Last week I purchased what is hands down one of the best things I’ve bought this year. I honestly don’t know what I was doing with my life before I bought this thing. And the most amazing thing is that this purchase happened as a result of my complete incompetence. Through my self-created chaos, I found wardrobe bliss.
But let’s rewind a bit and set the scene, so I can provide at least 800 words of relevant background…
I have a fashion confession to make: I am awful at packing for business trips. If I’m stuffing a case with my belongings for a vacation or a quick getaway purely for my own enjoyment, it’s no problem. But throw in a fancy social media dinner, an important client meeting, or any kind of engagement where I feel I need to look impressive, and I’m a total mess. I forget the basic principles of dressing. I end up packing a bunch of ridiculously inappropriate clothes that never go together, random clothes I barely wear that have been sitting in the back of a spare room closet for years because I have no idea what to do with them.
My issues don’t just stop at packing for trips. I also seem to have trouble getting dressed when I leave the house. I’m great at dressing nicely when I don’t think I’m being scrutinized and my outfit doesn’t matter, but when I feel pressured to look good, I completely fall apart.
So I can look like a fashionable Parisian trendsetter when I have a dentist appointment or pop into Sainsbury’s for a bottle of milk, but when I walk the red carpet I look like I’m dressed from the late ’90s. In the dark.
My poor packing skills pushed me past my limits this week. I know there are bigger things to worry about in life, but honestly, weird suitcase contents have caused me more inconvenience than I can count, including (in no particular order) having to make a long detour to central London to find socks, nearly dying of heat stroke because I only packed a cashmere rollneck (too early! too early!), and only being able to pack a particularly annoying pair of gusseted trousers.
So, this week has been the worst week ever for me in terms of suitcase packing successes: I packed the wrong shoes, forgot to bring a nice dress (I’m on a book tour at the moment), and, finally getting to the point of this post, I was in such a rush and panicked that I’d miss my train that I left the house without packing a vest top, a t-shirt, or even a single soft, comfy bra – no casual options!
fool.
I was heading straight from my home to a drinks party at my publisher, followed by dinner, but because I usually travel in comfortable clothes (clothes without tight gussets, crop tops instead of proper bras, cloud-soft t-shirts, and versatile cashmere cardigans that can be fastened or unfastened so they can be worn in any weather), I had completely forgotten to pack these most basic essentials.
It wasn’t until I threw everything out of my suitcase the next morning in search of my travel clothes that I realized my mistake: I had to show up to a meeting wearing nothing but a full-support, underwired bra under a restrictive roll-neck shirt.
(We also need to talk at length about “proper bras vs soft, comfortable bras.” There’s a lot to unravel, because I have to say that there is no soft, unstructured bra that can give me the same impressive shaping as an underwired bra designed to perfectly fit my breast size and cup size. It keeps my breasts separated from my chest so that I look like I actually have breasts and not like a giant lump stuck to the front of my body. There are soft bras that can help a lot to create a miraculous shape, but nothing can completely replace a proper over-the-shoulder breast holder, which I’ll explain later.)
To summarise, I have gone off on every possible digression, so here I am, away from home, in the middle of a busy work week, realising that there is no clothing that is even remotely acceptable for me as I am required to spend 80% of my time in cotton-like clothing, which was practically unbearable. I immediately needed to find a softer bra, buy a vest top or t-shirt that drapes well, is the right length (i.e. not cropped) and is cut to accommodate the wide straps of said softer bra.
This is no easy feat, especially considering they only had 18 minutes to complete the challenge.
But you know what happened? I popped into the first store I passed (it was on Regent Street) and bought myself the one I mentioned at the beginning of this post all those years ago. It was so unique and perfect and amazing that if I liked the other colors, I would have bought them all.
This is a great item I purchased: the ribbed sleeveless bra top* from Uniqlo. Apparently it’s Heattech Extra Warm, which is a bonus for fall, but I didn’t realize that little feature when I bought it. What I realized when I pulled the item over my head in the fitting room is that it’s a totally genius garment: a form-fitting, feather-soft vest top with cut-out shoulders that gives off sexy GI Jane vibes and means you definitely don’t need to wear a bra underneath.
Please read it again.
No bra needed, because this top has a built-in bra! I had unwittingly taken fashion to a new level of joy. I felt so good in this vest top that I decided to wear it to a book signing that night. An event! In a vest top! Without a bra!
Below are some photos that show off the absolutely amazing shape that the integrated bra achieves with its molded cups. It’s totally unexpected! Yes, you can see the outline of the cups through the fabric, but so can most of the bra. This eliminates the bumps and bulges that traditional bras have, and completely eliminates the need for bra straps.
Because, let’s be honest, bra straps and vest tops just don’t work together. The vest tops are cut just a little too long for a regular bra. And who can wear a racerback bra? Not me! The pinching around the cross and around the neck is just too much for me to handle.
So, the Uniqlo bra top. It solves a thousand problems. I tried the small and medium sizes, and although the small was fine, I chose the medium because it was not snug enough. By the way, I am a 32DD and a UK10/12. The shade I bought is called “brown” by Uniqlo, but it looks like khaki to me. I didn’t choose the other colors, but I want to avoid buying only black, and the white is worn in 7 minutes on my miserable figure. I wish it was a baby pink and a pretty blue, a denim-like shade, but frankly, I’d be happy with any color or addition. Because this vest top is a game changer. It’s as smooth as you want it to be, no bra visible, and it’s a top that looks great with jeans, under a suit jacket or trousers, or with tracksuit bottoms on the weekends.
If Uniqlo were to expand this line and copy the styles and colors sold at Skims, there would be no woman who wouldn’t buy something there.
You can buy the Uniqlo Ribbed Sleeveless Bra Top online here*, priced at £19.90.
(*This is an affiliate marketing link so I receive a percentage of any sales.)
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