This spring for my birthday my mom bought me a shirt from Joie that I loved, except it had one problem: it tended to slip down in the front, showing way too much of my undergarments. Here is the top in the question:

Cute, right? I have it in navy and in turquoise and have seen various actresses also wearing it on TV which I think means I am basically a stylist. Anyway, I wasn't quite sure what to do about this visible-bra issue. In the summer, it was too warm to wear a camisole under it. I tried keeping it hoiked up by applying that stickie fashion tape to my bra and body, but that was visible and messy and in one case resulted in some skin being pulled off my shoulder when I unthinkingly applied it after a day in the sun. I thought about taking the shirt to my seamstress but I felt lazy and cheap and didn't want to mess with the shirt too much. Then I saw an ad in the back of a magazine for what's basically a camisole dickie. You snap a little piece of lacy fabric to the top of your bra for when you need the look of a shirt without actually wearing an extra shirt.

This was relevant to my interests. I am not one of those high-fashion big pointy shoulder bladed no-bra racerback tank types. I've got boobs that I pretty much try to keep covered at appropriate times. The annoying thing though is that a lot of clothes that are ostensibly most flattering to curvy types often force you to figure out how not to put your breasts away (have you ever tried on a Diane Von Furstenberg wrap dress? What are you supposed to do with that?) But I couldn't pull the trigger on buying these part-shirts due to my shyness about ordering things from the back of a magazine. That's the fast track to ordering weight-loss pills and personalized keychains in bulk.

But then I saw them for sale at my grocery store. Three for $8. I've paid more for a single bottle of nail polish. So I bought my first Cami Secret.

My Cami Secrets (in black, white and "nude") sat in my bathroom for about a week, since it's currently winter and I actually need to wear a whole extra shirt under my shirts. However, Friday night I had the opportunity to bust out (pun intended) the Cami Secret since I was going to an all-girl dinner party where a.) I didn't really care how I looked and b.) my friends would get a kick out of my Secret.

Putting the Cami Secret on couldn't have been easier. It looks quite bizarre before you put on your outer layer, with just a triangle of fabric hanging there in space above your stomach, but once I zipped up my hoodie, it actually looked somewhat normalish. Depending on your bra and how saucy you feel, you can wear it higher or lower on your chest. Here's me letting you imagine what my clavicle looks like:

Everyone was delighted and amused by my piece of semi-clothing (especially when I showed them how it works), but then we got down to brass tacks. I took a vote from my four friends on whether the Cami Secret is a yay or a nay. Two said yay but my other two friends just couldn't understand why you wouldn't just show your cleavage, or get a full camisole, or some other option that apparently is better than snapping a piece of lacy fabric onto your bra.

I had the tiebreaking vote, though: yay.

To celebrate, I put the Cami Secret on the Christmas tree (near the top, like a star.) We may have been drinking wine.

Sadly there is no photographic evidence of this moment but I re-enacted it on my own Christmas tree:

In short, if you were at the grocery store and had $8 to spare, I would totally buy a Cami Secret for your large-chested or modest friend. She may like it or if not, you can just pretend it's a joke and throw it on the ol' tree. Merry Christmas to us all!