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An Annual Letdown: The Strapless Bra

FOR Dez Alfieri, the last straw was the bikini-top stick-on contraption made of silicone and meant to adhere to her breasts like a second skin.

“It didn’t stick for more than three seconds,” Ms. Alfieri, 18, said. “I ended up throwing it on my ceiling. It stuck to the ceiling.”

Unlike other incredible feats of engineering — the Golden Gate Bridge and the Statue of Liberty — the strapless bra is an imperfect design. Just ask the legions of women who hook, wrap and suck themselves into such bras each New Year’s Eve, then pray they do not drop like the crystal ball in Times Square.

This year is no different. As the last hours of 2006 flit by, the quest for a strapless bra, whether of the traditional around-the-back variety or a more modern invention like the one Ms. Alfieri tried, becomes increasingly acute, as women rush to buy the underpinnings of delicate kiss-me-at-midnight dresses.

The strapless bra, introduced in the late 1930s, did not gain popularity until the ’50s, when strapless evening gowns were in vogue, according to Elizabeth Ewing’s 1972 book, “Underwear: A History.”

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More than a half-century later, strapless bras are largely regarded as draconian: uncomfortable, awkward and incapable of staying up for more than a twirl around the dance floor.

“I hate, hate, hate strapless bras,” said Ms. Alfieri, a college student in Queens, who has sworn off them, preferring instead to concoct her own by cutting the straps off beloved regular bras. “I can’t find one that fits the right way or gives me the right shape or even stays up.”

But despite many an unauthorized descent, the strapless bra does not seem to be going the way of the whalebone corset. Strapless sales for the 12 months through October rose to an estimated $285 million, an increase of 17 percent over the same period a year earlier, according to NPD Group, the market research firm.

Indeed, many women are willing captives of strapless bras that they know full well will wind up as belts by the end of the night. Call it lingerie Stockholm syndrome.

But Danny Koch, the owner of Town Shop, a Manhattan lingerie boutique that fits women with cup sizes A to G, said there is no reason for that.

“There is a definite stigma attached to strapless bras that no one will ever find one that works or fits,” he said. “But it’s just not true.”

Spoken by someone who does not have to wear one, yes. But he has a point. There are more strapless options than ever before: plunge bras for low-cut dresses, low-back bras for backless gowns, convertible bras that can be worn every which way, clear straps that can be hooked onto strapless bras and strapless silicone bras.

The newest solutions to the long-running décolletage dilemma are not pretty. Strapless, backless, thin as sliced prosciutto and made of silicone, they hardly look like bras at all.

“This concept of having a bra that’s not really a bra has evolved tremendously,” Mr. Koch said.

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