Category: Relationships

Layers for Lounging: Stay Home, Stay Warm With the Best Sleepwear for Winter 2020

Post author By Brooke Glassberg
Post date December 14, 2020

December is never not about bundling up, but that goes triple for this year. We’re prepared to show 2020 the door by chilling at home the rest of the month. Literally all we need is Netflix, wine and takeout.

With winter starting, now’s the time to layer on a throw blanket, light a fire (or turn on your light therapy), spike the tea, and dress accordingly. Especially if winter isn’t your favorite season, it’s surprisingly happy-making to dip into your pajama drawer and emerge with something velvet or flannel or chenille. Low temps and low moods don’t stand a chance against Bare Necessities sleepwear buyer Krista Molinaro’s warm and fuzzy day-to-night picks.

When the trends collide with incredible textures like these, the result is a do-nothing wardrobe to get excited about…even if you and the UPS delivery person are the only ones who see it.

Personal Style Relationships

The Best Men’s Underwear You Can Buy in 2020

Post author By Brooke Glassberg
Post date September 28, 2020

Maybe you’ve been together for a few months. Maybe it’s more like a million years. Regardless, at this point in your relationship with your man, you probably know him and his preferences better than he knows himself, which is how we’ve arrived here together, just us girls reading a men’s underwear shopping guide.

Multi-packs are definitely how it’s done in the menswear space, which makes things nice and easy, and fall is an opportune time to take inventory of what he’s got stashed in the drawer before restocking for winter and spring.

Just like with women’s bras and panties, so it goes with Bare Necessities and men’s underwear. Simply put, we carry the best options on the market—nay, in the world. Our buyers start by building a curated selection of basics for everyday wear, then add a dash of colors and patterns for interest. To cover all his bases, they round out the must haves with super-specific styles for good measure. And all of this is going on inside an elevated assortment of brands that removes the question of quality from the decision-making equation.

In other words, this should be quick and painless so you can get back to doing more interesting things (like, say, shopping for yourself).

Scroll on to find our top picks for men’s underwear across lots of key categories. By taking this one shopping to-do off his list, you’re now in charge of what you see in the morning; have fun with it.

Health & Wellness Relationships

Breast Changes During Pregnancy—and the Bras That Will Help Get You Through

Post author By Brooke Glassberg
Post date August 3, 2020
2 Comments on Breast Changes During Pregnancy—and the Bras That Will Help Get You Through

We talk a lot at Bare Necessities about how important it is to get a bra fitting when your weight fluctuates or you go through a major life event, and that definitely, 1,000 percent (still the understatement of the century) includes having a baby. In fact, if it’s your first time, expect to be shocked by how much the chest you’ve known so well for so long changes on you.

To coincide with World Breastfeeding Week, Bare it All asked our nursing bra buyer Heather Viskovic to tell all about the wild ride her own breasts have gone on two kids later, and what she’s learned that can make life easier for anyone going through it now.

Personal Style Power Figures Relationships

Liz Forkin Bohannon is on a Mission to Make the World More Equitable for Women

Post author By Brooke Glassberg
Post date July 13, 2020

Before it was a thing, Liz Forkin Bohannon came up with the idea of making sandals with interchangeable ribbon ties that could be made by women, for women, to raise enough money to send girls in developing nations to university. She launched Sseko Designs in 2009 from her home base in Portland, Oregon. From a handshake deal under a mango tree in Uganda, she’s grown her fair trade business to 65 employees in almost as many time zones, a third of whom at any one time are earning money to go on to higher ed. From that game-changing sandal concept, Sseko now sells more than 300 different items like scarves, jewelry, handbags, clothing and, as of a few weeks ago, coffee.

In 2015, Liz brought the business onto Shark Tank and, in 2019, she wrote Beginner’s Pluck: Build Your Life of Purpose and Impact Now. “It’s all been such a fun, wild ride,” she told Bare Necessities.

Find out what’s next for this Power Figure on a mission to make the world a more equitable place for womankind.

Breast Cancer Awareness Inner Beauty Relationships

Diagnosed at 75: Dee’s Breast Cancer Journey

Post author By Brooke Glassberg
Post date October 14, 2019

Breast cancer is the most common kind to strike American women. Average age of diagnosis: 61. But with silver hair comes a silver lining. While the odds may rise with age, the odds of dying from it are down-trending, according to Harvard Medical School research.

Take my Grandma, for example.

Dolores Zuber—Dee to her friends, Ma to her five children, Nanny to her eleven grandkids and four great-grandkids—is as feisty and tough as they come. (Did your grandma go for her pilot’s license? Didn’t think so.) Stupid breast cancer did not know who it was going up against when it tried to mess with her…not the first time it came knocking at age 75, and not the second time around, nearly a decade later.

She’s an OG, straight-talking inspiration to me—and now, hopefully, to you, too.

Breast Cancer Awareness Health & Wellness Inner Beauty Relationships

Diagnosed at 30: Chelsey’s Breast Cancer Journey

Post author By Brooke Glassberg
Post date October 7, 2019
4 Comments on Diagnosed at 30: Chelsey’s Breast Cancer Journey

Breast cancer is nothing if not personal, and the net it casts is wide. There are more than 3 million women with a history of breast cancer living in the US, according to BreastCancer.org in 2019. They’re our colleagues, our friends and, in this case, our family.

In honor of Breast Cancer Awareness Month, I got personal with my cousin Chelsey Goldman, a 30-year-old office administrator, wife and mom to daughter Abigail, 4, and son Rory, 3. One year and 6 days from her diagnosis, she has beaten the disease. Still, there is a ways to go to get back to life B.C. (before cancer). She opened up to Bare Necessities about what it’s like to wonder if you’re going to live to see the day your kids start school.

Power Figures Relationships

Dr. Catherine Pearlman is the Kind of Person Who Would Give a Stranger Her Own Kidney—In Fact, She Has

Post author By Brooke Glassberg
Post date September 30, 2019

No less a national treasure than Mr. Fred Rogers once said, “Look for the helpers.”

Well, we can all stop looking, because we found her: Dr. Catherine Pearlman is a social worker and writer for the likes of The Wall Street Journal, Parenting and CNN.com. Her calling is to help families function more smoothly, help right some of the world’s wrongs through her writing and, oh yeah, help complete strangers by donating one of her kidneys.

This most giving of Power Figures gave Bare Necessities heaps of useful life advice. Reading it will make you feel like a better person; following her lead will make you one.

Inner Beauty Relationships

How Melanie Got Her Groove Back After Her Divorce

Post author By Melanie Rud
Post date July 8, 2019

Hi, I’m Melanie, I’m 32, and I just got divorced.

Okay, so that’s not really how I like to introduce myself these days, but sometimes it feels like I should. I’ll spare you the sob story but, after being married for five years, I’m newly divorced and the big ‘D’ feels very much like a major part of my identity at the moment.

My ex and I were together for nine years; needless to say, along with all of the emotional turmoil that comes along with consciously uncoupling (and trust me, there’s a lot), I’m now also single for the first in almost a decade. It’s a bizarre, unnerving, confusing, at times exciting, feeling that I’m adjusting to one day at a time.

Personal Style Pop Culture Relationships

Valentine’s Day Lingerie, Your Way

Post author By Brooke Glassberg
Post date January 14, 2019

We’re a month out from Valentine’s Day, what with all its red rose and chocolate connotations. But as with most things in life, we firmly believe there’s more than one way to play it.

Find your February 14th signature style before it’s too late with a little help from the Bare Necessities buyers, who’ve stocked everything you might want to feel your most wanted, from cuddly-cute pajamas to heart-adorned lingerie designed explicitly (and we do mean explicitly) for the holiday.

Tags valentines day lingerie

Personal Style Pop Culture Relationships

Real-Deal Stocking Stuffers

Post author By Brooke Glassberg
Post date December 3, 2018

We’re all in on the holiday traditions right now, including (but not limited to) Christmas stockings and the goodies that gets stuffed into them. Those kinds of tiny, thoughtful tokens go a long way, because not everything has to be a lavish grand gesture, right? Sometimes, the little things mean the most.

It’s extra nice to extend that sentiment to the people who help keep your life on track: a coworker, the kids’ teachers, the babysitter, the dog walker, the front-desk staff that always gets you in for an appointment. So spare them another gift card, and give presents that will get some use.

This week, hot on the heels of National Sock Day, Bare Necessities hosiery buyer Kelly Morales is here to point out her favorite holiday “stockings.”

Inner Beauty Pop Culture Power Figures Relationships

Author Virginia Sole-Smith Debunks Some of the Most Harmful Food Myths

Post author By Brooke Glassberg
Post date November 19, 2018

Virginia Sole-Smith wrote the just-released book The Eating Instinct: Food Culture, Body Image and Guilt in America and co-hosts the new podcast Comfort Food, about the joys and meltdowns of feeding a family. Trained as a magazine journalist, Virginia embedded with nutritionists, dietitians, critics, mothers, food obsessives and others to get at why our meals are so often served with a side order of guilt and self-loathing.

Her deep dive wasn’t inspired by idle curiosity. Virginia’s daughter Violet was born with a rare, dire congenital heart condition. She spent the first weeks of life spiraling into heart failure, too weak to nurse. Once the problem was discovered, Violet was subjected to countless emergency procedures, including open-heart surgery at five weeks old. Stemming from her trauma, Violet stopped eating and became dependent on a feeding tube. It took two years for her to learn to eat by mouth again.

Bare Necessities talked with Virginia about body image, hunger, the so-called “clean eating” trend, the specious connection between health, weight and nutrition, and modern diet culture. (Virginia is adamantly anti-diet.) Surprisingly, the takeaways couldn’t be more uplifting.

Tags Virginia Sole Smith

Personal Style Pop Culture Relationships

2018 Holiday Gift Guide: Who are You Shopping for?

Post author By Brooke Glassberg
Post date November 12, 2018

The holiday season goes hand-in-hand with cozy sleepwear and lingerie that invites snuggling to chase away chills. We just so happen to know a thing or two about those worlds here at Bare Necessities.

To make it easier to cross off a few items on your endless gift list, this year we’ve organized your life by recipient. From matching pajama sets for every family member to edgy teddies for you to wear behind closed doors, there’s something here to jingle everyone’s bells.

So tell us, who are you shopping for?

Tags holiday gift guide, holiday gift guide 2018