Six days until a flight and I’m standing in my own bedroom mirror trying to figure out if my bra strap situation is a personal failing or just physics. This is the actual argument in my life right now, not really about backless tops at all, it’s about whether I’m a person who plans her underwear three days in advance or a person who finds out at 7pm that the dress doesn’t work with anything I own. I used to think that was a small difference. It is not a small difference. It’s basically two whole lifestyles wearing the same shirt.
The trend that turned out worth the fuss, for me, was the low scoop back that doesn’t try to be sexy about it, just dips low enough that a normal bra is off the table and you have to actually solve the problem instead of ignoring it.
I had a customer last month who wanted the exact same halter she wore to a wedding four years ago, and I had to gently point out that her whole torso has a different relationship with gravity now, we all do, that’s allowed, and the shirt that flattered her then was fighting her now. She left with a different one and texted me a photo from the reception looking genuinely thrilled, which is the whole job really.
You Might Also Like
The trend that was not worth the fuss was the string tie back, the ones that crisscross and look incredible on the hanger and require someone else’s help to tie correctly, and by hour four of any actual day the bow has slid around to your side like it’s trying to escape. I own two. I have worn them a combined four times. Both times someone else tied them for me in a bathroom, which is a level of commitment I don’t have for a Tuesday.
The underwear question is the whole ballgame here, and I’ll be honest, most of us have landed on some combination of tape, a backless bra clip that never quite grips right, or just going without and hoping the fabric’s opaque enough not to become a whole conversation. Sunscreen makes the tape situation worse than you’d think, it just does, salt air and adhesive are not friends.
The draft is real too, less of a problem in Miami in July, more of a problem the one time I wore mine somewhere that had air conditioning set to “morgue,” and I spent the whole dinner with my shoulder blades doing this involuntary flinch every time the vent kicked on.
The gamble pick is the one with the very low scoop, it looks incredible on someone who stands up straight and slightly odd on anyone hunching over a phone all night, which, let’s be honest, is most of us most of the time.
