Everyone has happily been living la vida loungewear all through 2020, and you don’t have to be a trend forecaster or fashion editor to see that comfort dressing isn’t going anywhere. We’re happy to see the bra world has leaned into comfort more than ever before.
This new class of bras is a step up from letting the girls run free, and anyone can wear them. Because they’re completely seamless and smooth, lounge bras eliminate pinching, marks and digging, with no underwires in sight. By providing both support and the maximum amount of comfort that’s legally allowed, lounge bras are where the Venn diagram of good-looking and good-feeling lingerie meet.
We’re also loving lounge bras because they come in our favorite fabrics, from lace for a sweet look that says I tried to stretch microfiber for something that looks minimalist yet feels better than your average over-the-head, super-Spandex sports bra. Lounge bras come in virtually every size (and those sizes are simple to figure out) and at every price so you can find the one that fits you on every level.
Keep your padded, underwire bras lined up in your Home Edit-ed dresser a little while longer. Check out our best selection of lounge bras that will keep you supported in style and stretchy comfort for the year to come.
You would be forgiven if lately your mind has been prone to wandering to images of postcard-perfect beaches or balmy spring break destinations. Who couldn’t use a vacation this year, be it IRL or a mere mental escape?
Whether you’re in need of a great swimsuit or just something to look forward to, picture yourself in your happy place wearing any of these six hot new collections. Filled with bra-sized support, invisible shaping powers and wild plus-size stunners, we’re getting in a swim state of mind with a little help from our go-to labels. Wanna come with?
On the eve of Thanksgiving and her 40th birthday, Gabrielle Porcaro gets grateful. In this month’s “Life with the Girls,” she recounts the ways she’s gotten okay with getting older…even during the most tumultuous year she’s ever lived through.
Gab in Central Park two weeks ago
The year leading up to a milestone birthday is supposed to be contemplative. Add in a global pandemic and contentious election, and the minutes spent being introspective are innumerable.
At the risk of stating the obvious, I’m not exactly spending my 39th year how I planned.
I have decided that the concept of 40 is scarier than the actual age. While I’m not sure how you’re supposed to feel, minus some muscle aches I don’t feel all that much different than I did at 25. People make surprised faces when I tell them how old I am, proving I don’t look the part, either.
What I do know is that I have never been more in-tune with or secure in myself than I am now, which began way before the hours of self-confinement and puzzling (existentially and literally).
I’m thankful for being where I am and wouldn’t trade a thing to turn back time. Here’s why:
What’s trend-proof, seasonless, and always in style? It isn’t a trick question; it’s lingerie.
While Bare Necessities starts with bras that make you feel your most confident, we also go beyond bras to the best sexy lingerie you’ll find in one place, from mild to wild.
Our expert sexy buyer Krista Molinaro brings together the little lacy pieces that look great, feel comfortable and boost your confidence. What could be better with Valentine’s Day right around the corner or, let’s be honest, any night you want to make more interesting?
Krista rounded up her top picks of our most popular lingerie to make browsing a breeze, so you can get to the fun faster.
“Just the right touch of peek-a-boo is what makes great lingerie. To me, sexy always still leaves a little something to the imagination,” says Krista, who recommends looking for what you would feel the most comfortable wearing. “You can feel sexy and still have coverage in a teddy or chemise or, if you’re looking to start a fire, you can bare more skin in an open cup or a crotchless panty.”
Read on for her can’t-go-wrong racy recommendations of the best lingerie.
While the holidays have always been about cozying up at home with the people who give you the warm fuzzies, 2020 has taken that hardwired desire to hunker down and hibernate to the next level.
That’s why this season, Bare Necessities has prioritized your across-the-board call for comfort. From head-to-toe toasty pajamas to happy-go-comfy loungewear sets, an athletic aesthetic that goes beyond the gym to plush robes and slippers that pass for room service these days, we’ve rounded up everything you really want to be wearing.
The best part: You don’t have to forsake fashion to find the comfort you crave.
No topic is off limits for Nina Lorez Collins. At 51, the founder of The Woolfer—a digital platform for women over 40—and a mother of four fledgling adults, she is as self-actualized as she is self-deprecating.
A big career as a literary agent, then as a writer for Elle and Vogue, led to Nina’s creation of The Woolfer, her highly engaged tribe of sassy, brassy women who congregate on the site or app to serve as each other’s sounding boards, friends and life coaches. Their posts, seminars and meet-ups are lively, candid, awkward and occasionally vulgar—authentic, like she is. What followed was her book, What Would Virginia Woolf Do? And Other Questions I Ask Myself as I Attempt to Age Without Apology, as well as the “Raging Gracefully” podcast.
Nina lives in Brooklyn and East Hampton, sometimes with her new boyfriend and all the time with her new poodle, Strudel. She spent a recent afternoon telling Bare Necessities about traversing that long, winding road of life while fearlessly living on-brand.
This year has shifted more than a little about the way we live, maybe for keeps. One of the changes we’re happiest about: cozy-casual daytime clothing is where it’s at from now on. (Pants? Those sounds vaguely familiar…)
As we head into the holiday season, we’re thinking about things that bring others (okay, and maybe also ourselves) that extra hit of comfort when we could really use it most. That is to say, these would all make for welcome gifts. And if there was ever was a year to get all that holiday shopping handled early and online, safe to say this would be it.
All dressed down with nowhere to go? Good, then you’re doing it right. See what we’re working with this fall-winter…
As with all things, if you want it done right, you have to do it yourself.
Every 15 seconds, a woman is diagnosed with breast cancer somewhere in the world, and until there’s a cure, the best option we’ve got to save lives from breast cancer is early detection, so it’s nonnegotiable to take charge of your health and be your own best advocate.
“Despite all the attention breasts get, there really is very little that gets shared about taking care of them,” said Corrine Ellsworth-Beaumont, MFA PhD and the CEO of Know Your Lemons Foundation, whose mission is to help women find breast cancer as early as possible.
When every day counts, knowing everything there is to know—or at least where to find it—saves lives. Rather than scouring the Internet to gather together all of this information, Know Your Lemons’ new app centralizes it at your fingertips.
Read on for some of the crucial advice Know Your Lemons has put together…
After enduring merciless teasing about the size of her chest from classmates while she was growing up, Karla Walsh went to war against her own body. In this month’s ” Life with the Girls,” find out how she eventually brokered a ceasefire.
Karla Walsh in a much better place with her body
Back in 1999, certain things in my seventh grade-life were welcome in super-sized packages: Boy Meets World episodes. Jelly Roll pens. Packs of Gushers.
But not my breasts.
As a self-conscious, early-to-puberty tween, I would have done anything to hit “pause” on the growth of my genetically well-endowed breasts—especially once a particular phys ed class filled with jumping jacks earned me the nickname “Big Tit Karla” (or BTK if you needed to save time). In fact, I tried to do many things to minimize myself, from doubling up on sports bras to wearing baggy clothes to slouching my shoulders to back-pain-inducing levels.
I felt so awkward about my chest that I wouldn’t even mention it to my own mother. Instead, on my way to declaring all-out war on my breasts, I decided to enlist in boot camp. As a Type-A perfectionist problem solver, I knew I could “fix” things and prove those classmates wrong, that I amounted to more than the sum of my parts.
The mission: Lose weight to lose breast size…and hopefully, along the way, gain acceptance from myself and my peers.
Turns out I can be damn good at things I set my mind to.
It started with one-mile jogs around the neighborhood, then I added 30-minute elliptical sessions and 30-minute rounds of weightlifting. Soon, those Gushers, my chicken nugget habit and other high-calorie, high-fat foods were given their marching orders. More exercise. Less food. Repeat. And one day, 180-pound me had somehow done a magical disappearing act. I looked down at the scale read-out: 94 pounds.
At that very moment, I felt scared. In control yet out of control. And as heartbreaking as it seems admitting it today, I can’t lie: I did feel a twinge of pride. Those DDs were now AAs, and my classmates sure couldn’t taunt me about that anymore.
But there was a lot of collateral damage I was far from proud of. My parents were at their wits’ end with me—we’d attempted to negotiate through peace talks with dietitians, psychiatrists, physicians and more to inspire me to declare a ceasefire and take a break from this Anorexic War.
Along with my body size, my energy level and any positivity I once possessed just tanked. Unlike silly fruit snack-munching Karla 1.0, Karla 2.0 was a shivering, skeletal and selfish human whose main goal was to make it through the day eating a little less than the day before (but do so while maintaining a 4.0 GPA and keeping up appearances, naturally). Everyone was afraid to talk to me, from my sisters to my friends, and honestly, I was afraid of what was going to happen next.
[perfectpullquote align=”right” bordertop=”false” cite=”” link=”” color=”” class=”” size=””]”I was able to rewrite the script and think of my body as an ally”[/perfectpullquote]
So I called in reinforcements. After a heart-to-heart with my Dad, who promised he and my Mom would send me to an inpatient treatment facility if I lost another pound, I inched my way toward accepting my psychiatrist as my battle partner. Very, very slowly, the number on the scale started to climb back up, but more importantly, the territory of my brain was no longer invaded by calorie tallies. I was able to rewrite the script and think of my body as an ally, food as a source of joy, exercise as a gift rather than a punishment.
After a more than decade-long recovery mission, complete with a few backslides and far more stretch marks, my brain and my body have declared a truce. Some days are more peaceful than others. Unlike nearly 20 years ago, though, I admire my chest as one of the many parts of the strong, whole me. Karla 3.0 has retired her battle uniform and exchanged it for flattering tops, fitted blazers and curve-hugging jeans. Super-sized or average, bouncy or perky, my girls are part of the greater me.
I like her strength, and I love living in a post-war world.
The Sexiest Halloween Costumes and Costume Ideas for 2020
Halloween is creeping up on us, and we at Bare Necessities are here for it with our annual cheeky collection of lingerie costumes designed explicitly (and we do mean that literally) for the bedroom.
We’re all in favor of playing dress-up, whether you’re going out for your thrills or staying in and ignoring the doorbell. Because if now isn’t the time to try a little good ol’ fashioned role play, then when? Trust us, dahling, you’ll look boo-tiful.
Trick or treat, spicy or sweet—it’s your call, ghoulfriend. Whatever you do, whoever you decide to be, have yourself a fun Mischief Night and a hot Halloween.
In the first chapter of her career, Paula Flory worked as a counselor for nonprofits serving underprivileged youth. Then, in 2011, in her early 40s and in the best shape of her life, she felt a lump in her armpit.
After focusing on beating Stage III breast cancer, Paula found her next chapter: serving women in the same circumstances she had so recently been in herself. That’s why she started Move Over Breast Cancer, a tricked-out van near our New Jersey headquarters that will bring you all the nice-to-have services you could want when undergoing treatment…for free.
“As everyone who has ever been diagnosed with cancer can tell you,” said Paula, “it’s as if you’ve been hit by a high-speed train when you hear the news. It created chaos in me and in my life. Even with the tremendous support of family, friends and my and community, I felt as though I was crawling through sludge making these huge decisions about treatment and surgeries.”
Each day was more difficult than the next, said Paula, but there was also a moment early on in the diagnosis process that “there seemed to be a tiny tunnel through which I could see a light of hope. I strongly felt when looking through this pinhole that I would find an opportunity within this problem.”
This Breast Cancer Awareness Month, hear Paula’s fresh perspective on breast cancer and find out why our Power Figure calls it “a gift.”
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.
