There are often threads with comments complaining about bras, and I’ve seen TV programs where women complain.
Now, I’m a guy, but while I do know that a properly fitted bra helps enormously, it seems to me that bras are simply transferring the load to the upper back. Wouldn’t it make more sense to transfer the load downwards to the lower back or hips with a bustier or bodice?
Because we don’t want our knockers to hang around our knees.
Lynn’s smartass answer aside, I don’t have this problem but I assume it’s because bustiers are more confining and more expensive than bras. If a woman complains that she can’t wait to get out of a bra at the end of the day, she’s definitely not going to be eager to wear a bustier.
I was under the impression that bustiers and bodices provided support from underneath. Or are ones that do too expensive?
You are correct in that there are undergarments designed to provide support from beneath, but they are both less common and significantly more expensive than bras. The were in fact worn by women before the invention of the brassiere. I do not have personal experience with them, but the reports are that they are both more confining and less comfortable than bras.
I’ve worn bodices and bustiers on a few occasions, and don’t find them nearly as comfortable as a bra. The thought of wearing a bodice in humid, sticky, 90 degree heat is not a pleasant one.
Because whales are an endangered species? 
A well-made bustier can run to the hundreds of dollars, and includes boning, which these days means metal, instead of whalebone. Also, bustiers tend to end up being de facto corsets, which are extremely uncomfortable for most women. Wrap your torso tightly in cloth and metal rods for the day while balancing a pair of 5# sugar sacks on your chest, and tell me how *you *like it. Bras, at least, can be had with a minimum of metal.
Bustiers are not comfortable. (A bustier is not the same as a corset.) And while there are large-breasted women who are thin otherwise, I think a lot of large-breasted women are also not thin, but rather average to large, in the torso, and a bustier on someone with excess fat (and yes I have some myself so I’m not trying to insult anyone) is VERY uncomfortable. Imagine wrapping a plumpish tummy in something elastic and trying to wear that all day. It’s very very unpleasant. I’ve never had a bustier anyway that provided support. Most of them are pretty cheaply made and are really just a longline bra with some cheap plastic boning.
Corsets are lovely but they are extremely expensive and are really not going to work for most women to wear all day every day. One, they do limit movement to some extent; and they push the boobs up and out and there are very few jobs where they’re going to let you walk around like that.
Yep, I’ve worn corsets and bustiers - and they aren’t comfortable (I doubt they are any more comfortable when you are not carrying extra weight) In order to support they need to be tight around the middle. The stays often poke in the hips (I know people with scars from RenFest corset wearing). They are also very hard to find in large cup sizes.
When I was dating an actress (a would-be diva) she had to wear a bustier for a show and compared the comfort level to a corset. She found it difficult to maintain breath control (it was a singing role) and having her rib cage wrapped snuggly was “unbearably” hot under the stage lights, so given her whining about tha, I expect it would be quite horrible to wear in the summer months of July and August.
So an over-the-shoulder bodler holder seems to be a much more comfortable option if you’re a woman.
(She looked awesome in the bustier though. Rowr!)
A properly fitted and constructed corset is NOT binding (unless you want it to be) and does NOT lift the sisters up and out (unless you want them to). Also, a bra does not (or should not) support from the top, straps notwithstanding. The straps are there to hold the top of the cup flush to your chest, they should not be bearing the weight of your breasts. A properly fitted bra holds by the compression of the band below the breasts and the shape of the fabric in the cups, not by the straps.
A well designed, well made and well fitted corset holds the breasts exactly the same way a bra does - by gentle compression that maintains whatever boob shape you design it to (slightly pointed in the '80’s, oval in the 90’s, round as a beachball right now). It holds this shape with the aid of metal or nylon strips, instead of simply relying on the tensile strength of multiple layers of fabric.
A molded cup bra provides the same breast control a corset does. The difference comes just below the breast. A corset continues its support down the torso, which is nice, but also restricts movement to some degree. To a great extent, you learn to move around it, but most women don’t care to wear one long enough to work it out.
A tight corset, one for serious inch reduction or waist training, restricts even more. Because they look so fabulous and sexy, and because the last generation we think of as wearing corsets were the Edwardians with their wasp-waists, we think that’s what a corset has to be. It doesn’t.
Hollywood uses corsets all the time, even on thin women. It’s the best way to get a smooth line under clothing - casual or dressy.
Why don’t I personally wear a corset all the time? It’s too hard to get in and out of. I know plenty of women have learned how to self-lace and tie, but I can’t seem to get the knack. It’s a gymnastic exercise without a lacing partner, and I’m only willing to do it for special occasions.
I generally find corsets and bustiers too warm. A decent-fitting bra is much more comfortable. Also, wearing undergarments in general - particularly well-lined ones - really helps prevent embarrassing nipplage when at work. It’d be hard to run a meeting with my arms crossed over my boobs the whole time.
Most women I know find that a bustier actually helps with breath support. Was she wearing it too tight? It’s a fairly common accoutrement in opera.
And you’re right about “rowr” (depending, of course, on the rowr level pre-bustier.)
I wear a bra to bed at night. The girls tend to flop in strange and uncomfortable ways, otherwise. I’m large-busted and overweight.
To answer another element of this, not wearing a bra ends up with your knockers around your knees due to a lifetime of micro-tears in the un-supported tissue. In other words, gravity’s a bitch.
What I don’t understand, why do very small breasted women wear bras? As a guy, I see bras as a MAJOR hindrance to comfort, unless you really need the support. But why would a woman wear one if she could get away with it? 
Nipples. If it’s hot out and I’m just bumming around the house, I’ll go commando. But the good people at the grocery store or the office do not need to see my headlights.
Also, wearing a bra gives you a different, smoother silhouette which often looks better under certain outfits.
Why do you have to be so selfish? 
Sorry to disappoint,** samclem**, but in the words of Aubrey from Something Positive, “These are not free-range boobies.”
I want to invent a brassiere for large-titted women that means they can wear backless dresses. It would have a shelf arrangement to hold ‘em up, but would not rely on the shoulders for support, but use the stomach area to provide leverage against the gazongas’ weight, and fasten at the waist.
I have no idea why such a thing doesn’t exist.