Bra Styling Guide
A bras style and fit are personal to you and no two women are the same, some have bigger boobs, some fuller boobs so if a bra is going to fit correctly you need to choose the right bra style for you whatever your need or occasion.
Take a look at our handy style guide for each bra style:
Full Cup Bra
A full cup bra is the ideal bra for women who wear larger cup sizes and is the best choice for support with a smooth outline and maximum comfort whilst also having the advantage of being suited to pretty much every body type.A full cup bra is a particularly good choice when trying to avoid a quad-boob look which can be caused by bras with a lower level of coverage that cuts into the breast tissue.Full cup bras generally have wider straps, and are associated with a more modest look, but this doesn’t mean that they can’t still be fun and sexy. Plunging or lacy styles of full cup bras are the ultimate combination of both comfort and sexiness!
Balconette Bra
A Balconette bra or half Cup bra provides less upper breast coverage and often has cups designed to give an upward boost to your bust. The balconette cup style is designed to expose to upper half of your breast, and usually comes with wide-set bra straps and is most commonly associated with D-plus bras. If you have softer breast tissue then it may be more suitable to wear a three-quarter cup bra to help avoid some potential discomfort.
Plunge Bra
Where a balconette bra separates the breasts and boosts from the bottom, the aim of a plunge bra is to push your boobs together, boosting from the centre of the cup. Unfortunately if you have particularly large bust a plunge bra can cause your breast tissue to gravitate towards the centre causing an uncomfortable gap at the sides of the bra and overspill from the cups. With this in mind you may have to try many different plunge bras before you find the perfect fit.
T-Shirt Bra
As a lingerie draw essential, the T-shirt bra or smooth cup bra is a must have bra style. This type of bra provides a seam free look under clothing making it perfect underneath sheer tops, work dresses and casual outfits, with a thin layer of foam also helping to disguise nipple outlines.
Strapless Bra
An underwire bra with wide sides and no straps or those with removable straps, and a 2 or 3 hook fastening at back. Often, silicone is added to the edges of the bra to keep it keep close to your figure, and generally worn with strapless tops, gowns or with tops where an ordinary bra would show. A strapless bra must be the right size; too loose and you have no support, too tight and it will work its way down your body. In fact a well fitting strapless bra could reveal your true bra size as the fit has to be accurate . If you are looking to buy a. Strapless bra look out for a bra features supportive elements such as moulded cups and strong underwires.
Non-Wired Bra
A non-wired bra is generally the same in design as a full cup bra but without underwires to give you support. Whilst this type of bra may be comfortable you will loose some breast definition and shape so will not give you a cleavage or any uplift, just blissful comfort.
Side Support Bra
A side support bra combines the added coverage of a full cup bra around the under arm area with the sexiness of a plunge bra. Side support bras are perfect for D-K cup women due to a horizontal bone structure that stops your boobs from going left and right and simply pushes them to the front and centre. In eradicating the means for your boobs to overspill towards your armpits, side support bras provide the illusion of reducing breast volume making your boobs look more rounded in shape and smaller in size.
Minimiser Bra
A minimiser bra reduces the apparent size of the your breasts, particularly in how far they come out from your figure. This allows you to more easily wear button down shirts and blouses without the fabric pulling around the bust. A minimizer bra works by the cup distributing everything more towards the underarm and the center front to limit protrusion. A minimizer only shifts the mass in areas other than directly in front. No bra can actually reduce breast size, but this is the next best thing
Sports Bra
A Sports bra is worn during exercise to minimize breast movement and is an absolute must to avoid damage to the surrounding breast tissue.Most sports bras are wire-free, gaining their support from a compression fabric that holds you in tightly with wider straps to give addtional support. If you are looking to buy a new sports bra we recommend you have a variety of support levels if you do more than one sport or activity.