Traditional women's undergarments, namely brassieres, generally have a front portion with supportive cups, wings extending from the front portion surrounding the wearer's ribcage, a hook and eye closure to connect the two wings, and two shoulder straps. While traditional bras are practical for everyday use under daily wear, such as t-shirt, blouses, sweaters, etc., these traditional bras are not suitable for all purposes, e.g., for wear with backless garments such as formal gowns.
One solution has been a strapless and backless bra as disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 6,397,391. While there are no wings of the bra to be exposed under a backless garment, this configuration provides little support to the breasts, resulting in an undesirable appearance. There have been other attempts to solve this problem but with little success.