Think about what a bra actually does. It straps a band around your ribcage for one reason: to keep two cups where they belong. The band itself never held anything up. The cups did the holding, and the band did the hurting.

The Sculpt Tank doesn't rely on a band to hold anything in place. The bra is sewn into the front of the tank, with soft shaped pads sitting inside it, and the tank itself does the holding.

I'm a 14D, and I get all the support I need from it, with nothing clamped around my ribs and nothing digging under the bust.

It's nothing like the shelf-bra singlets I tried years ago, where the padding bunched after the first wash. These pads are removable, so you can take them out before washing and slip them back in, or leave them out altogether for a softer look. Either way, they keep their shape.

The straps are broad and sit flat, so the weight is spread over the whole top of the shoulder rather than pressing into one thin line. That matters more now than it did at forty, because since menopause my skin marks at the slightest thing.

With a bra I'd finish every day with two red grooves I could run a finger along.

Now my shoulders get the day off.

My worry was that it would be hot. It isn't.

The fabric is light and breathes, and I've worn it through a warm Queensland afternoon in the garden without feeling clammy once.

It stretches four ways and moves with me, and there's not a hook, clasp or wire anywhere on it to catch my skin. I can get from breakfast to bedtime without once reaching in to adjust something.

This was the bit I was most nervous about.

No two bra brands ever agreed on my size. Three professional fittings over the years, and I was still posting things back. But there's nothing to fasten here, so there's no band measurement to get wrong and no cup letter to argue over.

It's sized like a top, XS through to 6XL. I chose my usual top size from the guide and it fitted first go.

And you have 30 days to be sure, with your money back in full if the fit is wrong.

Nothing surprised me more than this.

It goes under everything I own now, and because it's one smooth layer there are no rolls, no strap lines and no bulge where a band used to sit.

It gave me back a silhouette I'd forgotten I had. My husband asked whether I'd been dieting. I hadn't. I'd simply given up the bra.

The hem is properly finished and long enough to stay tucked into my trousers.

My grandchildren were over last weekend and I was up and down off the floor with them all afternoon. I never once had to tug it back into place. Most of the time I forget I've got it on.