Wardrobe Hacks: New ways to adjust your bra

A good bra is an amazing thing. What’s more amazing is the number of products available for tricking them out, extending them, and even converting them. While once a high school friend complained about how “primitive” bras were – I think she wanted something that denied the existence of breasts altogether – from the looks of the many tools of adjustment I’ve discovered, there are enough tools available to sufficiently complicate them that you could become a bra monkey the way certain motorheads are grease monkeys.

I also have to say – when told about bras, breast care, and so on, no one mentioned all the bra adjusting involved in Our Bodies, Ourselves. We definitely need a new book about this stuff, too.

Clearly not all tools can work in all situations, but what lies ahead just might solve something for you!

For smaller breasts

While most plus-size women do have larger breasts, there are women with B cup and below.

The bust enhancer is, very simply, one way to fill out a bra. While I’m not so sure the nipples are necessary, to each their own. This is a stop-gap for when your cup size changes (it can go up and down throughout the month) or when you have to borrow someone else’s larger-cup bra for whatever reason.

This is not a medieval torture device. It is a cleavage creator. This helps add a little more curve when you’re wearing a low cut dress, or more likely a strategically cut dress.

Breast petals are good if you’re wearing a tank top or other garment where you want to preserve a little bit of modesty. That said, it’s worth writing Target and the company that produces these to consider either adding a “skin tone line” or calling these “pale pink” rather than flesh tone. Seriously, it’s the 21st century and they’re still only calling the absence of melatonin nude? My fellow humans, please help me shake a clue stick at these people.

You can similarly protect the modesty of your bosom with disks instead of petals.

Bra Adjustments

Strapless bras take a certain amount of faith – and it’s OK if you don’t have that faith. However, if you lack faith and do need strapless, clear straps are the in-between solution.

If you’re weirded out by racerback tanks and t-strap bras, this is an easy – but very uncomfortable – way of converting your t-bra to a racer. I’ve worn it, and I don’t recommend doing this for more than four hours at a time. Ow!

If you really don’t trust your strapless…

You can also get a different type of clear strap for lower-hanging bras.

The adhesive bra. My advice, based on the experience I’ve had with it, is “don’t bother.” Mileage may differ for women below a C-cup.

This lets you take a standard T-bra and dip it below the wasitline of that plunging-back dress. While I haven’t seen any such garments recently, I’m sure they’ll reappear sooner or later.

One thing I recommend over and over as a way of making bras and other wardrobe pieces more comfortable – TAPE! A good quality dress tape can stop falling/peeking straps, prevent a blouse from riding up and even close that embarrassing blouse gap. I keep a tin of Hollywood tape in my purse at all times just for these situations.

Bra Comfort

Some innovators are looking for ways to make bras something other than a primitive torture device.

Here, the strapper keeper slides in underneath your bra strap to prevent it from digging into your shoulder. (Ideally a proper bra fit should preclude the need for this, but sometimes you really love a bra and don’t want to return it, or you’ve had it forever and it went through the dryer, or any other number of strange things.)

Bra extenders, where have you been all my life? This isn’t only for the case where crap happened and your bra is now too small for you so you need a band extension. This is also for when hooks break or get pulled off – you can stitch these on to one side of your bra and voila!

While this may seem to take improving storage to a ridiculous extreme, if you think about it, it’s not a bad idea. For joggers and bikers, this is a good place to stash keys, phone – or especially a passport when you’re traveling. I know the Iphone bra pocket seemed ridiculous, but I’m not squeamish about such things; I might as well use my assets for something useful.