I recently wrote an arti­cle on Crème Bralée lin­gerie by QT Inti­mates after my friend, Luis Pare­des, turned me on to the brand. Luis pub­lishes a web­site that’s invalu­able for those in the busi­ness of fine lin­gerie. It’s called The Lin­gerie Jour­nal, and because Luis is so plugged-in to the scene, he’s an author­ity on excel­lence in the field.

It really can be hard to find gor­geous bras with an impec­ca­ble fit in larger sizes, espe­cially at a good price. Ordi­nar­ily a qual­ity bra in my size would cost between $70-$200+ depend­ing on the brand and its work­man­ship. But the good peo­ple at QT Inti­mates sent me their stun­ning Colette bra, $34, and answered all my prayers.

The fit is spot-on; the sup­port is all there; and the com­fort is per­fec­tion. Designed by Liz Mar­rell, above, of QT Inti­mates, this bra, which was a year in the mak­ing, is a hid­den gem! The price is Play­tex, but the look is La Perla! Liz cites as her influ­ences the corsetry of Jean Paul Gaultier and the tai­lor­ing of Alexan­der McQueen, and it shows.

I can­not begin to explain what an incred­i­ble deal this is. Like I said, a bra of com­pa­ra­ble qual­ity would eas­ily cost dou­ble this price. It’s an absolute beauty in dusty pur­ple with gor­geous embroi­dered lace and a large crys­tal pen­dant in the cen­ter! It really looks like a high-end Euro­pean brand. The atten­tion to detail is rare and some­thing you just can­not get in an Amer­i­can brand…until now.

The match­ing boyshort panty, above, is only $18.50, and it comes with the same spec­tac­u­lar embroi­dery as the bra!

I am usu­ally reluc­tant to pur­chase lin­gerie via the inter­net, but this Crème Bralée bra is incred­i­bly con­structed and true to size. Awe­some! Liz really focused on the fit, and this bra stands up against the best names in lin­gerie, and at an unbeat­able price.

I rec­om­mend get­ting sized at a high-end bou­tique by a knowl­edge­able fit­ter, and then order­ing your Crème Bralée bra on QT’s web­site. This price makes it easy to have more than one, and although the Colette bra only comes in this deep lovely laven­der, I have heard through the grapevine that the set is also being fash­ioned in a rich plum! Can crim­son be far behind? We would also love to see a match­ing thong and garter belt for this set…QT, are you lis­ten­ing? Please, Liz, get right on it!

Most women are wear­ing the wrong size bra–or the wrong type of bra–for their needs. Doing so can make a woman look saggy, old and fat.

“Well-fitting lin­gerie should be the foun­da­tion for every great out­fit,” said fit expert Mar­garet Mul­lany. Mar­garet works at Charmelle 28, an upscale lin­gerie bou­tique in the San Fran­cisco Bay Area, with stores in Palo Alto, Cal­i­for­nia and Burlingame, California.

“There have been ladies who have dropped dress sizes just from wear­ing the right size and shape bras for their fig­ures,” she said.
“A good fit­ting bra will improve your pos­ture,” she con­tin­ued. “Your clothes will sit dif­fer­ently and it’s proven that you look slim­mer, enhanc­ing your sil­hou­ette when your bust line is where it should be.”

In addi­tion, the weight of a breast should not be under­es­ti­mated. It is nec­es­sary to wear a bra in order to sup­port the breasts, avoid­ing neck and back problems.

“Cus­tomers come in com­plain­ing of an aching back, shoul­der ache, a sore ribcage and a sore chest from badly-fitting bras,” Mar­garet stated. “It is impor­tant to ensure if you are wear­ing a bra that it fits you cor­rectly. Remem­ber every woman is an indi­vid­ual so what works for you may not work for the next woman. This is a good rea­son to see a spe­cial­ist who works with women of dif­fer­ent shapes and sizes all the time,” she added.

As if all that is not rea­son enough to invest in a qual­ity bra wardrobe, con­sider this: Your breasts are com­posed mainly of fat tis­sue and over time they lose elas­tic­ity; wear­ing a bra every day can help pre­vent stretch marks and sag­ging. You should know you are wear­ing a bra but you shouldn’t feel extra pres­sure or dis­com­fort if you have an excel­lent fit.

When To See Your Bra Specialist

In addi­tion to the bras wear­ing out, another rea­son to see a spe­cial­ist is the fact that a woman’s body is con­stantly in flux.

These changes are due to a vari­ety of reasons–from hav­ing chil­dren, to changes in lifestyle or gen­eral hor­monal imbal­ances. There­fore it is rec­om­mended that you should replace your bras on a reg­u­lar basis, every six months to a year accord­ing to Margaret.

Fac­tors to con­sider on this time frame are how many bras you have in your rota­tion and how well you take care of them. Remem­ber that bras should always be hand washed in cold water with a del­i­cate deter­gent such as the clas­sic pow­der For­ever New, or Eucalan’s Wrap­ture, a no-rinse wash that’s spiked with the deli­cious essen­tial oil of night-blooming jasmine.

“You should get pro­fes­sion­ally fit­ted once or twice a year and have at least four basic bras in rota­tion all the time,” Mar­garet said. What is meant by rotat­ing you bra? Your bra has lycra in it, if you do not let it rest it will lose its elas­tic­ity. “Think of it as a rub­ber band. If it is always stretched it does not go back. It’s the elas­tic­ity that gives you support.”

In addi­tion, it’s a good idea to have more than one style of bra. Why? “Look at how many dif­fer­ent neck­lines women wear,” Mar­garet said. Believe it or not, every style of bra gives us a dif­fer­ent shape, which enhances each neckline.

“For exam­ple, a bal­conet bra goes great under a sweet­heart neck­line; a plunge bra works with a low V neck­line; a demi-cup bra gives a clean line to a square-neck top…So if you are ever won­der­ing how many bras you should have, think of 2 for each dif­fer­ent neck­line you wear…and don’t for­get your basic, ‘every­day’ bra or your t-shirt bra,” Mar­garet explained.

How To Find A Good Bra Fit­ting Expert

I hate to break it to you, but if you think that Victoria’s Secret is high end, or that you’ll ever find an employee there who knows how the hell to mea­sure you for a proper fit, you are sadly mis­taken. Victoria’s Secret is not sta­tus lin­gerie. It’s the fast food drive thru expe­ri­ence for dis­pos­able pieces that are never going to look or feel good in the first place.

Victoria’s real secret is that they use bril­liant mar­ket­ing to appeal to an inex­pe­ri­enced audi­ence that doesn’t know the dif­fer­ence between good lin­gerie and bad lin­gerie in the first place. And if all that is not enough, can you believe that this empire of undies does not sell any­thing higher than a DD cup? Shame on you, Victoria’s Secret, for hav­ing hood­winked the pub­lic so completely!

In real­ity, Victoria’s Secret makes their bras from the most pathetic laces and dis­mal mate­ri­als, with the shod­di­est con­struc­tion known to mankind. And as for an expe­ri­enced sales­woman who knows how to mea­sure you, if you’ve stepped into one of these help-yourself buf­fets of tacky lace and ill-fitting gar­ments with a one-size-fits-all men­tal­ity, I need not say one more word. You must, and I repeat must find an expe­ri­enced woman who is versed in mea­sur­ing and fitting.

If you shop at Victoria’s Secret, I urge you to seek out an inti­mate lin­gerie bou­tique in your area, like the afore­men­tioned Charmelle 28, pic­tured above, where they fit from a size 30A up to a 46H! And the great­est thing about it is that they have beau­ti­ful designs in a plethora of jewel tones for all sizes!

We ♥ a Great Fit

Nord­strom depart­ment stores also have an excel­lent lin­gerie depart­ment equipped with knowl­edge­able, trained fit­ters and backed with a good return pol­icy. Today and tomor­row is the Nord­strom We Heart a Great Fit event in stores. Nordstrom’s fit styl­ists will have the very lat­est lin­gerie styles avail­able, and can help you find a bra that fits per­fectly. In addi­tion, for every bra sold dur­ing this event, Nord­strom will donate $2 to the Young Sur­vival Coali­tion, a char­ity devoted to young breast can­cer sur­vivors. It’s a great way to start your weekend.

Once you have expe­ri­enced the way a qual­ity bra feels and looks, you will be so thrilled with the results that you’ll never walk into Victoria’s Secret again!