Product Review: La Senza Itec Bra

AKA: The Magic Bra

Okay, so it's not lipstick or eyeshadow, but it's girly and necessary, so I'm posting about it. I'm talkin' bras, friends. (And any gentlemen friends out there, you can go right on ahead and skip the rest of this post, because you probably don't need or want to know the intimate details of my choices in underwear.)

I'm pretty fortunate in the bra department, because I am easy to please. I don't much support, and I fall in the range of standard store sizes. Basically, if it fits reasonably well, and looks decent and isn't crazy expensive, I'm there. If there's a bit of padding for bit of boost? Even better.

Lately though, my bras have been rebelling. I bought a new Jockey strapless that looked great on the hanger and in the change room. It's one of those with rubberized inside seams to help keep it up... it felt tight, but not extremely uncomfortable or anything. I even fell asleep in it. Well, apparently "tight" when you are awake translates to "OWWWW" after a night's sleep. I woke up to raised red welts where the wire from the bra dug into my skin. It was not good. It looked like I decided to experiment with some kinda kinky bedroom activity which went haywire. Just a bad scene in general.

Plenty of jojoba oil later, the welts subsided and I was ok. Until the other bras decided to act up. I don't know if the negative experience made me more sensitive or they just decided to declare mutiny or something, but all of a sudden, everything was pinching and poking. The underwire in the front would either pinch the area, or actually poke through and jab at my chest. Mmmmm... scars are totally hot!

So, when I walked past La Senza the other day and saw they were having a store-wide sale, I had to stop in. And I'm so glad I did, because their Itec bras, which usually sell for over $40, were on sale for $16.50!

If you haven't heard about the Itec bras, La Senza claims they're the most revolutionary bras ever, or some other such hyperbolized ad copy. It's made from a single piece of odd fabric (more on that later), and promises complete comfort and seamlessness. I tried their "Wireless" version, and bought 2 on the spot.

Ladies, this is the most comfortable bra that I have ever put on. It's light weight, moves with you, and avoids the dreaded quad-boob. The lack of underwire means that there's no uncomfortable jabbing -- you don't even get those temporary "bra marks" after a long day's wear. The edges are subtly scalloped, and the band across the back is wider than average. It's lightly padded (comes in more or less padded versions too) and looks natural under clothes. In fact, I wore one of my tightest, thinnest t-shirts over it the other day and you could barely see it. Under a normal shirt, it's pretty much invisible.

The fabric is odd if you've never encountered it before. It's like a microfiber that has been made into a very thin layer of foam. It reminds me a bit of the stuff they make wetsuits out of, only thinner. It's very soft, smooth, and comfortable, just slighly neoprene-y. At the same time, this makes the bra truly lightweight. Apparently, you are supposed to hand wash these, which is kind of a pain. But certainly less of a pain than having angry red marks on your chest from stupid bras with stupid underwires.

The sales associate had no idea why they were on sale (only some styles in the line were)... she hazarded that they might be introducing new colours and thus were phasing old ones out. (A new black and a new white? Er... okay) Maybe they're re-designing some of them, or putting in the Ipex line instead*. Whatever. All I know is that they're on sale, for an undetermined amount of time, and they're going fast. The La Senza website only has the orange colour left, although the physical store had more colours. Both the "unwired" and "lace pushup" varieties are on sale.

I am so in love with these. I feel like I could work out in them if I wanted to, they feel so nice. They do have wired versions, and apparently those are WAY more comfortable than your typical underwire bra. But it doesn't matter, because I've just decided that I am so done with wires, and need to go buy more of these, stat.



* If you've tried the Ipex line from Victoria's Secret, the concept is very similar. In fact, last year, VS sued La Senza over the similar naming and marketing of the bras. Not sure how that resolved, but it doesn't matter as they've now actually acquired La Senza in a friendly takeover. (In fact, you may have seen some of the VS cosmetics being carried by La Senza as of late.) I haven't tried Ipex, so I can't say how they compare, but people on random message boards report that the La Senza Itec looks better and is cheaper, so take that for what you will.