Like many others born in the late ’80s and early ’90s, I bought my first big-girl bra at Victoria’s Secret at the mall when I was a young teenager. I barely had boobs, but that wasn’t a problem at Pink, the chain’s younger-sister brand, where neon-pink and green cotton underwear was stacked across the counters like piles of colorful candy. My mom indulged my request for an AA-cup T-shirt bra with enough padding to keep it from completely collapsing under my school-uniform polo shirt. It would be many years before I realized that not every bra I wore needed to be a push-up. And even more years to realize I didn’t need to be wearing a lined underwire bra to even consider leaving my home.
Where did I get that idea? At Victoria’s Secret, of course. My memories of those fitting rooms inspired me to investigate the entire history of the company, which started in 1977 as a little upscale boutique in the Bay Area and became one of the most influential and polarizing brands in American culture. (You can read the whole story in Selling Sexy: Victoria’s Secret and the Unraveling of an American Icon, which I wrote with Lauren Sherman.) With its hyped bra releases and a seemingly endless assortment of colorful, textured options, Victoria’s Secret gave underwear a fast-fashion spin. Though the brand is still one of the largest players in the intimates market, its dominance has waned after years of store closures and bad press (accusations of sexual harassment, a Jeffrey Epstein connection).
Tonight, trying to win back shoppers and rebuild that huge market, Victoria’s Secret is staging its famous lingerie fashion show for the first time in six years. But if fewer people are buying the brand these days, what are they buying instead? I asked 300 readers to share their honest, intimate thoughts on their bras — which styles they wear and when, where they like to shop, and how confident they are that they’re wearing the right size.
Where Are You Buying Your Bras These Days?
Department stores are back. When asked where readers were most likely to shop for new brands, Nordstrom was mentioned 54 times, far more than any other store and nearly as much as the second and third most popular destinations (Amazon and Victoria’s Secret) combined. Other go-to destinations included Target, Aerie, and ThirdLove.
Your MVP bras come from tried-and-true labels like Wacoal and Natori. We asked, “If you are going on a trip and can only take one bra with you, which bra would you bring?” Wacoal and Natori, two brands you can easily find at Nordstrom and Macy’s that are known for their comfortable fits and wide size ranges, were mentioned 19 and 17 times, respectively. One reader described Wacoal’s unlined Lace Embrace bra as her “go-to for at least five years (replacing every year or so) because the shape is right but the straps are wide, so it works with any neckline top.” Natori’s Bliss Perfection T-shirt bra was mentioned six times.
ThirdLove is giving Victoria’s Secret a run for its money. The rivalry between these two brands goes back to 2018, when Victoria’s Secret’s head of marketing at the time, Ed Razek, said “We’re nobody’s third love” in an interview with Vogue; e-commerce label ThirdLove’s founders responded by taking out a full-page ad in the New York Times essentially scolding the larger company’s executives. (Nothing like an old-school marketing stunt involving newspaper ads.) But among our readers, the two brands are neck and neck, tying for third place behind Wacoal and Natori as the most important bra in our readers’ underwear drawers. Each was mentioned 15 times. Your favorite Victoria’s Secret styles varied, but most ThirdLove fans named its best seller, the 24/7 Classic T-shirt bra, as their top choice. Other popular brands included Aerie (mentioned 12 times), Skims (11 times), and Cuup (ten times). Readers whose cup sizes ranged from DDD to I also preferred Wacoal and Natori but otherwise favored Chantelle and Panache (each mentioned five times).
Still, it’s rare that readers love their bras.
- 46 percent said they feel neutral about their bras — they get the job done
- 23 percent said they wish they had better bras
- 16.5 percent said they love their bras
- 11 percent said they have given up on the idea of finding a bra they love
How Many Bras Do You Own?
A few of you have drawers bursting with bras …
- 13 percent said they own fewer than five bras
- 50 percent said five to ten
- 23 percent said ten to 20
- 7 percent said 20 to 40
- 2 percent said 40 to 50-plus
… But slightly more than half of you (51 percent) wear no more than four of those bras on a regular basis.
What Makes for a “Good” Bra?
Bigger isn’t the goal anymore. Nearly 80 percent of readers said they never wear push-up bras, and only 5 percent said they wanted their bras to make their boobs look bigger.
Some of you are inspired by celebrities’ bodies. We asked readers if they see any and think, I want my bra to make my boobs look like theirs! A few revealing answers:
- “Margaret Qualley’s in The Substance. But they were prosthetic. I’ll take them, please.”
- “I’m always impressed at how poorly supported Kirsten Dunst is, makes me like her.”
- “Sofia Vergara. Everything in its designated seating area.”
- “Charli XCX because I’ve been brat-pilled.”
Is It Ever Okay to Go Braless?
Of course! Like Charli XCX, who often goes braless on the Sweat Tour, readers are moving away from pads and underwires — especially since the pandemic.
- 24 percent said they were wearing wireless bras (including sports bras), more often, especially when working from home: “I used to change out of an underwire bra into a sports bra when I got home from work. Now I am changing out of a sports bra to no bra often.”
- 26 percent said they never wear underwire bras anymore: “I wear a yoga bra to work and no other bras now. Before, I was always in something lacy and uncomfortable.”
- 21 percent said they’ve been more likely to skip bras altogether since 2020.
Going braless doesn’t feel so scandalous anymore …
- “I switched to pretty much exclusively unlined bras. I decided I like the look better, visible nips be damned.”
- “I’ve fully freed the nip.”
- “I do notice going braless more often on workdays since 2020, and my daughters encourage bralessness in general. They tell me I look pretty good!”
- “Any setting I can go braless, I will. Other than that, I mostly wear bralettes.”
- “Bras are uncomfortable and not needed because it’s the societal norm/male gaze that’s the problem, not me.”
And we’re taking our bras off in weird places:
- “A concert — I lost it in the mosh pit”
- “On a Greyhound bus from NYC to Boston”
- “The G train”
- “I have once ripped off my chicken cutlets in a dog park”
- “At my boyfriend’s friend’s girlfriend’s 23rd-birthday party. Everyone was so young, and I felt like the oldest hag that couldn’t last a few hours in an underwire while every other woman at this party had their tiny boobs pushed up to their chin with nary a thought about it.”
- “Once whilst walking down the street, didn’t break my stride! Just pulled the bra down one sleeve and straight into my tote bag.”
You all agreed that — no matter the store — buying bras is time-consuming and fraught.
The list of reasons ran long:
- “Every brand fits differently.”
- “You’re always going to get ‘good enough’ and not great.”
- “For the life of me, I do not understand why it is so difficult to find a molded-cup bra for sizes above a 34DDD.”
- “Not a lot of mainstream options for small cup size.”
- “Bras that look good on their own rarely look good under the crew neck T-shirts I often wear.”
- “I don’t want wires, I don’t want lace. I want comfort, and that is difficult to feel when you’re trying something on in a store.”
When shopping for bras, most respondents said they care much more about comfort than “sexiness.”
- “I’d love to be handed a bunch of comfortable, practical bras that make me look and feel great with my clothes *on.* When I want to be sexy, I just get naked …”
- “I cannot find a comfortable bra, no matter the style, the shape, the brand. I am desperate.”
- “Give me comfort and good boobs or give me death! (Not really.)”
- “So hard to find something that feels comfortable! It makes me feel like my boobs are just wrong or something.”
- “Traditional bras never seem to fit. I have only found one bra I feel truly comfortable in, and it is from Eberjey. The traditional padded or underwire bras always made me feel afraid of my body and self-conscious of how wide my frame is and how little my boobs are, compared. I find lacy, no-fuss bras more flattering. I think at my age now, too, I’ve gotten to a point where I have no interest in regular bras and will stick to lace or sports.”
- “Comfort and support to not feel flopping around all over the place. Avoid future sagging.”
Sometimes, a comfortable fit isn’t the priority. 41 percent of you said you have bought bras specifically for sex or for a romantic partner. Your favorite styles varied from kitschy to lacy.
- “Had one very prized set of bra and panties from Kiki de Montparnasse that was gifted by then-boyfriend, now-husband. Wore that a lot for a while in the early days. Now, cheaper is usually more fun! Adam & Eve–style.”
- “It’s a D&D bra, with sparkly 20-sided dice covering the nips. I think from Etsy!”
- “La Perla. Custom. NYC.” (This reader said the most they had spent on a single bra was $650.)
- “Anything Fenty.”
Are Celebrity-Backed Brands Like Savage x Fenty and Skims Any Good?
Only 30 respondents had tried Savage x Fenty bras, and just five loved those purchases. Here’s what they had to say about the brand:
- “I only wear them when I’m expecting to hook up or sending nudes lol.”
- “I used the corset bra as a costume when I went to the Saltburn party in January, and I haven’t worn it since. I think the quality of Savage x Fenty isn’t great.”
- “I used to own a lace bralette. The design and lace were very pretty, and it held up well for the first year but stretched out fast. Was practically useless after two years of wear. I also tried a number of underwire, non-padded bras, but the lace was bad quality and the sizing very off (even 34DD was very small on me).”
- “Yes, I have a balconette bra. It’s is one of my favorites. My boobs look great.”
Skims had more fans among our readers than Savage x Fenty. 16 percent of respondents (49 people) said they had tried Skims bras, but only 15 of those loved what they bought. The Kardashian connection was a problem for some readers: Three women said they would never shop Skims because they didn’t want to support the influencer family. Still, Skims has been extremely successful with its marketing, hiring the actors, athletes, and musicians of the moment to pose in its signature skin-tone sets. Social-media tracking firm CreatorIQ said that so far this year, Skims has generated the most conversation online of all its competitors, including Victoria’s Secret. (And said that Savage x Fenty’s online engagement has taken a severe dip since 2022.)
Here’s what you had to say about Skims:
- “I have several Fits Everybody bralettes, and they’re my faves.”
- “The triangle and crossover bralettes — regrettably, they are excellent. Comfortable and provide support without pain.”
- “They are torture devices that dig into the sides of my boobs. They also feel cheap.”
- “I have one, but I do not like it; it is too padded and too heavy.”
- “I unfortunately love Skims. Some of the wired bras are fit misses on me (and I think they discontinued them anyway), but when Kim gets it right, she gets it right.”
How About the Bras at Victoria’s Secret?
In our survey, 16 percent of readers said they had shopped at Victoria’s Secret in the past five years, and most of them fit into historically the most commonly available sizes (30 to 38 bands, A through DD cups). What exactly are they buying?
- “The T-shirt cotton bra, it’s very comfortable, sustains without constraining, invisible under most of my clothes. I’ve been buying for years.”
- “They have much more inclusive sizing now.”
- “Most of my bras are VS because I’m just used to their sizes and fits and can order online.”
- “A T-shirt bra from 2014. I like that it fits me well enough, and the coverage and shape under a T-shirt is excellent.”
- “The smooth, lightly lined demi bra. It gets the job done, and it doesn’t hurt? It’s the first and only bra I’ve bought after getting sized properly (used to think I was a 32B since they didn’t use to sell 30C’s in store). Still prefer not to wear a bra, but I’ll wear this one for certain work tops where I can’t have my nips showing.”
But the largest group of readers stopped shopping at Victoria’s Secret between 2010 and 2018 — the peak of the fitness-obsessed #TrainLikeAnAngel years. What prompted them to leave the mall brand behind?
- “Never got over the high-school rejection …”
- “I outgrew their terrible, restrictive, and inconsistent cup sizing.”
- “In my mind, they are all about increasing cleavage, and that’s not what I’m after.”
- “The last time I bought a bra at Victoria’s Secret, I was roughly 14 and it sucked — I think they tried to stick me in a 36C because they didn’t have my size (they obviously didn’t admit that, though).”
- “1978 — when they told me a DD was too big a cup size for them.”