8 Reasons Women Over 70 Are Ditching Their Bras for This Front-Support Tank

I'm a home care nurse. For 26 years my ladies have been in their 70s and 80s, and in almost every home the bra comes up before the blood pressure cuff does.

"Peggy, I can't reach the hooks anymore."

1. Nothing to hook, clasp or twist around

Most of my ladies stopped hooking a bra behind their back years ago. They hook it in front, spin it around, then fight their arms into the straps. On a stiff-finger morning, that little clasp wins. The CDC says nearly half of Americans 65 and older have arthritis. I see it in my ladies' hands every day.

This tank has nothing to fasten. No hooks, no clasp, no twisting. It goes on over your head like a T-shirt: head, one arm, the other arm, tug it down. Your shoulders never have to reach behind you.

Now, a tank that easy to put on has to be flimsy, right? That's what I thought too.

2. Real support from the front, with no wire and no band

A regular bra holds you up by squeezing. A tight band wraps your ribs, and a wire digs in under you. The hold and the hurt come from the same place.

And the bra was never cut for you. Every bra pattern starts on one young woman, the fit model, and she's almost always in her twenties. Susie, who makes this tank, spent years at one of the biggest makers of women's underwear and bras. She never once saw a fit model over 30. That's why, on a body of 75, the wire sits on you instead of under you.

In this tank, molded cups are sewn into the front. They shape you and hold you from the front, so nothing has to wrap tight around your back. This is not a thin shelf cami with two loose pads. It holds a full D and up with no wire.

My fuller ladies doubt that part the most. One of them wears a 42DDD and swore nothing without a wire would hold her. She served her family's whole Thanksgiving dinner in it, three hours on her feet, and never hiked a strap once.

3. Wide straps that stay on your shoulders

Thin bra straps put the whole day's weight on two narrow lines. That's the ditch you see on your shoulders at night. And on sloped shoulders they slip off all day long.

These straps are wide, soft and flat, cut from the same fabric as the tank. The weight spreads across the whole strap, so nothing presses into one spot. They stay where you put them through errands, grandkids and the grocery run.

4. The cups are sewn in, so they survive the wash

Any woman who's owned a cami with pads you take out knows this one. The pads fold into knots in the wash. Next morning you're standing there with a finger jammed in a little slot, trying to unbunch them. Sometimes one just disappears.

Here the molded cups are sewn in for good. They can't twist, flip or wander off. Wash it cold on gentle with the rest of your laundry, then lay it flat or tumble dry low. No lingerie bag. No fishing pads out of a pillowcase.

5. You order by your shirt size, not a cup letter

Start with the size in your favorite T-shirt.

If you've ever ordered three bras and sent two back, you know the problem. The size you wore ten years ago isn't your size today, and no two brands agree anyway. Most of my ladies can't tell me their cup size. A few tell me one they haven't been since the 1970s.

This tank skips the bra math. Start with your shirt size, then check it against the chart below. No band number, no cup letter. There are nine sizes, S to 6XL, and Susie wears a 3XL herself.

6. One smooth layer, with no lines across your back

No band means no line across your back. No ridge, no roll, no bulge under your top. Your back stays smooth.

It's also cut long, so it tucks into your slacks. My one tip is to tuck it. My ladies who leave it out tell me it creeps up when they bend over. Tucked, it stays down all day. One soft layer from shoulder to hip, under everything you already own.

7. It's soft enough to sleep in

A lot of my ladies sleep in an old sports bra. Without something on, skin rests on skin all night. But the sports bra digs, so every night is a choice between two kinds of uncomfortable.

This tank is soft enough to sleep in, and it still keeps you held. There's no band pressing into your ribs when you lie on your side. Susie told me some nights she forgets to take hers off. Put it on after your morning shower and take it off at the next one.

8. You can test it on your worst day, with a 90-Day Guarantee

You've seen the "miracle bra" ads. Maybe one of them burned you. Good. Keep that doubt, and point it at this tank.

I tell my ladies not to try it on a good day. Wear it on your worst one: the long errand day, the hot afternoon, the family dinner where you sit for three hours. That's the day a bra gives up on you.

Every tank comes with Susie's 90-Day Guarantee. It's sold only at susies.co, so you always know who you're dealing with.

How it stacks up against what's already in your drawer

The bra holds but hurts. The cami is soft but doesn't hold. The tank does both.

What my ladies ask me first

If your bra is the first thing you take off when you walk in the door, you already know what I'd tell you.

You've spent your whole life looking after everybody else. Your bra shouldn't be one more thing you put up with.

Peggy