with a lot of mammary tissue, finding a good sports bra is a challenge. I’ve been on that hunt since approximately 1994. This ad campaign from UK lingerie retailer Nod & Wink sets out to be a saucy and funny ad for sports bras, but ultimately ends up haunting and sort of sad. [More]
Ladies, For The Last Time: That Bra Doesn't Fit You Right At All
By 3.14.12
We’ve heard it from Oprah Winfrey and your mother-in-law that 80% of women are wearing the wrong bra size. Perhaps you’ve seen it in action when you just can’t get the perfect fitting bra that makes everything lifty, happy and slenderizing. That’s why Consumer Reports ShopSmart magazine took statistics to the test and held a professional bra fitting. [More]
Research Shows The Ideal Sports Bra Has Not Been Invented
By 8.20.10
You know sports bras stink, and now there’s science to support it. [More]
By 5.11.09
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UK retailer Marks & Spencer has decided it was a bad idea to charge more for bigger bras, so as of this past weekend there is no longer a “boob tax” on bras DD-size and larger. [Drapers]
Woman Removes Bra To Get Through TSA
By 8.26.08
Nancy Kates’s large underwire bra set off the metal detector in the Oakland, California airport. A TSA agent pulled her aside and patted her down, which set off Kates’ personal privacy alarm. “I said, ‘You can’t do that.’ She said, ‘We have to pat you down.’ I said, ‘You can’t treat me as a criminal for wearing a bra.'” Kates was given the option to “submit to a pat-down in a private room” or not fly. Instead, she took off her bra and passed through security just fine. Hooray for personal freedom!
Bra Seller Tells Customer To Get A Breast Reduction
By 2.20.08
If there’s one thing this writer has learned over the years, it’s to never tell a woman to get breast reduction surgery. It’s rude, insulting, and can quite possibly get you kneed in the groin, slapped, pushed into a train, cut out of the will, and so on. But apparently the salesperson at Penningtons—sort of a Canadian Lane Bryant—didn’t get that memo. “North of 49” writes:
I’m a woman of “ample girth” but still have a figure. At 226lbs, I have a 38J cup. We’re getting married on leap day and I have had issues with bra shopping before. So I went to “Penningtons,” an above average store that should have had bras in my size. They didn’t.
By 11.30.07
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Next time you’re bra-shopping, remember this fun fact: the band around your rib cage gives you 90% of the bra’s support. [WSJ]
Drinking And Shopping Probably Not A Good Mix
By 11.23.07
We can’t imagine getting through the crowds today without doing a shot of something first, but both the Houston Chronicle and the Baylor College of Medicine in Texas say it’s probably not a good idea—you end up doing things like buying a massage chair from Sharper Image and not remembering anything about it when it shows up at your front door the next day.
