Ladies, what is your opinion on strapless bras?

A necessary evil at times.

From the outside looking in, I would say cutting bra straps, sweaty cups, or having to pull the confounded things up are a necessity in hiding the evil; nipple indent. Strapless, with straps, half a strap, there is always a downside to live with.

Worth spending the money for a good one and making sure it fits correctly. My strapless bra, it’s an OnGossamer doesn’t slip around. There are many popular brands that should stay in place. I personally think Victoria Secret bras are horrible, but they might be better now than years past. I don’t know what brand yours is.

Regular bras are more comfortable, no question, and I try to buy shirts and dresses that allow me to wear a regular bra. When I had my accident I couldn’t wear a regular bra for 6 weeks. Mostly I was braless, but towards the end of the 6 weeks sometimes I wore a strapless bra when out in public. The only thing very annoying is it only looked good under a few of my shirts.

Not to get off track, but my guess is you might be wearing your bras too big around the back. Possibly all your bras. Do you have trouble with your straps falling down on regular bras?

An alternative to strapless bras is get the stickies that basically adhere to your breasts. I’m allergic to them, so I can’t use them. I have worn them and they work well for A-C cups. After using them a couple times I realized my redness from them wasn’t typical. I have trouble with Bandaids and other adhesives and latex, many people don’t though.

Another thing to consider is a bra with a bodice or bustier. It should feel more stationary on your body.

@JLeslie I’ve heard of OnGossamer, but I didn’t know how well it would keep the girls supported. I bought a VS bra and that was not a good choice. As for my regular bras, the bra straps stay on my shoulders most of the time. I might need to get measured again, right now I’m a 34D. With bigger boobs, it was tough trying to find a strapless bra that would keep the girls up high and at attention. lol

You can measure yourself. Just take a tape measure right around your back where your bra goes. Add 4 inches for better bras, 5 inches for some of the cheaper brands. So, that means your back should measure 29–30 if you are wearing a 34.

You don’t have to figure out the cup with your measuring tape, because that you can easily tell when you put the bra on. It’s also more difficult to measure the cup. You can try though. With a bra on (no padding) you measure around the fullest part of your breasts around your back. Take that number minus your strap size. 3 inch difference is C, 4 inch difference is D etc.

Once you get into D’s and DD’s strapless gets more difficult, no question.

The wire should be comfortable and firmly against your chest wall, not rubbing on your breast tissue. The strap around your back shouldn’t be sliding up in back (that is the main cause of straps falling off shoulders). Your breast should not be popping out of the cup, not to be confused with Demi cups and push ups that you see more breast, but still the breast should be comfortable not hitting the wire and there shouldn’t be a ridge line where the breast is outside of the cup.

Full Disclosure: I worked for Wacoal and Calvin Klein. Wacoal is a great bra for larger breasts. The quality is excellent.

As a guy, I have noticed that there seems to be a lot of tugging and realignment when strapless bras are used.

@JLeslie Thanks so much for your help. Us girls have it tough when it comes to picking out a bra.

Nordstrom sales people are trained well at measuring if you have that store near you. Or, you can try to find a Wacoal measuring event in your area.

I haven’t had much of a problem with them, though I hardly ever have to wear one. I’ve found that they need to fit a bit tighter than a regular bra so I’m not constantly having to pull it up, which makes wearing it a bit uncomfortable, but not uncomfortable enough for me to complain much. And not tight enough to have those awful bulges in the back. A necessary evil is probably a good description. I’m always a bit more relieved to get out of it than I am with my regular bras, which don’t bother me at all.

I pay $50 a pop for my bras – they better be comfortable at that price, even with all that padding. :)

I’m not well endowed, so it may be different for larger chested gals.

Useless if you are unlucky enough to be on the heavy side!

I just thought to mention that the better strapless bras usually have gummy/plasticky strips on the back strap so it doesn’t slip around. Kind of like dry rubber cement from childhood. Did your bra have that?

Basically, your breasts help keep the front in place and the extra clear stuff helps keep the back in place, and then add in wearing the right size, it shouldn’t move.

I hate them but agree with @janbb that they are sometimes a necessary evil. A few months ago I went to a party where a lady had on a dress that would have required a strapless bra but she had on a bra with clear vinyl straps. It looked like shit. You could see the straps shining in the light. Awful.

Those clear straps are not supposed to be used with a strapless dress. What was she thinking?

she was probably thinking “damn, these strapless bras don’t work for me. Maybe no one will notice if I use one with clear straps”. But that is just a guess on my part. She could just as likely been thinking “Oh Lord I hope this dress doesn’t make him horny tonight”.

My question is: what are the clear straps supposed to be used for? I definitely agree that you shouldn’t use them with a strapless dress, but that makes them pretty useless, doesn’t it?

Yes, they are fairly useless. They can be used to wear under tank tops and strappy sleeves. If the shirt strap shifts a little then some people prefer the clear strap to a nude strap, which can look like underwear. Many people prefer a pretty color bra strap or white or black that becomes part of the outfit, rather than trying to match up skinny shirt straps with bra straps.