venta | Why don't you shut the door, and close the curtains?

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Why don't you shut the door, and close the curtains?

I have an enquiry of a delicate nature.

I'm having difficulty finding bras which I like. At some point in the last few years, the fashion industry declared that if you are any smaller than a DD, you'll be wanting to conceal this dangerous information with a bra which is padded, shaped, and various other things.

If you go somewhere cheap and nasty like Primark, every single bra available A-C will have impressive cleavage all by itself, without even a person in it. It's terrifying. If you go somewhere posh and pricey... well, it's a little better. But even then the unpadded bras will be embroidered, beaded, be-ribboned and generally all a bit much. Most stages between Primark and posh seem similarly afflicted.

A few places will have, tucked away at the back, a small display of boxed, cheap, dead-plain bras. They won't be execiting, or available in anything other than white, but they will be functional. Interestingly, the mother reports a recent haul from this department of M&S included a bra which (in very small print) had the warning "do not wear for more than 8 hours". We could only deduce it was due to the non-slip coating on the inside of the straps, which was akin to the odd rubbery stuff they put on hold-ups. Which, incidentally, doesn't work; but I digress.

So I turn to you, the bra-wearing section of the LJ-reading public, to help out. Where can I find "nice" underwear, preferably the sort for which one can buy matching pants, which isn't padded? I'm happy with underwiring, I just don't require gel-filled, air-filled or anything-else-filled enhancement. (Except, of course, according to the underwear-making world I do require it. I just don't want it.)

I'd prefer a real live shop, as buying things which need to fit well online is a bit of a gamble.

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I have this problem - I don't like padding and I don't particularly like underwiring.

This year I've been on a mission to replace my antique bra collection, so I've been doing a fair bit of bra shopping. I mostly wear cotton ones, as plain as possible - dunno if that fits within your definition of 'nice'.

Places on Oxford Street that will supply me with such bras:

- Intimissimi
- Tezenis
- American Apparel

I don't know but I have a hard time finding E or F cup bras that are not padded. FFS, how big do they want our boobs to be?

I get most of mine from La Senza. Admittedly, most of them do have enough padding or shaping to carry on standing up even when I'm not in them, but I find their bras fit well and look nice, and the padding is more for shape than size; they don't make me look even more huge than I already am! They have a good range in large cup-sizes too, including lots of pretty ones, not just plain and functional.

I buy mine from M&S but then as I'm an E-cup they generally will only sell me non-padded ones, in case I frighten the horses. BHS is OK too though their sizing's a bit odd so you'll need to try on.

I actually prefer the padded bras as you don't get an issue with visible nipples in cold weather.

I also prefer my bras unpadded. And often find myself buying bras only to cut off surplus ribbons etc as soon as I get them home. If you are happy with lacy but otherwise unembellished, my current favourite is the Gossard Reverie range (available padded and unpadded) which you can still buy from various discount retailers on eBay. Infuriatingly the current Gossard range does seem entirely padded.

Unpadded cotton bras do seem astonishingly hard to find. BHS make some dull but functional ones. I've tried the Figleaves basics but they were poorly made and the underwires stabbed me. Calvin Klein occasionally make nice, long-lasting unpadded cotton bras, but more often they are too "structured" for my paste.

Oxford is rubbish for buying lingerie in person :( I loathe Bravissimo and anyway I'm too small for most of their range.

Purely in the interests of science, I enclose a link to see if this comment gets screened.

Adding another "it's every size!" comment. I do have some fab sports bras that are neither padded nor underwired but a)they resemble scaffolding and b)they were a bravissimo find, ergo no good for the part where the requirement was for A-C cup.

I have two very similar bras from M&S both in a 38DD, one from the top of the normal range in that style and one from the bottom of the big-cups range of the same style. They're very slightly different in shape as a result, but neither is padded. So I'm pretty sure the other sizes in the small-cups range are available unpadded too.

M&Ses webpage allows you to search for bras in your size, and then "padded" or "non-padded" are options you can use to narrow down the search results.

Pretty example: http://www.marksandspencer.com/Una-Essentials-Ribbon-Stripe-Non-Padded/dp/B003X0FBR6

Edited 2011-02-23 12:42 (UTC)

I think my current ones came from BHS (my mother bought them after hearing me moan, so not absolutely certain, and I'm not looking inside now to check) - but if you find black, please announce where!

I have a number of female friends who are incredibly positive about Rigby and Pella - going there is a girl's day out, and even if you only have a couple of their (admittedly expensive) range, they will change your views on fit.

This is not helpful unless you plan to travel soon, but I can often find at least one or two not overly decorated (unpadded, but underwired, which I'm fine with) bras in range of C-DD cup at any local Victoria's Secret when I'm in the USA. Thus, I tend to stock up when I make visits back there.

I don't know how useful my advice may be, given I'm, errr, the opposite end of the spectrum to you, bra-wise, but: I have a nice and very long-lasting bra from John Lewis. It isn't padded (though whether what holds for a DD is also true for smaller cup-sizes, I don't know), and is relatively plain with just a bit of lace on the cup. I'm wearing it so can't check the brand: I believe it's either Fantasie or Ballet. Irregardless, I think that JL sell plain unpadded bras in all sizes, so I'd go there if the rest of the High Street is being rubbish for you. Good luck!

AFAIK, Sloggi have not gone out of business, so with a bit of hunting you should find them again. AA may also do the kind of thing you like - I've no direct experience, sadly, because AA don't cater to people my size (except for scarves and legwarmers, which I have bought there).

Have you tried TK maxx? They will have all sorts of wierd and wonderful makes, some of which you would never have thought to seek out, and they are usually pretty affordable. You will however, need a bit of time to try on a dozen bras in several sizes to get one that fits.

And it's not just you- I'm a 38c/38D (depending on style) and almost every bra I have encountered wants to be padded. Crazy boob obsessed male designers, methinks.

I will recommend looking in some of the childrens' sections. Primark does the crop top style things, M&S do some plain only very slightly padded bras in their "Angel" range (enough so things don't show).

Surprisingly, Mr Tescos on Kings Meadow does a reasonably good line of plain 'T-Shirt' bras (I presume designed to be worn under said garment) both wired and not. These are generally on the 'affordable' end of the scale. Other than that, I second John Lewis as having a perfectly reasonable lingerie dept.

Debenhams? They often seem to stock a range of different stuff.

I'm at the opposite end of the bra-size spectrum as well, and tend to go for Bravissimo or Marks and Sparks (who still make a lot of their bras padded, which must take me up another cup size from padding alone). But how about sports bras / crop top-type bras either from specific sports shops or general clothes shops. An ex used to hate wearing anything too girly / padded etc and found sports bras to be the best solution. Not likely to matching pants unfortunately.

Reminds me that I need to go sports bra shopping.

Yeah, I have this problem too. My most recent purchases were M&S and underwired (which I'm indifferent to), but no padding. However, that was a few months ago and the range may have disappeared.

The Old Puflet Palace is now demolished, but it has relocated to:
http://exhausted-and-puffin.blogspot.com

I was having problems with a very persistent cyberstalker and the only way to get rid of him was to move house (in a virtual way, I mean!)

Lady Blue being in approximately the same situation as you has bought a lot of her bras from Asda's George range.

Most of the ones she has bought have been basically as you describe - "boxed, cheap, dead-plain bras. They won't be exciting, or available in anything other than white, but they will be functional". Except Asda do them in black as well.

They are also stupidly cheap. Like £2 each or summat.

As the person who often does the washing they have been going through the wash for a year or so and appear to be still un-disintegrated.

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From the Ashes of the Old ...

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