Formal Dress Fashion Hacks From Our Professional Bra Fitters

With the Melbourne Cup Day coming up and the spring to summer wedding season also fast approaching, we’re entering our busiest period here at Illusions Lingerie and we’re loving it! This time of year, so many familiar faces filter into our store looking for supportive bras or shapewear to wear under a new cocktail dress, a strapless jumpsuit, or other formal looks. 

Our expert in-store bra fitters absolutely adore admiring all your formal dresses, but we take even more joy from being able to share our best formal dress fashion hacks with you, helping you elevate your black tie or race day looks with minimal hassle and without sacrificing on your comfort or range of motion (aka, the ‘danceability’ of your formal look).

If you’ve got a formal outfit that requires a particular type of chest support (i.e. a halter neck or a backless dress that requires some strategic bra strap placements), then consider this guide of our favourite formal dress fashion hacks to be a great jumping off point, providing insights into all the solutions you’ll be able to find here and with a little help from our team at Illusions Lingerie.

Here are our top tried and tested formal wear fashion hacks to try at your next garden party, wedding reception, Derby Day, or any other formal and fashion-forward event you’ve got on the horizon.

Hiding Bra Straps Under Formal Looks

One of the most common conundrums we face when creating a formal outfit is just figuring out how to hide bra straps. Thankfully, we’ve actually already written a whole guide on just this outfit fiasco alone, providing our top bra hiding hacks that we recommend to all our customers, be it for everyday looks, professional attire, or formal dresses.

What we’ve found is that different methods for hiding bra straps work for different dress cuts. For instance, halter neck dresses pair perfectly with the strap placement of racerback bras, or even regular bras that have been adjusted to a racerback look with the use of bra converter clips. But then you get plunge neckline gowns or backless dresses that so often result in bra cups or back straps becoming visible, and you have to think outside the box when it comes to ensuring chest support.

In these instances, you may be able to rely on either a range of convertible bras or other bra accessories like bra converter clips that help you wear your most supportive bras in new ways.

Convertible Bras vs. Bra Accessories

What’s a better investment: one good convertible bra that you can wear in many different ways (i.e. in racerback, halter neck, low back, strapless bra styles etc.), or equipping yourself with many bra accessories to boost the adaptability of one very well-fitting regular everyday bra?

It’s an age-old question with a simpler answer than you’d expect. Our expert advice would be to find a really well-fitting convertible bra that you can comfortably wear with a range of formal looks, and then fill in the gaps of that bra’s adaptability with your trusty bra accessories. 

Some of our best strapless bras here at Illusions can be worn in 5-6 different ways thanks to their uber adjustable straps. The Refined 6-Way Low Cut Strapless Bra from Fine Lines is a great example here as this convertible bra can be worn with not only low-back dresses but also dresses with plunging necklines.

The issue is that like a lot of other strapless bras within our Fine Lines collection, the Refined 6-Way is only suitable for up to D-DD cups. If you’re looking for formal-friendly chest support for bigger busts, then you’ll probably find an ideal fit within our selection of bras for bigger busts. These bras can then be adjusted using bra accessories to provide a suitable fit for any particular formal look.

So to recap, here are the pros and cons for both convertible bras and bra accessories:

Convertible Bras

Pros

• A once-off purchase
• Fully adjustable straps
• Can be worn with a wide range of formal looks

Cons

• No guarantee of chest support when dancing
• Some styles only suitable for smaller band and cup sizes

Bra Accessories

Pros

• A range of accessories available for varying levels of chest support
• Can be used across a wide range of bras
• Reusable and adaptable to a range of formal looks

Cons

• Requires additional purchases to build up your own collection of bra accessories
• Not all bra accessories will be suitable for all formal looks

Keep Adhesives on Hand for Wardrobe Malfunctions

One of the most common questions we’re asked here at Illusions Lingerie is whether the solution to attaining chest support for a formal look is to go totally braless. Whilst this may have caused some chaos before the creation of boob tape, there are actually so many heavy-duty bra accessories available nowadays that actually support formal looks with minimal impacts to chest support. 

And on top of providing chest support without a bra, there are also a myriad of other adhesive accessories that can be used to correct additional wardrobe malfunctions like those perpetually pesky gaps between buttons on button-downs, slipping bra straps, and even movement of your bust when wearing plunging necklines. These are our personal favourites.

Adhesive Bras

Our range of bra adhesives includes specially moulded stick-on bras that are designed to provide a natural lift alongside keeping your breasts in place when wearing formal attire. Amongst this selection, you can find the best-selling Nudi Boobies from Secret Weapon, as well as the disposable Braza Bra and teardrop Reveal Bra from Braza, the former being suitable for backless formal dresses and the latter for outfits with plunging necklines.

Braza’s Strapless Angel Backless Bra is also an ideal formal fashion hack for backless and strapless dresses, being a reusable bra with a completely clear back band for stability, support, and virtual invisibility!

Boob Tape

And speaking of ‘invisibility’, if the Braza bras are still visible under your formal dress or perhaps aren’t providing enough support for dancing, then you always have the option to make your own adhesive bra out of boob tape. This versatile and truly innovative alternative to traditional adhesive bras provides greater control over the distribution of adhesive materials around your chest and bust, allowing you to find a solution that’s tailored to your outfit and chest support requirements.

Here’s a handy tutorial on how to apply boob tape for beginners. And again, you can also come in-store to Illusions Lingerie to seek advice from our resident bra fitters.

Fashion Tape

This next one’s not so much about chest support but rather supporting chesty folk. Busty gals, you know what we’re talking about. Keeping the girls from stealing the show is usually half the battle when it comes to perfecting any formal look. If you’re wearing a button-down, you’ll probably be seeking to combat gaps between buttons caused by your bust. And if you’re in a strapless dress or a dress with a low-cut back, then you’ll want to make sure your bra doesn’t peek out from any angle. 

The answer to all of these problems is fashion tape. With double-sided fashion tape, you can make quick work of securing bras directly to your clothes, or even closing or smoothing any gaps in your garment fabric. We recommend keeping a roll of fashion tape on you at all times to ensure that even casual wardrobe malfunctions can be swiftly and expertly rectified.

Nipple Covers

Silicone nipple covers can provide a natural, rounded shape to breasts when you’re going braless under thinner fabric (i.e. camisoles, singlets, cotton tees, etc.). If you’re wearing a bodycon-style formal dress and want to avoid any kind of bulky chest support ruining your look, then a combination of boob tape and nipple covers could be all you need to control the tatas and ensure you can still maintain a smooth silhouette.

 

Perfect Bodycon Formal Fits with Shapewear

Bodycon dresses are definitely still ‘in the mode’, but these form-fitting looks can be pretty pesky to perfect. Thankfully, there are different types of shapewear to suit bodycon formal dresses in a range of different cuts, lengths, and necklines.

If, for instance, you’ve got a strapless bodycon dress, a pair of quality high-waisted slimming shorts paired with a strapless bra can provide the structure you need whilst still ensuring you maintain a sleek silhouette. 

You can also invest in nude-toned shapewear to wear under formal dresses with any cutout designs or sheer panelling. And if you don’t like the appearance of even your nude shapewear underneath these design elements, then there may be a shapewear style that provides coverage in other areas. Once again, feel free to come in-store to speak with our experts directly about what shapewear essentials may be best suited for you and your formal garment.

 

Pull on Sheer Hosiery for a Sleek, Natural Glow

There’s been a growing trend of pop stars like Taylor Swift and Sabrina Carpenter wearing nude-toned tights onstage to create a glossy or shimmery leg effect that really pops on camera. But the sheer hosiery trend provides other benefits than just giving a glossy effect. For starters, the right high-quality hosiery can also aid in concealing natural scars or blemishes on your legs, providing a more polished look to your formal outfit. Some hosiery may even provide slimming, tummy control, or lifting effects and can effectively double up as shapewear underneath form-fitting formal dresses.

We also have a wide range of pantyhose and tights suitable for trans-seasonal spring to summer and summer to autumn looks. Simply put, a good pair of pantyhose won’t just make your legs look flawless, but can also provide skin coverage and warmth akin to wearing a pashmina at a springtime wedding. And warming elements are vital for spring formalwear in Melbourne, as the weather can change in an instant from bright and sunny to whipping winds.

And if you are looking to attain the ‘Sabrina Carpenter’ glossy leg effect for your next formal look, then we absolutely have to recommend our Glow Control Sheer Pantyhose from Voodoo. With just an 8 denier appearance, these ‘barely there’ tights are the ultimate hosiery investment for a natural level of popstar ‘leg gloss’.

Functionality > Form

The last tip we’ll leave you with is this: comfort and movement is vital to any showstopping formal look. We know that some fashion gurus won’t agree with us here, and that’s okay – to each their own! But if you’re planning to attend a ball, a gala, or a wedding reception that you know is going to get lively and end up with you on the dancefloor, then you’ll want a look that you can move in. After all, formal events aren’t photoshoots, and us ladies deserve to move freely and really celebrate all the big occasions in life that call for us to go glam.

This is why our bra fitters at Illusions Lingerie always prioritise recommending bras, shapewear, and other under-armour accessories that you can actually move in. And we give you full permission to prioritise functionality in your formal looks too. 

So the next time you’re creating a look for a formal occasion, why not come visit us in-store to find the perfect bra and other functional and form-fitting fancy dress essentials to help elevate your look and keep you boogying down on the dancefloor? Bring in your bridesmaid dress, your ball gown, or any other outfit so that our expert bra fitters will be able to provide a solution that’s perfectly tailored to your formal look. 

Come visit us in-store at Illusions Lingerie today or contact us for more information about any of the tips or products we’ve outlined above.