Please see my introductory post for why I’m on a Great Bra Hunt. And feel free to skip past this post if real bra talk and related topics aren’t your thing!

I mentioned in the intro post linked to above that most of my bras over the last few years have come from Lane Bryant. I’ve tried wired, wireless, gel-wire, etc. My biggest problem was that the bras would lose support after a very short amount of time, sometimes in as little as 2-3 days. But it’s been a very long time since I tried a wireless bra from them, and I thought I’d give them another chance. Just in case.

So I made an order for two wireless bras back in December. My size tends to fluctuate at Lane Bryant depending on the style, and I’ve fit perfectly anywhere from 40F to 42H. (It doesn’t help that LB sizing goes D, DD, E, F etc rather than DD = E.) I tend to fit into 40G the most, so that’s where I started. I got two wireless bras (on a buy-one, get-one-50% off deal): a Cotton Lightly Lined No-Wire Full Coverage Bra (full price $45) and an Invisible Lace Backsmoothing Lightly Lines No-Wire Bra (full price $60). These both are not pictured here because neither fit properly. My plan was to exchange them for the same in 42G, but that size was unavailable at the time, so I just returned them and bought two different Cacique wireless bras: Cotton Unlined No-Wire Bra With Lace (full price $53, paid $41 on sale) and the Cotton Unlined No-Wire Bra (full price $47, paid $36 on sale). These two bras shall now be known as Cacique Blue and Cacique Red respectively, because I’m not typing all that out each time, heh.

Initial Fit: Let me start with the Cacique Red because that’s the quicker answer. While this bra fit just fine in terms of band and cup, the material was rough and scratchy, and I immediately disliked both band and straps. Cup material was fine, though thinner than I like. All around, this was not a good bra for me.

As for the Cacique Blue bra, it also had a good fit in band/cup, and the material was much softer and gentler. I quite liked the way it fit, and especially liked that even though it could easily uniboob me, it had a bit of structure that looked like it might try to keep some spacing in there. I’ve stopped expecting much more than that, tbh. Plus, the bra seemed to have pretty good lift support, and the design with the white fabric behind lace was very pretty.

A Bit More Time: I worried that the band might eventually chafe the same way as others, so I decided to wear the Cacique Blue with tags on for a couple inactive hours. And honestly, the band never did chafe. I was quite happy with that. However, there was one problem. Throughout the few hours I wore this, even though I was mostly just sitting down during that time, I began to get a really bad headache that traveled up through my neck and temples. At first, I thought it was caffeine-related, but I realized it was a very physical feeling, more of a tension headache. And I started to wonder if it might be from the bra. Long story short, it was. I took off the bra to find deep red marks over my shoulders from the straps, even though I set them to fit loosely, and the headache went away almost immediately on removing the bra. Clearly these bras built support into their straps, which might go a long way toward explaining why my past experiences with Cacique bras have involved the support dropping away very quickly. And why I experienced so many headaches with them, too.

Verdict: I will not be buying Lane Bryant/Cacique bras again. Both bras returned. Zero stars, because bras absolutely never should support via straps.