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Behind the Seams Personal Style Relationships Swimwear

Postcards From Paradise:
Travel Tips for Puerto Rico

We’re taking this show on the road! Bare Necessities staffers are on summer hours, living their best lives out in the world and sending back virtual postcards from paradise with all the travel lowdown on their warm-weather destinations.

The first one to pack a suitcase and turn on her out-of-office message was Tera Gallagher, our premium brands assistant buyer, who just got back from a week in Puerto Rico with her fiancé, Matt, and another couple. We grilled Tera for insider intel, should a trip to this affordable, incredibly beautiful Caribbean island be in your future.

Check back all season for more wanderlust-inspiring reports from near and far.

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Travel Tips for Puerto Rico”
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Behind the Seams Confessions Personal Style

Top 10 Model Confessions with Precious Lee

Historically, being a size 14 African-American woman hasn’t always been a recipe for supermodel superstardom. Fortunately, no one told the inimitable, stunning Precious Lee that.

Precious became the first black plus-size model to star in the storied Sports Illustrated Swimsuit Issue in 2016. You may also recognize her from a long list of envelope-pushing Lane Bryant campaigns (#ImNoAngel, #PlusIsEqual and #ThisBody), or from the pages of American Vogue, yet another groundbreaking first. All this came after her former agent tried to convince her to change her name to make herself more marketable. It’s clear that living authentically and without compromise eventually pays dividends.

Shaneek Anderson, our own marketing project planner, got the chance to sit down with the Atlanta native on the set of our latest Elomi shoot, which couldn’t have been more apropos: The concept is about deciding who you want to be every morning when you head out the door. Precious caught us up on her life not only as a model but as a diversity advocate, aspiring actress and would-be lawyer. You know, in all her spare time.

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Meet the Merchants Personal Style Swimwear

Your Biggest Supporters:
The Best Bikinis for Large Busts

If you trend toward the bigger-busted and have ever stood in front of a rack of swimsuits wondering which bikini top could possibly contain you, the solution is surprisingly simple: Look for a bikini top with a true-to-bra size.

“So many women steer away from bikinis because they only see themselves in sizes small, medium, large or extra-large, and they don’t know which will fit or support them best,” says Bare Necessities swimwear buyer Megan Puma. “That’s all the more reason to seek out bikinis with real bra-like construction, underwire and adjustable straps to give you the lift you need to feel secure.”

Summer’s coming, so join in as Megan rounds up the best of this season’s bikinis for big busts:

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The Best Bikinis for Large Busts”
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Personal Style Swimwear

Flattering Swimsuits That Look Great on EVERY Body—We Swear!

Finding the perfect, most universally flattering swimsuits often feels like questing for a unicorn—they may not even exist. But this year’s going to be different! We chatted with resident expert and swimwear buyer Megan Puma about styles every woman can wear, no matter her shape.

Megan’s experience has taught her which suits work best for most bodies, and she’s here to share her insider intelligence. Year after year, she sees which suits are certified winners; that’s why Megan always keeps them in stock. Get excited: She rounded up more than one sure bet in every silhouette. Happy days really are here again.

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Health & Wellness Inner Beauty Relationships

Guide to Bravado’s New Arrivals: Our Best Nursing Bras for Moms

Back in 1992, when two friends couldn’t find comfy nursing bras that were also fun or fashionable, they sat down at the kitchen table and made one—out of leopard print fabric, no less. That’s how Bravado Designs was, well, born.

Fit and comfort are paramount to this brand by moms, for moms. “We get it: Breastfeeding has its ups and downs. We want to help women feel comfortable and confident with maternity and nursing bras that make sense for this crazy, exciting stage in life,” says Tara Hoth, head of design. “We firmly believe bras shouldn’t be bland. We offer fun colors in addition to classic beige and black, and a little bow, polka dot or print isn’t out of the question.”

Like Bare Necessities, Bravado Designs is “pretty much obsessed with fit,” says Tara. She and her designers are black-belts when it comes to feel-good fabrications and sanity-savers like easy-release clasps and cups that fully drop down for those zonked-out 4 AM feedings. (Look for band sizes 32-46 and cups B-M.)

What’s extra cool: an innovative Test Wearer program in which real moms road-test the bras and nursing tanks, from new prototypes to existing designs. Their input helps Tara’s team fine-tune the details that make all the difference. And since necessity is—pun intended—the mother of invention, here’s what’s new and exciting for moms right now from Bravado Designs:

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Personal Style Swimwear

Get in the Swim with Summer’s Best Plus-Size Swimsuits

Close your eyes and dream a little daydream about a day on the beach. Hear the waves, touch the sand, feel the sun. Are you there yet?

Now imagine actually loving the swimsuit you’re in.

“No matter what you’re going for, whether it’s a suit that’s classic or something trendier, I promise we have something for everyone,” says Bare Necessities swimwear buyer Megan Puma. “And this season, we’re extra excited about our assortment of plus-size swimsuits.”

Consider Megan your personal shopper as she shares the best of this season’s plus-size swimwear:

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Personal Style Power Figures

Emily Lau, Founder of The Little Bra Company, is Standing up for Small Chests

Earlier in life, our petite power figure Emily Lau was a television writer/producer in California, forever on the prowl for bras that served her 32B chest. She could only find “glorified training bras” or those with “push-up padding that felt like pillows on straps,” she said. “Nothing really fit my smaller body type properly. I wanted a bra that gave me shape as well as looked good, especially when I wore wrap dresses and deep V-neck T-shirts. I still wanted to look like my natural self, just with a little more cleavage.”

Ninety-nine percent of us would have given up and settled for either uncomfortable or unattractive bras, but not Emily. Somewhere inside her, a wire tripped; she believed she could do better by women like herself. So in May 2007, The Little Bra Company—where “good things do come in small packages”—was born.

“I loved my career, but I had a real passion for lingerie that I’m happy I pursued.” As are we.

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Personal Style Pop Culture

Spring 2017 Fashion Trends: Innerwear Meets Outerwear

Spring is finally here, and we couldn’t be more delighted by that fact. The days are looking lighter and brighter, making it feel like the perfect time for a closet refresh. This season in particular, even our lingerie drawer is getting directly inspired by the spring fashion trends coming down the runways of New York, Milan and Paris.

Like never before, outerwear fashion trends are influencing innerwear fashion trends—and sometimes innerwear IS the trend. (Bralettes as tops, anyone?) Even if you’re just heading to spin class, you don’t have to be a supermodel to dress like one. From big, bold stripes to flirty florals, we’ve rounded up our favorite trendy spring looks for you to rock as the temperatures rise.

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Behind the Seams Bra Fit Experts Having a B.R.A. Fit

Tera’s Major Bra Fit Makeover: From 34DD to 30GG

Meet Tera Gallagher. She’s our premium brands assistant buyer here at Bare Necessities, and not even she was immune to the scourge of wearing the wrong bra size.

Reader, we hired her anyway.

And on Tera’s second day on the job, we saw to it that she was Having a B.R.A. (Before – Revelation – After) Fit.

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Personal Style Swimwear

Love This Bra Brand? Try This Swimsuit!

Let’s just say you’ve come to love one (or two or three) particular bra brands for their comfort, fit and style. Guess what? Many of those same brands are in the bathing suit biz, which means you’ll feel as happy on the beach or by the pool as you do at work, on a date or at school drop-off.

“By shopping these collections, your bathing suit finally gets to fit as well as your favorite bra does,” says Bare Necessities swimwear buyer Megan Puma. “The suits feature underwires, adjustable straps, clasp backs and an overall more tailored fit so you can jump into the water or run after your kids without worry.”

What makes these swimsuits from bra brands so special is that they’re constructed exactly like a bra, which gives even a teeny swimsuit so much more support than the standard offerings. The suits are designed with the same level of detail and quality of construction as their bra counterparts. “Shopping is more precise since you’re able to buy them by your exact bra size as opposed to the more generic small-medium-large,” adds Megan.

Here, Megan divides our 10 bra-sized swimwear brands into three categories so you can key right into the style you’re seeking. She picked a favorite look from each brand, too. Ready to dive in?

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Personal Style Pop Culture Power Figures The Mind Behind the Design

Dita Von Teese on Redefining Glamour

Among lingerie devotees specifically and appreciators of beauty and style in general, Dita Von Teese needs no introduction. She is an iconoclast and an icon, a modern muse and of another era entirely, a larger-than-life dynamo in a soft-spoken, petite package.

Born Heather Sweet, the self-described “mediocre-looking blonde girl from a farming town in Michigan” fell under the spell of Hollywood’s Golden Age of Cinema and, at a time when the rest of America’s youth was grunging out in flannel and combat boots, set out to remake herself in its raven-haired, red-lipped image. When she discovered that many of the glamorous screen sirens she admired were also dancers, she adopted her stage name and learned the art of the striptease. Since 1992, Dita has been synonymous with burlesque and can be single-handedly credited with its revival. Everything she touches, from her Swarovski crystal-bedecked sets and couture costumes to her lingerie collection and new hosiery line—reflects her impeccable eye for detail.

This past month, hours before the final sold-out New York performance of her latest show, “The Art of the Teese,” Dita visited Bare Necessities to tell us firsthand about her collection—both iconic styles (like Madame X) and new additions (like her Instagram fan-selected shade of emerald green)—and how she turned herself into a Power Figure. Read on for our exclusive interview.

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Behind the Seams Personal Style

6 Exciting 2017 Lingerie Trends We Saw at CURVEXPO

For three days in February and March, more than 450 of the world’s leading lingerie brands converge at CURVE New York, a trade show that takes over the gigantic Javits Center in New York City. Buyers and members of the press, Bare Necessities always among them, walk row after row to check out the latest from longtime favorites and discover new rising stars in the lingerie industry.

curveExpo

Here are the 2017 lingerie trends we spotted at CURVEXPO New York that got us super excited this season:

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