Finding the Bra Style that Fits... You

•Adhesive Bras
•Bralet or Bralette
•Front Closure Bras
•Long-line Bras
•Minimizer Bras
•Push-up Bras
•Padded Bras
•Racerback Bras
•Shelf Bras
•Sports Bras
•Strapless Bras
•Underwire vs. Wire-Free Bras



Basically, adhesive bras are bra cups with surgical-quality re-usable adhesive on one side - the bra can be peeled off and worn several times. They don't give support - but they give shaping and better yet, hide your nipples under sheer clothing. Some even come with significant silicone to give additional depth to your breasts. When you find yourself wanting to wear an outfit and no bra seems to work, an adhesive bra can come to the rescue and save the day or evening. But, try not to have the man in your life see you wearing one. They just don't get it.


This name is given to an unlined wireless bra that usually pulls over your head. It is more of a leisure bra or a bra for a woman not wanting much support. This bra style is best for small busted women or for some support while sleeping.







Front closure bras are popular with many women because they're easy to put on and take off. However, if you've been shopping for one recently, you've discovered there are very few to be found and for good reason. Front closure bras can be limiting since by definition they have only one non-adjusting clasp at the center front. The bra must fit perfectly because it cannot be adjusted. The center front clasp is not as strong or as supportive as a bra with a center panel. Consequently, the bra cups can shift around thus reducing support. Finally, a front closure bra will not last as long because of its inability to adjust tighter.
Adding to all of this is the fact that front closure bras are the styles about which manufacturers get the most customer complaints. They have the highest return rate and greatest customer dissatisfaction. Rather than making a controversial high return front closure bra, most manufacturers have removed them from their offerings. If you love front closure, just understand that bra manufacturers do not and this is why they are hard to find.


Long-line bras are a fabulous style that seems to have been forgotten by most women. All women should have a long-line style bra in their lingerie wardrobe. Here's a list of reasons why:
• Smooth lines - a long-line virtually eliminates bumps from the neck down
• Better support - A long line distributes the support over a greater amount of your upper body, thus reducing stress to any one area like shoulders or back.
• Clothes fit better - A long-line can reduce you enough around your torso to possibly go down a blouse size.
• Focused support - The design of a long-line allows for focused support in specific areas such as your tummy, lower back and shoulder blades
• Feel better - A long-line makes you look better in your clothes, thus making you feel better about how you look.  Women who stand or sit all day wearing long-line bras report a significant reduction in their back pain and shoulder stress. Though this has not been studied, it's another benefit to consider.



The cups of a minimizer bra are designed to reduce the projection of the breasts. Large breasted women like a minimizer because they feel it makes them look smaller in the chest, and allows them to wear button front blouses without that pulling look.

A minimizer does not reduce the size of your breasts. Rather, it minimizes your breasts' projection. Instead of pointed breasts, the breast changes to a more firmly held mound. The cup shape is designed with a wider diameter and a shorter projection. Your malleable breast tissue is flattened and moved more under your arms, towards your center cleavage, up your chest and down towards your waist. Some minimizers push your breast tissue more in one of these directions than others.

In general, a minimizer bra will reduce your breast circumference as follows: B cup reduces 1/2", C cup reduces 3/4", D cup reduces 1", DD cup and larger reduces 1-1/4" or possibly more. This means the bust circumference measurement is reduced by these amounts. When buying a minimizer, you should buy one in your normal bra size. Don't purchase a size down thinking you will get a more minimizing effect. All you will get is an ill-fitting bra.


A push up bra is great to give the illusion of a larger breast size. The padding, if removable, is known as a "cookie". Push-up bras are padded bras with additional padding at the bottom portion of the cup to lift the breasts, creating the illusion of a larger breast. Most push-up bras come in C cups or smaller and have wide-set straps. However, HerRoom has some push-up bras that go up to DD cups.






Any bra with some kind of padding in the cups is called a padded bra. Padding added to a bra gives definition, can add size, and eliminates any nipple definition. A padded bra can have light, medium or heavy padding, but can also have built-up padded areas at the bottom and/or along the sides of a cup. These pads are referred to as bump pads. Padded bras with removable pads called "cookies" can be a great solution for a woman who has one breast larger than the other. The padding can be fiberfill or a molded foam.
Lined cups give additional support and added opaqueness to the cup. The padding can also make breasts look larger.



Racerback bras are also called T-back and sportback bras. A racer-back bra is any design for the back that allows maximum movement of the back and arms. It can have a high curve near the neckline with a T-strap down the center back; have bra straps attached close together on a back with a center back panel; or have cut-outs around the shoulder blades.

Because of the back design, a racer-back bra will most commonly be front closure. It therefore has all the front closure challenges mentioned above. The strap placement may also be too close to your neck, pushing down on your cervical nerve, which runs from your neck to your shoulders. Therefore, headaches, neck pain, numbness and shoulder pain are frequent complaints by women who have tried racer-back bras.



A shelf bra is a bra with an underwire and a very small cup which does not cover the nipple. Apart from being extremely titillating to men, smaller breasted women can wear shelf bras in place of a bra if they want a "natural" look, but without the sagging. If you want to go braless, but secretly wish you had some support, a shelf bra is the answer.







Sports bras are worn during exercise for support. The sports bra minimizes breast bouncing. Its design includes wider straps, and broad cup coverage. Breasts are supported by the non-elastic Cooper's ligaments. Frequent exercising breaks down the ligaments and causes permanent sagging in your breasts. Wearing a sports bra will help prevent damage to the breast tissue.

Manufacturers often categorize their sports bra line by the level of impact and exercise intensity. If you participate in various sports or exercise activities, you may need several different sports bras. Sports bras are designed using one of two engineering concepts:

The compression bra, which works like the old Ace bandage by compressing the breasts against the chest (giving a woman what some call a "uni-boob"). This design works well for A- and B-cup women, and its tank or t-shape design allows many women to work out sans T-shirt without embarrassment.

The other concept is to encapsulate each breast. This style sports bra tends to look more like a traditional bra with full cup coverage. Wide straps, clasps and in some cases, underwires keep the breasts in place. Because of their heavy-duty and utilitarian construction these bras typically are worn under workout clothes rather than alone.

As most small- or medium-breasted women will tell you, finding a comfortable compression sports bra is not that difficult. There are countless styles and fabrics to choose from. Not so for the encapsulation model, which tends to have fewer styles and cost more than compression sports bras.



Of all bra styles, the strapless bra is the most technically challenging to design. Without straps, they must rely completely on the strength of the fabric, the design of the band, and the shape of the underwires to stay in place and provide support. A strapless bra without underwires is a bandeau and has no significant support.

The most successful strapless bras have a wide band; boning under the arms and at the center front; deep underwires; gripper-like silicone strips along the inside to reduce slippage; and special elastic with exposed small rubber loops to help grip. Some strapless bras also put boning in the cups. Such boning gives additional support to larger breasts.

Strapless underwires are different from other underwires. Not only are the wires they taller, but they also curve in to encompass the breast more than a normal underwire. When the underwires splay, they actually encircle the breast giving better support as well as reduced slippage.

Even with all this technology and sophisticated designing, a strapless bra will always be a little uncomfortable and need to be pulled up throughout the evening if the wearer is active.



Until the end of WWII, bras were soft cup (wire-free) designed. The invention of the underwire revolutionized the industry by allowing a bra to have support but with less breast coverage. Demi bras, push-up bras, strapless bras and low plunge bras are all possible because of underwires.

Underwire bras, however are not for every woman. Underwires were designed with the presumption that women are columnar in shape - without curves or a tummy. Underwires may splay, but they do not fold or curl to accommodate a woman's figure. Hence, women with an extended diaphragm or those that are pear shaped can find wearing underwires uncomfortable - their bodies push the underwire away from their body and consequently send the underwire points poking into their body... ouch!

Underwires in DD cup size and up will not provide as much support as a soft cup bra with encircling support panels built into the cups. Underwires provide a very narrow surface area to support the breast thus transferring the breast weight more to the shoulder straps. Support panels have more surface area in contact with the underside of large breasts to hold them up. Wire-free bras are a very comfortable solution for every woman, but especially those with size DD cups or larger, and who are curvy or petite in stature.

Underwires will also be problematic on women with wider than normal breasts. As mentioned earlier, breast implants also tend to be wider than a natural breast. Wire-free bras are a great solution for women who don't enjoy wearing underwire bras and for women looking for comfortable bras. Wire free bras are just plain comfortable. Lingerie manufacturers understand this and now make many great looking soft cup bras. We encourage you to look at the wide selection now available.



Keep reading. Next section: Find the Styles That Fit - Cup Styles