I began wearing bras roughly 28 years ago. I was one of those girls whose boobs appeared without warning, larger than I was ready for and demanding the immediate purchase of undergarments to keep them in check. One day I was a kid; the next day I was in a cramped dressing room, sweating while I tried on bras and my mom hovered outside the door.
But from the very beginning, I noticed that bras didn’t fit me right. And it wasn’t that I was wearing the wrong size. I’m short (5”1’ short) and wear a 36D. The cups fit my boobs; the band was snug on my back but not too snug. It was something else that was off. Something … slippery.
No matter what brand I tried or how good the bra felt otherwise, throughout the day the straps would start to slip. By evening they’d often be semi-permanently placed mid-shoulder, in full view if I was wearing a tank top or else poking out underneath a tee or sweater. Reaching through the neck hole of my shirt to grab the strap and return it to its intended spot became second nature, a gesture I made a hundred times every twenty four hours, like blinking.
The solution to my problem came out of the clear blue sky one day in 2023 when a colleague mentioned her favorite bra: the SPANXsmooth Bra-lleljuah! unlined bralette. The word “bralette” was a red flag for me (big boobed girls know), but she was so convincing that I dug into the reviews anyway (the bra has 4.2 stars based on 711 reviews). Buyer after buyer — including women who said they wore large bra sizes — raved. One even identified my specific problem: “Soft, very comfortable and finally a bra where my straps do not fall down! I love it. I just purchased 2 more,” she wrote. I decided to give it a try.
I initially bought the $48, no-wire bra in a large, which turned out to be too small. When I exchanged it for an XL, it fit like a glove. The material is the softest I’ve ever felt on a bra (it feels a bit like a high-end pillowcase), yet it’s still supportive for my large chest. The brand says that the back is made completely of hosiery, and whatever that means, it works; it doesn’t dig or cut into my skin, but it feels completely secure.
In an effort to understand why it took me so long to find the right bra, I called up an expert: Marylise Uwabideli, founder of boob tape brand Kana Company who spent years studying why bras fail women with fuller busts. “We’ve got to remember that bra companies design bras for the average woman,” she explained. “When they make a bigger size, they make everything bigger, not just the cup size. Not only do the cups get bigger, but the straps get pushed farther out and made longer. On a woman who’s [5-foot-1] with a large chest, that means the straps land on the outer slope of her shoulders instead of the top, and even fully tightened they still have slack.”
In no time, I’d purchased five more, and started to wear one every single day, regardless of my outfit. It’s comfortable in an almost “not wearing a bra” way, but that doesn’t translate to a sloppy look or a uniboob (I’ve worn it out to dinner, to important meetings, and even once to a wedding). Its level of support means it gives me the same look as the many lined, wired bras I’ve tried over the years from brands like Victoria’s Secret, Gap Body, Harper Wilde, and ThirdLove. But there’s one crucial difference.
The straps do not slip down my shoulders. For the first time in my life, whole days go by without the need to reach for a rogue strap and try to will it back to its rightful place. Although I must admit — sometimes, I still feel a phantom bra strap slipping, and move to grab it. I’m always surprised to find it’s not there.
I asked Uwabideli why she thought the Spanx bra works for me when no other bra would. “The whole back is one stretchy piece,” she says. “So it hugs your back and holds your weight. The straps aren’t doing all the heavy lifting and then dragging it down.”
It turns out, the hosiery-based back was my savior all along.