This is the only wireless bra you will ever love. COLD HARD FACT.

Okay, that's a bit inflammatory, generalizing and misleading. Let me restate that:

This is the only bra you will ever want to wear. HARDEST OF COLD HARD FACTS.

I wish this wasn't true. It's not like this bra is even that comfortable, when it comes down to it. The band is big and stretchy (the stretch hasn't increased by much with wash and wear, though, which is a point in its favor), and so it moves when I lift my arms up, and is not really supportive. The straps are annoyingly wide, but once I've got them set up, I can forget them for as long as I wear the bra, unless I'm wearing a top or dress that has a wide neck and a tendency to reveal them.

After a couple hours of wear, the initially comfortable fabric at the bottom of the band starts to feel like a thin line cutting in under my breasts. If I wear this bra for a long time (3+ hrs), I am almost guaranteed to feel sore and chafed along my underbust, and if I repeat this a couple days in a row (or even just wear it all day, where that means like 8+ hours or so), I'm probably going to have mild scars, which do fade if I go braless for a couple days, but still. Scarring.

My breasts aren't really separated. It can be a pain getting my nipples lined up with the bra seams so they don't show as much, and even then, the way the seams are sewn means that they show through even thick-ish t-shirts. The shape the bra gives is the blue one from Brasihate's diagram here: http://brasihate.blogspot.com/2012/01/what-exactly-is-good-shape.html

So yeah, this would be one of those bras that you'd throw away on a makeover show. Except for the fact that it is STILL literally the most comfortable one I own, even with all the shortcomings it possesses. It's comfortable when I put it on-- it doesn't dig in, doesn't irritate (much), and doesn't feel constricting-- and it actually stays that way for a couple hours.

Compare that to the Freya Ada, aka the only underwired bra that I found comfy enough to buy a couple pairs of despite the useless color options. An hour in that has me adjusting straps, adjusting the band, lifting up the bottoms of the cups to give myself a bit of relief, you name it, and my breasts feel oddly tender after I take it off, and they jiggle a lot when I have it on, and it still ends up hurting as much as the Anita Claras, only sooner, and in more places.

Every now and then, I return here to Bratabase as part of my monthly bra pilgrimmage. I eyeball the new bras at Nordstrom and Figleaves. I check some bra blogs for recent reviews. I maybe even end up buying a new bra or three, and subsequently returning all the ones I can return. And maybe I decide to try my Freya Ada again, or wrestle on my Panache Sport. And in the end, when push comes to shove, I find myself wearing the Clara. Again.

I now have four pairs.


FYI: I have firm, full-on-bottom, close-set breasts with medium-to-wide roots. I can totally imagine how this bra wouldn't work for someone who's really wide-set, or has full-on-top boobs, since the bra has non-stretchy mesh panelling at the top of the cups.

Updated on Sep 08, 2013 Flag this

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