7 Reasons Why Women Over 70 Quietly Stop Wearing Bras (Hint: A Bra Hangs on Two Thin Straps All Day), and What They Wear Instead
Look lower at 4 than at breakfast? Nurse Peggy Lawson’s ladies, all in their 70s and 80s, say the same.
My name is Peggy Lawson. I’ve been a home care nurse for 26 years, and almost all of my ladies are in their 70s and 80s. A lot of them I see twice, in the morning and again in the afternoon.
And I hear the same things about bras.
“Peggy, it goes on fine at 8. By 4 I’m in a sling.”
“It pulls down in the front and rides up in the back.”
“I could sell my old bras as hammocks.”
“I don’t want to be hiked up to my chin. I just want to stay where I am.”
Then they shrug. “It’s just my age now, Peggy.”
So they pick one of two bad choices: a wire that digs in all day, or no bra at all, and then they hang.
I took care of Susie’s mother for the last three years of her life. Susie is 67, and she spent years at one of the biggest makers of women’s underwear and bras. One afternoon she told me, “It’s not her age that drops her by 4 o’clock, Peggy. It’s how a bra hangs.”
So Susie made a tank top with a bra built in, on women 70 to 89. Susie’s says more than 50,000 women have ordered it since. Here are the seven reasons my ladies give me most.
🕓 Lorna At 9, Lorna At 4
REASON 1: A BRA HANGS FROM TWO STRAPS. THIS TANK IS HELD AT BOTH ENDS
Lorna is 78. I see her at 9 on Mondays and at 4 on Thursdays. At 9 she looks neat as a pin. At 4 she tugs at her blouse and says, “Don’t look at me. I’ve sunk.”
She blames her age. But it isn’t her age. It’s how a bra holds you.
A bra hangs you from your shoulders, like a hammock tied at the top, and all day the weight pulls down. The straps stretch a little and slip, and the band in back rides up. The front drops lower and lower, and by afternoon you’re in a sling.
The tank is held at both ends. The wide straps sit on your shoulders, and the long body tucks into your slacks. Your waistband holds it down, so the front has nowhere to drop.
There’s one catch. If you leave it untucked, it can creep up when you bend over, so tuck it in.
The first Thursday Lorna wore one, I came in at 4 and found her at the sink. She turned around and asked, “Well? Did I sink?” She hadn’t.
✏️ Wilma Kept Count
REASON 2: ONCE IT’S ON, SHE DOESN’T TOUCH IT AGAIN ALL DAY
Wilma is 73. She kept the books at a school for 30 years, and she likes numbers. When I told her how often I see women fix their bras, she didn’t believe me.
So she kept count on the pad by her kitchen phone. One mark every time she hiked it up, pulled a strap back on her shoulder or fished herself back into a cup.
By noon she had 23 marks.
Every one of those tugs is the sling slipping. When all the weight hangs from two straps, the straps creep out to the edge of your shoulders and the cups slide down. You hike it back up, and it slides again, all day long.
The tank doesn’t hang you, so nothing slides. Its straps are wide and flat, and they sit still because they aren’t carrying all your weight by themselves. The long body is tucked in at your waist, so the cups stay where you put them in the morning.
The week Wilma tried it, she went back to her pad. The next page stayed clean.
“I don’t know what to do with my hands now,” she told me.
🌻 Hazel Was The Hardest Test
REASON 3: IT HOLDS A 44G WITH NO WIRE, JUST TWO SEWN-IN CUPS
Hazel is 74. She wears a 4XL top and a 44G bra, and she told me flat out, “Nothing but a wire has ever held me, Peggy.”
She’d tried the soft ones. They squashed her into one long shelf. “I looked like I had my arms crossed under my shirt.”
That’s the fear I hear most from my bigger ladies. No wire means no hold, and everything turns into one lump.
The Susie’s Built-in Bra Comfort Tank is made another way. The molded cups are sewn right into it, one on each side, so you stay two and not one. There’s no wire under you. The hold comes from the whole tank, from your shoulders down to the hem tucked in at your waist.
It won’t hoist you up like an underwire push-up does. It holds you where you belong and keeps you there.
Hazel wore hers out to her garden on a Saturday, hauling the watering can back and forth to the tomatoes. On Monday she showed me the pictures her granddaughter took.
“Look at that. Still two, and nothing poking me.”
🧴 The Lotion On Mildred’s Shoulders
REASON 4: NO RED GROOVES IN HER SHOULDERS WHEN SHE TAKES IT OFF AT NIGHT
Mildred is 82. On Tuesday nights I help her get ready for bed. For years, when her bra came off, there were two red grooves across the tops of her shoulders. Some nights they were deep enough to lay a pencil in.
“Rub a little lotion in there, would you, Peggy? They burn.”
My bigger ladies all have them. Some have had them so long the dent never fills back in.
A bra puts all of you on two thin straps, each about as wide as your little finger. They press on the same spot from breakfast to bedtime, and that’s what wears the groove in. The heavier you are up top, the deeper it gets.
The tank’s straps are wide and flat, so the weight spreads out across your shoulder. And they don’t carry you alone. The long body tucked into your slacks holds the bottom, so there’s less pulling down on the top.
The first Tuesday she wore one all day, I came in with the lotion. When she took it off, she turned her shoulder to the lamp so I could see. No red lines.
The old dent is still there. She’s had it for 50 years. But it doesn’t burn anymore.
“Put that lotion away, Peggy,” she said. “Nothing to rub tonight.”
🧺 Myrna’s Drawer Of Camis
REASON 5: HER DRAWER OF SHELF CAMIS HELD NOTHING. THIS TANK HOLDS HER
Myrna is 76. She has a drawer full of camis with a bra in them, five or six of them. She showed me once, a little mad.
“Every one of them held nothing, Peggy.”
She’s right. Most of those don’t work.
A shelf cami has a thin strip of elastic under the bust. That strip is all that holds you. On a fuller, softer body, it cuts across you and you slide right under it. Then there are the loose pads. They fold over in the wash, and you spend the morning fishing them back into place.
This tank has no strip and no loose pads. The molded cups are sewn in, so they come out of the wash right where they went in. And the long body tucks into your slacks, so the hold runs from your shoulders to your waist, not along one thin line.
Myrna didn’t want to try “one more of those.” I don’t blame her. I left one on her kitchen chair anyway.
Next visit, the drawer of camis was in a bag by the door, marked for the church rummage sale.
🪞 Velma Turned Sideways
REASON 6: SIDEWAYS IN THE MIRROR, SHE LOOKS SMOOTHER THAN SHAPEWEAR EVER MADE HER
Velma is 81. There’s a mirror in her front hall, and every time she walked past it, she turned sideways and made a face. “Look at me from the side, Peggy. I’m all lumps.”
Her daughter once bought her a body shaper for a wedding. “It squeezed me so tight I couldn’t eat the cake,” Velma said. “And it just pushed everything out the top and the bottom.”
What Velma saw in that mirror was her bra, not her. A bra has a tight band that goes around you under your bust. By afternoon your front has dropped and sits right on top of it. The band presses in, and the soft part of you bunches up above it and below it. From the side, that’s a dip and a bump.
The tank has no band. The cups keep your front where it was at breakfast, and the long body lies flat over your middle and tucks into your slacks. From the side, you’re one smooth line from your chest to your waistband. And since it’s held at your shoulders and your waist, the line is still there at 4.
It won’t make you a size smaller, and I tell every lady that. What goes away is the dent the band made.
The first day she wore it, Velma stopped at the hall mirror and turned one way, then the other. “Peggy, where did my lumps go?”
For years, whenever somebody held up a phone for a picture, she’d pull the front of her top away from her middle. At Sunday dinner her granddaughter took one, and Velma’s hands stayed in her lap. Afterward the girl asked, “Grandma, did you lose weight?”
“Not one pound, honey,” Velma told her. “I just quit the band.”
👗 Doris And The Easter Blouse
REASON 7: HER GOOD BLOUSE FITS AGAIN AND THE BUTTONS DON’T PULL
Doris is 77. She has a blue floral blouse she wore every Easter for years. For the last five, it hung in the back of her closet.
“It doesn’t hang right on me anymore,” she said. “It makes me look old.”
A fitted blouse is cut for a woman who’s held where the buttons and darts sit. When a bra has let you slide by noon, the buttons pull, the front hangs and the whole thing looks wrong.
In the tank, she’s held where the blouse expects her to be. And she stays there, from church in the morning to supper at her son’s.
She called me after Easter. Her daughter-in-law had told her, “Mom, that’s my favorite blouse on you.” Doris said it was the same old blouse. She’d just gotten it back.
She sent me the picture from church. She looks like Doris again, neat and put together the way she’s always been.
Susie’s says more than 50,000 women have ordered the tank. When I look at that picture, I understand why.
WHAT ALL SEVEN HAVE IN COMMON
All seven come back to the same thing.
Think of the 4 o’clock drop, the tugging all day, the wire you thought you needed, the red grooves in your shoulders, the camis that held nothing, the lumps from the side in the hall mirror and the blouse in the back of the closet. A bra hangs you from your shoulders, and by afternoon it lets you down. Going without lets you down too.
This one holds you at both ends, at your shoulders and at your waist. So at 4 o’clock you’re still where you were at 8.
Susie made it at her kitchen table on women 70 to 89. Early on she decided there would never be a band in it, not even a soft one, and there never has been.
Susie’s says more than 50,000 women have ordered it since.
WHAT WOMEN WHO WEAR IT TELL ME
I’ve told a lot of my ladies about it, and I’ve heard from plenty of women who wear it. Here are a few of them in their own words.
“My old bra was halfway up my back by the time I got to the grocery store. This one stays put if I tuck it in my slacks. It doesn’t lift me like my underwire did. It just stays where it is, which is what I wanted.”
Barbara, 69 · Size 2XLVerified Customer
“Tucked in it stays down all day. Untucked it creeps up when I bend over, so I tuck it. Took me a couple days to stop reaching back for a band that isn’t there.”
Carol, 71 · Size LVerified Customer
“A strap used to slide down every time I reached. Now I just reach, smooth and go, no readjusting all day.”
Susan D.Verified Customer
“Same me, completely different shape. The support pulls everything into place. I finally feel put-together, no hooks.”
Karen B.Verified Customer
THE QUESTIONS WOMEN ASK ME FIRST
Whenever I tell a woman about it, she asks me the same few things. Here’s what I tell her.
“Will it hold me if I’m big up top?”
Hazel wears a 44G, and she was sure nothing but a wire could hold her. The cups are molded and sewn in, one on each side, and the whole tank holds you from your shoulders to your waist. It won’t push you up like an underwire. It holds you where you belong.
“Will it ride up?”
Not if you tuck it in. It’s cut long so it tucks into your slacks, and your waistband keeps it down. Untucked, it can creep up when you bend over.
“What’s it made of, and is it hot?”
It’s a smooth nylon and spandex knit. It’s still a layer, so on a hot day you’ll feel it. What changes is that there’s no band to soak through and no wet line under you by supper.
“How does sizing work?”
Order the size of the T-shirt you wear, then check the chart right above the sizes on Susie’s page. There’s no band number and no cup letter. It comes in S, M, L, XL, 2XL, 3XL, 4XL, 5XL and 6XL.
“Where does it ship from?”
It’s sold only at susies.co, and shipping is free in the US. If you have a question about your order, email info@susies.co. Somebody reads that inbox every day, and a real person writes you back.
“Can I wash it?”
Yes. Wash it on gentle in cold water, then lay it flat or tumble dry on low. The cups are sewn in, so they come out of the wash right where they went in.
“Is it easy to put on?”
Yes. It goes on over your head like a T-shirt, and there’s nothing to fasten. Then tuck it in.
🏡 A Real Woman With A Kitchen Table
WHO YOU’RE BUYING FROM
My ladies always ask me who’s on the other end before they order anything off the internet. Good, you should ask.
Susie is a real woman. She’s 67, and she wears an XL. Before Susie’s, she spent years at one of the biggest makers of women’s underwear and bras. She can’t say which one. What she saw there is why the tank has no band, and why it’s cut long enough to tuck in.
She made the first one at her own kitchen table and tried it on women 70 to 89 before she sold a single one. I was in that kitchen more than once.
Susie’s is sold only at susies.co. If you email info@susies.co, somebody reads it that same day, and a real person writes you back. Every tank comes with Susie’s 90-Day Guarantee.
WHAT MY LADIES KEEP IN THE DRAWER
Most of my ladies end up with three. One to wear, one in the wash and one saved for church. Hazel has one in every color.
Right now Susie’s is running their Fall Sale. It’s Buy 2, Get 1 Free, so the third one costs you nothing. If you want five, it’s Buy 3, Get 2 Free. Shipping is free in the US, and you can mix the colors any way you like.
I don’t know how long they’ll keep that going, and the popular sizes go first. If your size is there today, that’s when I’d get it.
On their page it’s called the Comfort Shaper Tank. Don’t let the word “shaper” scare you off. It isn’t tight like a girdle. It’s the same tank Lorna wears on Thursdays.
⚠️ Look-Alikes Are Out There
WHY YOU WON’T FIND IT ON AMAZON
I need to warn you about this, because it already happened to a lady I see.
Susie’s is only sold on susies.co. It isn’t on Amazon or Walmart, and it isn’t in stores.
Copycat sites have copied the look, and some of them even took Susie’s own photos. What comes in the mail is a thin shelf cami with two loose pads. It’s the same kind Myrna gave away.
Ida is 80. Her son ordered her a look-alike from one of those sites as a surprise. It held nothing, and the pads were sideways after one wash. When Ida tried to send it back, nobody ever answered.
So get it from susies.co. That’s the only place the 90-Day Guarantee and the Buy 2, Get 1 Free apply.
The 90-Day Guarantee
Every tank comes with Susie’s 90-Day Guarantee. Wear it to church and out in the garden, and see how it holds you.
Susie’s Built-In Bra Comfort Shaper Tank
Fall Sale · Buy 2, Get 1 Free · Free US shipping
- Held at your shoulders and your waist, not hung
- Stays put all day when you tuck it in
- Holds a full bust with no wire
- No thin elastic strip, no band
- Molded cups sewn in, so they stay put through the wash
- Order by shirt size, S to 6XL, 8 colors
90-Day Guarantee
CHECK AVAILABILITY →Free US shipping · 90-Day Guarantee · Only at susies.co
THE WAY I SEE IT NOW
You can close this page and keep going the way you are. Tomorrow you’ll put your bra on at 8 and look fine. By 4 you’ll be hiking it up, pulling a strap back on and telling yourself it’s your age. And every time somebody holds up a phone for a picture, you’ll pull your top away from your middle.
I’ve watched my ladies live like that for years.
Or you can do what Lorna, Wilma, Hazel, Mildred, Myrna, Velma and Doris did. Pull it on, tuck it in and go about your day. At 4 o’clock you’re still where you were at breakfast.
It was never your age that dropped you by afternoon. It was how the bra hung.
Peggy
P.S.
Lorna has a new Thursday joke. When I walk in at 4, she points at the kitchen clock and says, “Four o’clock, Peggy. Still where I was at breakfast.”
P.P.S. Tonight, when your bra comes off, look at the tops of your shoulders. If there are two red lines there, that’s what Mildred had.
Fall Sale: Buy 2, Get 1 Free. Free US shipping. 90-Day Guarantee.
Fine at breakfast, in a sling by 4. That’s me every single day, and I’ve been blaming my birthday.
Rosalie, same here. My husband says I “settle” after lunch. I’m reading this to him tonight.
I’m a 44G. I’ll believe a tank holds me when I see it.
Geraldine, I’m a 42H and I said the same thing. It doesn’t push me up like my old underwire, so don’t expect that. But it holds me, I’m still two and not one, and I don’t touch it all day.
Is this a real company? I’ve been burned by nice-looking sites that turned out to be nobody.
Hi Inez! We’re real. Susie is 67, and she still reads a lot of these herself. We only sell on susies.co. Email us at info@susies.co any time. Somebody reads that inbox every day, and a real person writes you back.
Does it come in 5XL? Nothing I find goes past 3XL.
Hi Eunice! Yes, it runs from S to 6XL. Order the size of the T-shirt you wear, then check the chart.
I have a whole drawer of those shelf camis. Held nothing, and the pads came out of the wash like pretzels. I almost scrolled right past this. Got one because the cups are sewn in, and it’s not the same thing at all. It actually holds me.
Fair warning, ladies. Untucked, mine creeps up when I’m weeding. Tucked in, it doesn’t budge. Tuck it.
Velma pulling her top away for pictures. I do that in every family photo. My grandkids even copy me.
The tally marks made me laugh. I’d need a bigger notepad.
Bought 2 and got the third free. Wore the black one under a jacket to my grandson’s graduation. Didn’t fix it once all day.
My good blouse is back in rotation. My sister asked what I did different. I told her it’s the same blouse I’ve had for ten years.
I’m 81 and I quit bras three years ago. I didn’t know I missed being held until I put this on. Wore it to bridge club Tuesday.