FITTED BRAS

Sounds great but beware. For, like most things over-hyped, not all shapewear has the ability to lend shape where it’s most needed. Famously epitomised by Scarlet O’ Hara with that 17” waist, thanks to her piercing corset in Gone with the Wind, shapewear today comes in a wide variety.

On the face of it – and especially in online images – they all look the same. It’s difficult for an untrained eye to see the difference even when touching and feeling shapewear. Further, a trial – generally not allowed by most brands – will also not easily reveal the tricky point: that of the shapewear item rolling down the abdomen after some use!

Once it rolls down on the abdomen, the shapewear is as good as useless. Because all the fat that it’s expected to compress and hide, reappears in all its layered glory. So, what exactly is the cause of this problem? It lies primarily, in a poor, flimsy quality of fabric and sometimes in the choice of a wrong, smaller, size.

Shapewear works by compressing the fat towards the body. It’s a bit like zipping up the fat. So, there are designs that start just below the bust line and those that start at the upper waist and carry all the way down.

There are those that end at the crotch area and some end at the thighs. Then of course there is a basic variety that is like a band around your waist – this one has no discomfort at the crotch area.

Whichever you choose please remember:

• Shapewear, like bras, has to be chosen keeping in mind the requirement of your body. If you feel your thighs need compression but you never wear thigh exposing clothes like say, jeans, then what’s the need for that shapewear?
• Be careful while choosing shapewear without a trial because compression equals discomfort. So while its perhaps possible for most women to tolerate compression on the waist, it may not be as easy to put the thighs through the same presser.

All those perfect cleavages ringed by shapely necklines that we are seeing around us, especially at this time of the year, make us wonder. Is this the real body? Or is it a surgical enhancement? How exactly does nothing go awry through all the partying, dancing, and much more?

Well this is the age of Tapes. Body tapes and Dressing Tapes are changing the way women look in revealing clothes.

Body Tape: This one is known by various names but I’m calling a spade a spade. So, a body tape is exactly what it sounds like: a sticky tape that tapes your breasts upwards on to your shoulders, creating a rounded globe like upper breast that gleams perfectly through your deepest neckline. This tape is usually almost 2 inches wide and its stretchy porous texture is somewhere between a crepe bandage and a micropore surgical tape.

Pros: You can tape yourself in whichever manner possible, to create whichever look possible, as explained in the graphic.

Cons: Can be very damaging for the skin and the delicate ligaments beneath. There are many ordinary tapes doing the rounds online, but use ONLY the tape that has a gentle stretch, combined with a firm strength and a good quality adhesive that shall not be abrasive on the skin. Constant use can have side effects as yet unknown, so be careful please.

That the vast majority of women wear the wrong-sized bras has been a constant refrain for decades now. Which makes one wonder whether this is a ploy by lingerie brands to make us buy more and more bras on a regular basis. Else, how can one explain the utter failure of bra makers – over the past one hundred years of the existence of bras - in devising a standard sizing chart for women?

It’s time for the simple truth

Most women wear the wrong size because there isn’t - and cannot be - one precise, correct size for a woman at any given period of her life.

What does this imply?

• 1. This implies that each one of us fall within a spectrum of sizes.
• 2. So, a woman could fit into any of three neighbouring sizes, viz, she could have her best fit in either and thereabouts. (Think of footwear for a better understanding.)
• 3. Her best fit size would depend on the cut of the bra. And since there are many kinds of cuts that women wear, her size naturally varies.
• 4. Presuming that a woman wears only one particular kind of bra, would her size still vary? Absolutely YES.
• 5. That’s because human bodies don’t just change in weight, but also in shape and toning. What may be very comfortable in a particular size today may need a change even though her weight may be constant; instead her more/less toned body may need more/less support than before.
• 6. Another reason is well-washed-bras-added-to-laziness. Women often come to me and say, look this is what I wear from your brand and I have no time for a trial so please can I buy an identical bra? My answer to them is this, that since the bra you are carrying has been washed hundreds of times, it has adapted itself to your body; a new identical bra may fit you very differently, so please will you step in for a trial?
• 7. A further reason I have noticed is this. Let’s say you like wearing a particular cut of bras for optimum support. But because you’re bored of wearing the same type, you stick to the same cut, but in a different fabric. Voila! Your size changes because the two fabrics may not have the same stretch factor.

So, now that we’re faced with these simple facts, the three ways forward to wearing best fit bras are: trial, trial & trial. It is by investing a few extra minutes in a trial room while choosing our bras that we can save on discomfort in the months to come.

More importantly, just because a good bra lasts endlessly does not mean it shall fit you endlessly too. Learn when to gently pass on that bra. There is no hard and fast rule to it. Connect to your body and you will know when it’s time.

Till then, happy trying, happy wearing.

Penning this column around Saint Valentine’s Day has me deal with a cauldron full of thoughts about men and bras and men’s perception of bras.

Memories race through of how a most jovial gentleman used to accompany a chirpy girl who came looking for ‘nice’ bras. At the end of the visit she would go out to where the gentleman waited, to perhaps get his consent on her purchase. And then they would wave bye with a very nice energy.

Till the time when he desired to ‘have a word with me’. “My wife has heard about your brand and wishes to visit too, so can you please ensure that you don’t recognise me when I come by next?”

Soon after, for many reasons in addition to the one above, our Stores stopped admitting men into our space, reserved only for women to bra-browse in peace. But what kept recurring over time were requests from women to “please somehow alter these expensive bras that my husband has bought abroad…they are just not my size”.