Going Braless… Top shelf dress tips

November 29, 2003

I need help fast. I'm going to an evening wedding. I bought a dress I really love but, I cannot wear a bra with it. I am large up top and want to know - do you have to be "perfect" to go braless. I need a confidence booster. (La Mesa, CA)

Sweetie, It sound like it’s not a confidence booster that you need, but a bust booster! Going without a bra takes a certain type of breast- one that stands pert and proud. But, not necessarily like two cantaloupes that catapulted out of the plastic surgeons office and landed right onto your chest cavity either. Just, not droopy.

Remember Gwenyth at the 2002 Oscars in that Alexander McQueen Goth number? Her dress would probably not have looked so sad if her boobies didn’t appear as if they were being dragged down- a good bra would have saved her. The point is, it’s not the size, but the fitness that counts when it coming to going braless. Not every dress is cut for every body.

Many times when you see a celebrity wearing a red carpet dress that looks like it it’s staying in place only by a wish and prayer, there really was a whole lot planning involved into making it fit that way. Dangerously bare dresses have been custom-fit to the wearer’s form and probably have some sort of illusion undergarment built right in to the dress.

There’s also the magic of taping your dress in place and wearing a self-stick bra. But, in most cases taking the dress with you to bra shop to find a bra that works with the style of your dress and your figure should do the trick.

If the search for the right bra proves to be a bigger task than you are willing to take on, just find a dress that better suits your figure— you’ll feel more self-confident if you have less to worry about rather than obsessing about how your breasts look.

--November 29, 2003