To think that little bow in the middle of your bra is condescending

[Moomoomango]

I got two new nursing bras today and noticed they both had little ribbon type bows in the centre cleavage.. I thought why on earth do I need a small bow between my boobs? Went to check all my other bras and every single one (even the most unsexy utilitarian bra) has a bow. Aibu to think a grown woman does not need a ribbon bow between her breasts? Or have I got too much time on my hands?!

It's much less obvious. Apparently pink works too.

But in the event I have to tear off my white top to bandage a dark handsome stranger's (surprisingly photogenic) injuries in an accident, the beige bra will go with my beige slacks!

The trouble with wearing a beige bra under a white top is that then you are wearing a beige bra. So true

Even the bows and matching briefs don't make it better

Really annoying! I've hacked them off on several occasions.

My life has been revolutionized by one of the mumsnet bra intervention threads. Not just sizes but styles, brands and product lines. It's like some kind of occult wisdom...

All back fat trammelled into order and no cut in half breasts either ... I make that 6 weirdly boob bulges on one woman (2 x back, 4 x front bosoms), just horrifying. I was sooooo ready for the bra ladies to help, their threads are positively like a social mission :)

Ruddy marvelous. I bought 3 and am dreading the day I need more. No seriously, I do actually worry about that... Terrible being utterly reliant on mumsnetters!

Anyway, I digress, all have bows on, but bows were so far down the list it didn't cross my mind to have bow angst.

I suspect being generous of nork helps, as most tops don't get to touch between mountains. I reckon I could store all sorts of things there without showing through

My daughter (12) makes me cut them off her bras. She thinks it is bad enough that she even has to wear them, without them being made overly "girly" (she isn't)

The bows are not compulsory The must be on young girls bras though, because I can never find any with out them.

Oooh, I've just had an enormously satisfying laundry-sorting time, snipping the bows off the bras where I don''t think they're needed.

Maybe I'm just super stupid, but I totally use the bows to make sure I'm getting dressed the right way round. Particularly useful if I have to get up very early and get dressed in the dark so as not to wake DH...

EUROPEAN SIZES

Way back in the mists of time when bras didn't stretch much at all, it was necessary to wear a bra which was bigger than you measured. In the UK we dealt with this by taking the add 4" approach, so someone who measured 30 would wear a 34. In the EU they added the extra 4"/10cm on to the bra itself - so someone who measured 30 (75cm) would wear a 75 band. Then bra fabrics changed and became much stretchier so now in the UK we wear what we measure - so a 30 wears a 30 - and in EU sizes you now need to deduct that extra 10cm so a 30 wears a 65

If you look at a conversion chart then 30=65, 32=70, 34=75 and so on.

Non-sarcastic

I am just grateful to find a bra that fits well, barely notice the bows etc.

I don't like those twee silly little bows either. I leave the one between the cups, but always cut off the ones on the straps.

I don't know if this has been mentioned on the thread so far but I find the bow or adornment on my bra very handy when I'm getting dressed as I leave the house before my DH so I tend to dress in quite dim light (bedroom door open and whatever light is on in the house will come into the bedroom) so it helps that I don't put my bra on inside out.

Was this some sort of feminist thread 'in disguise'? I can't tell. I truly thought it was about an unreasonable dislike of bows on underwear and akin to the gravity of a washing powder thread... I'm far more exercised about those hanging ribbons in cardigans that I have to keep snipping off every garment...

I'm another one grateful just to find bras that fit!

If thats the biggest of your problems then you dont have any!!!

The bow is a throwback to when women wore corsets a lot, there was a piece of whalebone or wood called a busk, that was inserted in a sheath down the front of the corset and tied in place with a bow. The busk is gone, but the bow remains.

Even if every single irritating, annoying or fundamentally wrong thing on the planet was resolved in my favour in the next five minutes, I still couldn't rouse myself to give a toss about the bra ribbon.

Agreed...I'd take every little bow in the world if I could just find an underwire bra that didn't feel like it was breaking my ribs by 5pm....

The last bras I bought didn't have bows. I buy flesh coloured white or black only and go for practicality.