Author: Brooke Glassberg

Brooke is the editor of this here blog. In a previous life, she was an editor at Good Housekeeping and O, The Oprah Magazine. Brooke has written for Glamour, Travel+Leisure, New York Magazine and more. She’s into concerts, travel and her exceptionally adorable daughter and husband.

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Personal Style Swimwear

The Best Cover-Ups for Summer 2019

Behind every great swimsuit is an amazing cover-up, so the saying goes (or something like that, anyway).

Bare Necessities swim buyer Megan Puma believes you don’t need a cover-up to expressly match every suit—the art is in the mix. “A cover-up should be this super easy thing you bring with you everywhere you go in summer,” she says. “They elevate and complete your look without taking up a lot of space. If you throw one in your carry-on, you can hit the beach right on arrival.”

Read on to see what stylish options she’s uncovered for every body that can take to to the beach—and beyond—all summer long.

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Personal Style Pop Culture

Wedding Season Essentials

When it comes to wedding season, the outfit you’re wearing is the easiest part! Think about it: By the time you put on your gown or party dress, all the big decisions have already been made. Suddenly, the base layers have the biggest impact on your degree of flawlessness.

So whether you’re the bride and it’s your big day or honeymoon, you’re in the wedding party or you’re on the guest list, Bare Necessities is here to help you be the best dressed you can be. Peruse The Bride Guide or let us escort you right to what you need…

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Personal Style Power Figures

Kim France Writes About Style for Those of Us Who’ve Aged Out of the 18-34 Demographic and Lived to Tell

When your personal obsessions and your paid profession overlap, you’ve hit self-actualization bullseye, and that’s what’s so inspiring about Kim France. The founding editor of Lucky magazine (R.I.P.) and the brains behind the Girls of a Certain Age blog (its motto, “You know who you are,” should win the world’s best tag line contest if that were a thing), Kim has spent her career meditating on her love of fashion in the smartest, most unique and relatable way.

She is as passionate about eye cream and handbags as she is about art and culture. And since she’s 55 and owning it, and it’s her damn blog, she gets to share whatever she’s into, however she pleases. Her personal style and writing voice are both so peerless, we’d be willing to bet you’ll be into it, too. Read just one of her posts (well, finish this one first), and you’ll immediately get it.

Kim kindly gave Bare Necessities an exclusive interview about reaching publishing’s glass ceiling before the floor gave way, picking herself up by her chic platform bootstraps to find herself all over again and what’s so good about growing up. 

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The Mind Behind the Design

What Dita Von Teese Wants to Wear This Season

There are lingerie lovers, and then there is Dita Von Teese.

The inimitable burlesque star and intimates designer makes a habit of surrounding herself with glamour; its transformative power can’t be overstated. For Dita, a lifelong connoisseur of vintage underpinnings, it all starts with conjuring up the lingerie she most wants to wear, and it ends with inspiring untold fans to do the same.

Bare Necessities got an exclusive chance to ask the lovely Dita what she’s up to for spring and beyond, the inspiration behind her newest designs and what she’s personally most excited about putting on which, coming from her, is really saying something.

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Categories
Pop Culture Swimwear

Swim Season Starts…NOW!

Memorial Day is here, Memorial Day is here! Summer’s unofficial official kick-off means this is the time to make sure that sandals are broken in, beach bags are cleaned out and swimwear is looking good and ready to go.

We’re back with Bare Necessities‘ own Megan Puma, ace swimwear buyer, to find out where this season’s styles are taking us.

“Memorial Day is exciting because it’s a glimpse of what’s to come, the first crack at the season,” Megan says. “Whether you’re at the community pool with the kids or a lake house with friends, people are going to be seeing you in swimwear, so just like anything else, you have plan in advance and put outfits together a little bit. This is the time to finally cut the tags off and get in there.”

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Personal Style

The Best Bras on a Budget

Listen, we love bras more than the average Jane, and we’ll still be the first to admit they can get rather pricey. So while we firmly believe there’s a time and a place for luxury in both life and lingerie, we’re equal opportunity shoppers. Sometimes all we want is cheerful on the cheap, trendy yet thrifty, the best for less.

We checked in with Bare Necessities contemporary buyer Megan Irvine to get her recos for seriously standout bras that, ringing in for under $50 a pop, won’t break the bank. Here’s what she’s loving, now and forever….

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The Mind Behind the Design

Celebrating Elomi’s 10th Anniversary with Designer Liesl Goodman

Since its start a decade ago, Elomi has firmly established itself as the go-to full-figure brand, first for lingerie and later for swimwear up to a K-cup.

“A great fit has always been a given and now more than ever, there is fashion like you wouldn’t believe,” says Bare Necessities buyer Heather Viskovic, who cited Elomi as her fastest-growing brand.

For Elomi’s tenth anniversary, we got to talk with Liesl Goodman, head designer, about why the label is on the up and up, year after year, and what it does for the women who wear it.

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Categories
The Mind Behind the Design

Sunsets is This Season’s Swim Brand to Know

Though Sunsets has been in swimwear since 1984, the brand’s star is still on the rise.

Sunsets started in the land of swim style, otherwise known as Southern California, back​ when everyone was still buying bikinis in sets; ​shopping for tops and bottoms in two different sizes was literally ​impossible​. Their point of difference: selling swim separates, an unheard-of innovation in the industry at the time. These days, Sunsets is known as a sophisticated lifestyle brand, beloved for both its bra-sized separates and figure-flattering designs. It’s a family business, too: Founder Janette Van Doren brought on her son-in-law Greg Stager, who took on ownership after a couple of years. Now 35 years later, Sunsets still charts the industry’s course to strategic style.

This season, Bare Necessities has also partnered with Sunsets to create exclusive prints and silhouettes that can only be found at BareNecessities.com.

“Our customer always wants more tankinis, and Sunsets has been one of our go-to brands for years, so it was only natural that we work with them to put together the best tankinis in their best prints, in addition to us creating a few of our own!” says swimwear buyer Megan Puma. The London Calling, Black Dot, Imperial Dot and Moroccan Dreams collections are standouts from Sunsets you’ll find only at Bare Necessities.

We interviewed Greg as well as designer Julie Franco to find out what makes Sunsets so singular.

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Categories
Personal Style Pop Culture

Mother’s Day Gifts to Make You Look Like a Star

Mothers contain multitudes, but there is at least one word that applies to all: prepared. With this Mother’s Day gift guide curated by our Bare Necessities buyers, that’s exactly what you’ll be, too.

A month ahead of her special day, we’ve already put together a list of comfy, stylish pajama presents that will be appreciated by anyone in your life who has earned the “mom” moniker: your own mother, a mother-in-law, all the women who raised you up, the daughter who promoted you to grandma, your wife or significant other, a sister…the more you think about it, the longer the list grows.

She gives her all 24/7/365; this time, the idea is to help her sleep in, kick back and relax. Add breakfast in bed, and you’re the one who comes out smelling like a rose.

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Categories
Swimwear

2019’s Best Swim Trends

Two true statements: Swim season is here, and it is short.

Your mission is to size up your swimwear, part ways with anything that doesn’t make you look and feel fabulous, and restock on bikinis, tankinis and one-pieces designed to do just that before all the cute ones in your size sell out.

And while you could certainly snap up a fab new black tank suit (side note: do!) and call it a day, that wouldn’t the most fun you could have under the sun, now would it? On such a tiny piece of real estate, swimwear is a pleasantly low-risk place to test the water on mood-boosting trends.

With the help of Bare Necessities swimwear buyer Megan Puma, we’ve put together the newest, most flattering looks that are big on quality, support, value and style. Now choose your favorites and get in your element, bathing beauty…!

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Categories
Personal Style Pop Culture

10 of the Most Comfortable Bras at Every Size

When it comes to bras—okay, pretty much all clothing—comfort is non-negotiable now. Think about it: Why should anything we wear every day be even a little bit taxing? Bras are the first thing we pull on in the morning, the last thing we take off at night. And while half of it is getting into the right size and fit, the other half is finding bras so good for your figure, you don’t even notice them.

That’s why we made Bare Necessities buyer Heather Viskovic name names. We talked cushioned straps, the softest and techiest fabrics, underwires tucked in plush little channels and no underwires at all. This week she’s sharing her favorite bras that deliver style, support and a soft touch.

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Categories
Power Figures

Kate Westervelt Had Her First Baby—and Launched Her First Company

They say necessity is the mother of all invention, which couldn’t be truer than for Kate Westervelt. The Boston-based founder and CEO of MOMBOX, a postpartum care kit for new moms, had her brilliant brainstorm in the baby aisle at Target, waddling around in a mental fog with an ice pack in her underwear shortly after giving birth and wishing there was an easier way.

Since its 2018 launch, MOMBOX has helped thousands of women across the country get the recovery goods they need based on the type of birth they had, delivered to their doors. The Millennial pink box comes with things new moms don’t even know to think about, like a sitz bath soak, energy bars and cooling gel pads for tender private parts. Kate spent more than a year testing products and building the site on her own, all while raising her son. It paid off: Yahoo named MOMBOX the #2 most-needed item after giving birth.

A former editor at Good Housekeeping and The Financial Times and writer for brands including Wayfair, Social Code and The Purple Carrot, Kate is now all in on MOMBOX. She gave Bare Necessities the scoop on her unique way of supporting women and what it’s like to birth a business…without an MBA.

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