Bare it All

Must-Have Panties: The Ultimate Undies Shopping List

Post author By Brooke Glassberg
Post date May 11, 2020

Just because we live, love and obsess over bras here at Bare Necessities doesn’t make panties an afterthought. We know firsthand that every cut, fabric and style of underwear has legions of impassioned devotees. Whether you’re on Team High-Rise or Low-Rise, swear by G-strings or granny panties, go for cheap and cheerful or prefer to splurge, or care deeply about matching or clashing with your bras, the sheer size of our selection makes finding your everyday-effortless undies a snap.

To make it easier still, Bare it All asked our buyers to put together this guide to our best sellers as well as their personal favorite styles. They made sure comfort came first, followed closely by good looks. If you find you could still use some assistance, our Bra Fit Experts are on hand to help. (Yes, they’re fluent in panties, too.) Chat online, or call 877-728-9272 and select option 4.

The bottom line: With these choice recommendations, you’re sure to find a real peach.

Personal Style

The Comfiest Bras and Bralettes for All Sizes

Post author By Brooke Glassberg
Post date May 4, 2020

Wire-free bralettes have long been the thing for spring. Of course, now more than ever, comfort bras are the trend to end all trends.

Stylistically, the options are wide open, from flashy, lacy longlines to substantial-looking bras you’d never guess felt way less structured. You can choose from among your favorite bra brands, and you can pick your price. What matters above all is finding the right amount of support that you need which, for once, finally comes down to personal preference.

All of these “lite” bras will give you enough shaping and support to put away your underwires whenever you want. They also come into play during those times when we need something easy for lounging around, or even going to sleep, but don’t feel like we can completely go without. Presenting our Bare Necessities buyers’ short list of the best comfort bras and bralettes…

Personal Style

Top 5 Most Beautifully Basic Bras

Post author By Brooke Glassberg
Post date April 27, 2020

When we’re talking bras, basic doesn’t have to mean boring. There’s absolutely nothing humdrum about the everyday collections from fashion forward brands like Prima Donna, Simone Perele and Empreinte; they do key pieces far more stylishly than the nude T-shirt bras we’ve come to know so well.

“When you think about European design, you automatically think fancy, the best of the best,” says Bare Necessities premium buyer Heather Viskovic. “They do even ‘basic’ things really beautifully. In the US, Bare Necessities is where you’re going to find these brands and these sizes. We’re able to bring you something you’re not going to get at your nearest department store that will make you feel special.”

Read on to find out her top 5 most beautifully basic bras.

Inner Beauty Pop Culture

Earth Day Intimates

Post author By Brooke Glassberg
Post date April 20, 2020

It’s getting easier and more affordable to factor the environment into our buying decisions, from the foods we eat to the clothes we wear.

With no shortage of creative minds leading the charge, the fashion industry is in a unique position to find bold new ways of doing the same old things. And while there’s certainly plenty of room to improve, every effort helps forge a “cleaner, safer, more just and sustainable world that protects and supports all of us.”

In honor of the 50th anniversary of Earth Day this April 22, Bare Necessities is taking a closer look at the brands and collections we carry that prioritize the planet. These are some of the lines you can already support in good conscience—and good style.

Personal Style Pop Culture

Send Mom Some Love

Post author By Brooke Glassberg
Post date April 13, 2020

With Mother’s Day coming up (May 10th, mark your calendar), get a jump on the best sleep and loungewear for anyone in your life who has earned the “mom” moniker: your own mother, your mother-in-law, the women who raised you, the daughter who promoted you to grandma, your wife or significant other, your sister…the more you think about it, the longer the list grows.

Pulled together by the Bare Necessities sleepwear buyers, these 10 comfy-chic pajama suggestions would not only be appreciated by Mama, we daresay they’d be appreciated by you, too.

So send some love to the women who give their all, all the time, because that’s a gift that never stops giving.

Life with the Girls

The Reduction

Constance Costas was hoping for more noticeable results when she went under the knife. The failure to get what she wanted, she realized, lay as much with herself as it did with her surgeon. In this month’s “Life with the Girls,” find out why she felt fooled, and what it took to finally find her voice.

My conversations these days are peppered with photos. Ask about my friend’s wedding and I’ll whip out my phone, scroll to her fabulous dress and play you a video of the first dance. Photos get the message across in ways words can’t always manage.

So it seemed odd when I met with an excellent plastic surgeon to talk about a breast reduction and noticed there wasn’t a photo in sight. After two more consultations, my unease upgraded to concern as I sat across his office manager’s desk. She reviewed my pre-op paperwork before asking brightly, “Any questions?”

“How will he know?” I ventured, trying to assign the right words to the hazy question mark that lingered in my mind.

“Know what?” she asked.

“My size? Why haven’t I seen any pictures?”

I’d always been a modest B-cup, which crept up to a C after having two children. Menopause brought hormonal upheavals and ten extra pounds. By the time a Bra Fit Expert got me into a 36E, my girls had become impossible to conceal. While some women delight in this midlife bonanza, I felt betrayed.

Personal Style

Chantelle Gets Comfortable

Post author By Brooke Glassberg
Post date March 30, 2020

Bra fans know Chantelle has a longstanding reputation for making beautifully constructed lingerie. (By ‘longstanding,’ we’re talking 1876.) But it’s fair to say a lot has changed over the past 144 years, wouldn’t you agree? In fashion, that’s translated into a much greater emphasis on comfort—hard pass on the whalebone corsets and what have you.

So while stoking that storied tradition of classic French design, Chantelle has evolved. Loosened up. Let her hair down. The brand’s latest offerings include two wire-free bras and two underwire bras that blend support with the highest possible degree of comfort, which feels more important than ever.

“All women want an easy fit from their bras these days,” says Bare Necessities buyer Heather Viskovic. “Chantelle is now delivering that, in a characteristically Chantelle kind of way.” See what she means…

Personal Style Swimwear

Introducing Birdsong Swimwear

Post author By Brooke Glassberg
Post date March 23, 2020
2 Comments on Introducing Birdsong Swimwear

If you’re liking what you’ve been seeing from Birdsong bras, then get excited for Birdsong swimwear! Our exclusive new line of bra-sized swim separates is designed to give you the support you’ve always wanted, in the trends you’ve got your eye on, in a ridiculously inclusive size range.

“Before Birdsong, there was a gap in the market for fashionable, high quality, supportive, reasonably priced swimwear,” says buyer Megan Puma. “Birdsong makes this season’s top trends available to full-bust and plus customers. Now you have a whole array of mix-and-match options that pack a lot of power but don’t look frumpy or like you’re wearing your bra outside.”

“What’s great is that whether you’re looking for a tiny bikini or modest coverage, there are silhouettes that cater to everyone—there’s tighter and there’s looser, bold trends and subtle classics, poppy prints and solids that go with everything—but they’re all supportive. They’re for every woman, every age. What are you comfortable showing? What do you want to conceal? Now there’s a way to do it so that whatever you want to wear, you’ll feel comfy and confident in it.”

Megan hopes Birdsong swim reaches as many women as possible to make swimwear shopping feel like less of a drag. “I want to help women realize we shouldn’t have to change ourselves to look and feel the way we want to in a swimsuit,” Megan says.

Life with the Girls

Table for One

Post author By Karla Walsh
Post date March 18, 2020

Food writer Karla Walsh has never been interested in settling for the first menu option. So despite all her friends pairing off around her, right now she’s toasting to her own companionship. Find out what it took to get there in this month’s “Life with the Girls.”

As a ‘retired’ restaurant reviewer, I often find myself relating aspects of my life to the world of food.

Take relationships. The metaphor I give friends who have already reached #couplegoals status is that the best partnerships are akin to a bag of Starburst. You and your plus-one shouldn’t be identical (a duo of Kit-Kat or Twix), nor should you come from opposite ends of the candy aisle (say, a Sour Patch Kid with a Peppermint Patty). Ideally, you have the same essential make-up, but maybe your partner is a yellow, and you’re a red. You complement each other. (Just try a red and yellow Starburst in one mouthful and convince me that combo isn’t magical.)

At 32 and single in Iowa, where nearly everyone pairs off and settles down within a few years post-college, I appear to some as an ice cream cone melting in the scorching summer heat. In fact, Iowa ranks 5th out of 50 for states with the most marrieds.

“Your clock is ticking, Karla!” I hear on occasion.

“What are you, an ice queen or something?” I imagine others thinking when I show up solo once again at a couples’ outing.

But my relationship with myself has been such a priority over the last 15 years that a partnership with another person simply hasn’t been possible. At 16, I decided that my 180-pound body, DD breasts and size 12 clothes simply wouldn’t do. A year later, I had whittled myself down to 94 pounds, AA breasts and 00 (or smaller) apparel. I spent the next decade conquering an up-and-down battle with anorexia, making peace with myself, learning to love me for—not in spite of—my quirks, my sass, my well-endowed chest, my stretch marks.

Health & Wellness Personal Style

The Right Sports Bra Will Get You Out of Bed and Into the Gym

Post author By Virginia Sole-Smith
Post date March 16, 2020

I don’t know about you, but I have had a lot of workouts derailed by the wrong sports bra. Actually, I’ve had a lot of workouts never even happen because of the wrong sports bra.

Let me back up a little and explain: I love yoga and hiking because they improve my mood, help me be in my body and feel strong and flexible. But I’m a busy journalist and working mom (find out more about me and The Eating Instinct); ninety-minute vinyasa classes and leisurely afternoon rambles through the woods are a thing of my past. So my best shot at getting any kind of physical activity into my day is to wake up at 5:30 AM and squeeze it in before my kids are up at 7:30. I’ve been doing this pretty consistently for the better part of a year now, and I truly do crave and adore that time to myself when the house is quiet and nobody expects me to find their socks.

“Many of the sports bras that fit and support me also require knowledge of lock-picking skills to put on”

But I am also human, so I do not adore getting out of bed at 5:30 AM. I do not adore scrounging around in the dark for workout clothes. And I really do not adore struggling into a sports bra in my cold bathroom before I’ve even had my coffee. I wear a 38DDD, and many of the sports bras that fit and support me also require knowledge of advanced yoga postures and lock-picking skills to put on. So even if I make it out of bed, there have been a lot of days when I left the bra on the floor and used my two hours of work/child-free time to read a novel instead. Which was probably a pretty decent choice from a self-care perspective. But! I’m here to tell you about the sports bras that solved it all.

Personal Style Pop Culture Swimwear

Spring Break Swimwear & Bikini Must Haves

Post author By Brooke Glassberg
Post date March 9, 2020

If you’ve been holding out hope for warm weather, take heart. Spring break is so close, we can almost taste it.

Whether you’re going on vacation and find yourself in a need-it-now situation or you’re starting to think about swimwear for later in the season, this is the ideal time to dip into swimwear that’s both highly flattering and highly functional: Don’t be your own worst enemy by waiting until the last minute to face down a historically daunting task because, inevitably, only half of that two-piece you like will still be available in your size.

Better to choose from the best of the best Bare Necessities has to offer in your size while the pickings are good. Like for instance…

Personal Style

The Best Minimizers Bras

If you’re busty, you’ve been there before: An office-appropriate button-down can suddenly take an R-rated turn, gaping and puckering and leaving you overexposed. In any room you enter, your breasts introduce themselves before you do. You’re going in for a hug, and your chest awkwardly makes the first contact. These are some of the times in life you might wish you were wearing a minimizer bra.

Bare Necessities is here to answer all your questions about minimizers, and buyer Heather Viskovic names her personal favorites…