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Alana Rose wrote:I’m looking forward to the day where nipples and bralessness can be normalized and is not considered immodest or unprofessional (it’s just healthy and natural.)

I'm not an easy shape to fit a bra on, although surprisingly, it was a nursing bra that actually fit me the best and caused the least amount of pain and that I wore for several years after I'd stopped nursing when I had to wear one at all.

Luckily, at the moment, I'm living in a climate where I don't overheat if I wear an "A-shirt" under a blousey shirt that hides things fairly well. I'm also in a region where bralessness is more acceptable.

However, I've contemplated this issue, because if I ever have to go to something formal, I am definitely considering the route of a "working corset" designed to my specific measurements. The key goal will be to cover the nipples and hold the breasts just enough to support, but distribute that support over my rib cage and what little waist I've got (I'm *very* short waisted and my floating ribs don't like pressure and nor does my back if it's in too narrow a region.) There is a sewing thread on the subject with lots of resources here on permies. Like everything, a reasonable solution to a clothing problem was turned into a fashion statement that is not at all what its original purpose was, so one has to dig below the 'hype" and get to the original purpose and design to get where I would want to be. Tight, elastic around my ribcage/back is *not* happening. I can't handle either the pain or the impact on my breathing.

At times, years ago, I wore an obi in Japan and it didn't bother my back, and it did cover the nipples, but an obi isn't part of North American clothing fashion!
 
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Jay,
Surprisingly, most women are not easy shapes to fit.  the human torso is not symmetric. If you find a design for your shape and comfort requirement, there is, IMHO, a market out there that can be targeted as a home based business.  Computers can generate 3D images that can be used to tailor designer clothes.  My year 8 mathematics teacher was a corsetiere in Germany and he said that maths was an essential tool because each woman was different so needed a different solution, to paraphrase.  
Cheers
 
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Any other females going bra free out there 90+% of the time?


Over fifty years ago I decided I'd rather be emotionally uncomfortable than physically uncomfortable and stopped wearing bras.
Since I was a droopy 38 DD (and am now an even droopier 38 G or H), that meant that my silhouette was extremely unusual, and most clothes didn't fit. This was before spandex, when teeshirts were still undergarments, when women's tops and dresses always had darts or seams, and my breasts just didn't go where they were supposed to in the clothes.
So I had to wear clothes that looked unusual. Women's fashion was much more uniform in those days, and you either looked mainstream or were a kook.

I am not sure that the social anxiety ever goes away


It has largely gone away for me, but five decades is a long time. I have just begun to wear teeshirts in the last few years - I always wore fairly stiff cotton to sort of mask my shape. I just found out I like sweaters with nothing under them, and I'm not yet ready to go out of the house in one, though I want to. I still only wear overshirts, not something tucked into a waistband or with a belt.
Nowadays I am seeing other women without bras occasionally, which is heartening. And in fact looking good and comfortable in various shapes that one would never have seen in my day, so that helps too.
Women have not been very critical, except when they are family and want me to look proper and not embarrass them.
Men have teased me.
I might like underwires if they didn't stab me in the armpit. Yes, I've had fittings in fancy underwear stores, and that didn't help. I have tried remodeling bras to very little avail. The sports bras with the racerbacks tend to be the best, but they don't make them in real sizes. By the time I had my kids I had already gone without a bra for years, so I never tried a nursing or maternity bra.
I would like some kind of bra so that I can sometimes dress up and have the underbust seam go under my bust rather than above it, or fit into a fancy dress so my shape is similar to its shape.
I would like to occasionally wear some kind of bra when my breasts are tender and don't want to bounce around.
And especially I would like something that would keep my breasts off my chest in the hot weather. I'm afraid to try cornstarch, as I fear it would give me a yeast infection. Maybe that's why the cinnamon? But really, I'd rather pick them up and get some air under there.
 
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