Senior staff writer Zoe Vanderweide has tested 35 different bras in the past year, interviewing numerous bra experts along the way. She crafted our comprehensive guide to the best bras and even penned an ode to the one bra she keeps on after a long workday.
Through her extensive research she’s learned that, as tempting as it is, wearing the same bra every day isn’t the best practice. If you want your favorite bra to fit as perfectly a year from now as it does today, you might want to give it a little break.
Larissa King, assistant professor of fashion design at Fashion Institute of Technology, said that your bra has a set number of wears with an ideal fit when you buy it. The more you wear it, the more you wear it out, too. But letting it rest for a few days between wears allows the elastic to tighten up again and feel more snug than if you wore it for multiple days in a row.
Holly Powell, who owns The Pencil Test bra shop and who Zoe spoke with for our best bras guide, said that letting your bras rest also ensures your bra fits as well as it should, which can make it more comfortable.
Here’s a visual: Say you buy a bra in a 32-inch band size. When it’s fresh out of the box, unstretched, that band is actually probably closer to 29 inches.
As you go about your day, your bra will reach that 32-inch mark, thanks to the stretchy elastic.
Once you fling your bra on the floor when you get home, the shrinking process begins, eventually reaching that 29-inch band again after a day or two. But if you interrupt that process by wearing the bra before it’s returned to its shorter band length, it may not feel as snug and supportive, and because of that, it may need more adjusting throughout the day.
This doesn’t mean you should wear your favorite bra once in a blue moon, either. Even if you buy a bra, wear it once, and pack it away in a dark space for years, that elastic will continue to age. “The spandex will still eventually break down and not be stretchy,” King said.
So don’t abandon a treasured bra entirely in an attempt to preserve it. It won’t work. The elastic is always aging, whether you’re wearing it or not.
Powell recommends having four well-fitting bras in your collection if you can.
“This way, you’re not wearing any one bra more than twice per week,” she told Zoe.
If you have a comfort sports bra helping you through daily workouts, the same rule applies. Invest in more than one of your favorite fits so you can keep it taut for longer.
But if you’re on a budget, Powell suggests starting with one, great-fitting bra—something she said everyone deserves. You don’t have to pour money into a new bra collection in one go, but rather build it over time.
