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• oh, I love when people can "fit" by eye. The last person that claimed this (not surprisingly a VS associate) said that I didn't look bigger than a DD when I told her that I was a G cup. Yeah, they don't appear bigger than they are because I am wearing a bra that fits.

• Fitting by eye is better than a flawed measuring system. Because numbers are just that. A measuring tape doesn't look at your frame size, tissue density, shape, or what you want out of a bra. Granted, some do not know how to measure by eye because they're still used to "old" sizes.

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• Ah, those are my size too but I need to save my pennies for the holidays... and I did purchase some bras not long ago :P

• Nothing worked? :(

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Back from London

So back from London, with only two bras. And two that doesn't even fit me remotely. That's the short version.

Well, I did go to Bravissimo. Tried like 20 bras. Nothing worked.
* Freya bras have too weak wires too far apart at the bottom for me. Seem to be between a 28HH and a 28J ... there otherwise, but the gores just don't lie flat.
* Bravissimo balconettes are too tight along the top edge, and has some empty fabric in the upper part of the cup. Not sure it's because of my shape, or because of them being too small, they end at a 28J, and well, massive cutting in sort of distorts the rest of the fit.
* Bravissimo plunges are better, some would even had been a great fit if they would not have to literally kill my arms. Arms are not romb-shaped.
* Panache bras in general just have too wide wires. Tango II is a perfect Panache example on me. Too wide wires, to shallow cups, weird pointy shape and wires poking my armpits badly because their so high.

So, what sort of worked, as I do know, is Cleo. Only that they only had Zia in stock, and no 28HH, which I needed. The 28J was still okay, but a cup size smaller would have been better. Considering to order one from Figleaves at the moment. Do you know if Marcie, Natasha and Meg runs as tight in the band as the Zia? Zia was just perfect, but too many bras are too loose on me, so if anyone knows how these compares (I know they are all the same cut) that would be greatly appreciated.

(The bras I came home with was these: http://www.marksandspencer.com/Pack-Limited-Collection-Striped-DD-GG/dp/B003XTKO4C?ie=UTF8&ref=sr_1_5&nodeId=1837595031&sr=1-5&qid=1353872945&pf_rd_r=06V0C8CV15BABG88Z7E1&pf_rd_m=A2BO0OYVBKIQJM&pf_rd_t=301&pf_rd_i=0&pf_rd_p=321381407&pf_rd_s=center-3 Cute, christmassy, a lot of cotton and moulded. 32GG fitted quite well, the cup shape was good, only the band was too big, of course, and the straps a bit too far part but that can be fixed. I just felt I needed something cute.)


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2 Pack - Limited Collection Striped & Bow DD-GG Bras

http://www.marksandspencer.com/Pack-Limited-Collection-Striped-DD-GG/dp/B003X...

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Shared on Nov 25, 2012 Flag this

36 comments

• I hope you had a nice trip:)Must be great to shop at bravissimo and trying all those beautiful bras on. *envy* Too bad you had not so much luck with them. Have you had the chance to try the Boudoir Beau or Broderie? From my experiences they run a bit bigger in the cup than Alana and its clones.
  About the Cleo bras I would order them from tightest band to loosest:
  Zia
  Marcie / Natasha
  Meg /Alexa
  *long gap* :D
  Lucy
  I tried all of them in either 30HH/J. In Zia I need a 32 band. All the others are finde in a 30 band (but I like a tight band anyway) and Lucy is even a bit loose in a 30 band.

• I don't know how Zia runs, but I recently tried (and returned) Marcie, and found the band on that to run snug in comparison to the Lucy and Bonnie bras on the same size.

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• Ugh, I totally understand!! If I had a bunch of bras and could affort to do the same, I think I would, too!
  But alas, I 'only' have 6 okay fitting bras in my drawer right now, so I have to circulate all of them 1 day at a time to get the most life out of them... I'm carefully handwashing them too now that 5 of them are new too! (yea, I threw out all the rest when those arrived, though they are still in the back of the closet...)

• I totally know the feeling. I have several dresses I love and have spared. If I feel some style is very very valuable I buy two or even more of it.

  I think it also comes down to us being used to "needing a lot of options". I don't think we do, I think we are just used to think in that way instead of having good quality.

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• Pinching in the central gore on my Panache Confetti (which is still too wide in the underwires for me!) took away my quadboobing. Alas, I still have empty bottoms :( Good luck that any other issues don't magically arise! :D Curvy Kates are so pretty...

• As my Curvy Kates are still drying, I rummaged through the back of my closet for my old 34banded bras, most of which are too small in the cup for me now too. Put a couple on and decided that my one Elomi in red (no idea which model) might benefit greatly from a pinch too. And even if it worked horribly it wouldn't matter much because I ain't wearing it now anyway ;)

  Previous fit: band loose, slight quadboobing. Finger pinch: no idea on the band, but the quadboob disappears!
  Cue needle&thread... wow!! The cups fit SO much better now! And the band is much tighter too! It's going back to my bra drawer!!

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6 comments

• how about casing the silicone pads in like... a mini pillowcase? it probably wouldn't be that hard to handsew a couple... although I wouldn't know about slippage if you put them in those.

• *hugs* :(

  How about getting a pair of the Ewa Michalak 'comfort straps' and turn your Andorra (or whatever bra you think would work best) into a convertible? They're only partly adjustable, but they really ARE comfortable. They come in a package including a pair of ordinary straps and a halterneck strap -- they won't help you now and they're only available as special order (14 days), but maybe a solution for 'next time'?

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Scoping with a wide root

I've come to realise scoping with a wide root is like in the link. Only the quadboob happens on the sides as overspill there instead. The more the cups fills out the further the back the bra ends on me until it's actually on my back. It doesn't fill out totally front and center as my boobs are built on ... space rather than projection and it kind of feels wrong with boobs that far back even if they are indeed there. So when my wires are where I prefer them for stability I simply stop scoping.

Sometimes what we are taught to do to put on a bra correctly simply gives result people tend to see as wrong.

Having boobs on our back is seen as "migrated breast tissue". But what if it's not, what if it's really simply the way boobs grow bigger when they were wide rooted even when smaller. The results of a round rib cage and weight gain.

I've come to feel pretty strongly about it all since I've heard too many times "your wires are too wide". I don't think wires just before the lats are exactly a pretty look, but I've come to accept it as a compromise. Wires on breast tissue in the front gives me sores (I'm looking at you 36GG HP Nina) and wires on my back does the same. Wires just before the back is stable, comfortable and I don't notice them.

I think the most problematic body image issue for me have been feeling like a "cheat", you know like boys tell girls that wear pushup bras. I kind of like honesty in looks because what if a person then sees the real me and won't accept that.

I think those underlying assumptions is why I've had such a hard time really accepting to look as good as I can with the help from a bra.


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Putting your bra on properly

Lately, I’ve been reading a lot of comments in online communities where someone has bought a new bra after following someone’s measuring guide, and they believe it doesn’t fit. Us...

http://brasandbodyimage.wordpress.com/2012/09/05/putting-your-bra-on-properly/

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Shared on Nov 24, 2012 Flag this

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• Whether migrated or not, I think breast root can be moulded to an extend as well. I've noticed it in myself: before I started out on this 'correct bra size' quest I didn't have much (if any) migrated breast tissue, but I DID have VERY wide roots. Now, a couple of months later, I notice that my breast root seems more 'compact': wires of bras that initially seemed 'just fine' now actually look a bit on the wide side for me. My Panache Andorra for example, the first bra I got that fit me 'perfectly', definitely looks 'roomier' in the wires than it did before, even though my breast volume hasn't changed significantly. I don't think I'll ever reach the point where I'll fit Freya, but SOME change definitely has occurred.

  Now back to you :)

  The thing is, whether due to migration ot not, I think it's perfectly possible to have a breast root that goes significantly further back than what is considered 'normal'. That this may look weird to people who don't have such a wide root, so be it. We all look different even if we were able to wear the same bras! A bra that looks like a low-ish cut balconnette on one person, for example, might look almost full-cup on another, even though they are both wearing the correct size for their respective bodies. In case of the wide root and wire issue, though, the problem with bras is that they are simply not designed to wrap around the body that far. One ends with cup fullness (or lack thereof) in the wrong places and straps that are too wide set for comfort to name but two issues. What I haven't seen anybody mention, but what also happens is the following: the wire tilts towards the body as part of the curve of the wire is 'used' to accommodate the curve of the ribcage. This may cause wires painfully digging into the sternum, but it also affects the way the rest of the cup fits as part of the volume in the bottom of the cup is 'lost', again, to accommodate the curve of the ribcage. The cups look as if they are 'flattened out' and the breasts won't be able to settle into them properly. When this happens a common 'diagnosis' is that the band size is too small and the wires are stretched to the point of distortion, flattening the cup in the process (also addressed as 'reversed letterphobia', although I personally don't really like that term). While this certainly may be the underlying reason in some cases, I personally don't think it ALWAYS is. The Panache Andorra fitting help request you posted some time ago comes to mind, for example.

  Anyway, I've been doing a lot of thinking on the subject of bra design lately and this alternative explanation seems to make sense: if one places a more or less rigid, underwire-shaped curve against the curved side of a cylindrical object (simulating a person's ribcage) it will tilt until it fits. If the part of the wire that sits at the 'centre front' is held in place it's easy to see how its tip puts a lot of pressure on the 'sternum'. Also, the experiment shows how the part of the wire that goes 'under the arm' tends to end up much lower and under a much shallower angle than the flat wire shape suggests. The more curved the surface (simulating wires reaching further back), the more extreme the effects. It's not a far leap to guess at the consequences for cup fit as well. I'm not sure how these findings actually are (or even can be) taken into account in current commercial bra design, but they surely are crucial for a wearer's fit and comfort ...

• Yes! Finally someone seeing what's going on on my body.

  I've never ever considered the tilting and pressing on the center gore. I'm simply so used to bras digging in there. In the 34F Freya bras I wore for five years I could never lie on my back and breath. I took them off immediately when home. So the fact that I could lay down in the 32H Andorra was an enormous relief for me. Yes it did dig in painfully at the center gore and I had to pad it there, but compared to not even being able to breath on your back it was heaven!

  So my bras has probably always tilted around at my body since there isn't a place even close to flat on my rib cage.

  I think for my body shape some kind of semi flexible wire could work. But the best thing would of course be something like an actual cast of the body and the breasts to build the wires, just like we do with braces.

  In the meantime I think it would be good to simply address the issue at all. Had it not been for BrasIHate writing about bending wires to get a more hourglassy figure I would still have been stuck with forcing my boobs front and center. It wasn't until I learned how to use that look to my advantage it started to make sense.

  Now; about taking out the volume of the cups... that's good for me. That's what make bras fit at all. That's why I use shallow or low cut bottoms. What's interesting is when I put my hands into the cups to feel the tissue everywhere even the 36J Andorra is filled out in every direction. I've given that one up though because of the wires sitting too low on my body. The 34J Andorra however I use. I took away the alteration that made that bra to a 30K because in that the digging into sternum was so evident I again couldn't breathe. Now I just use it on the tightest hook and apart from some cutting in at the sides that bra is now working even without alterations. I am just worried about the migration being ruined by the folds in my boobs. I'm probably going to buy a CK Emily and Romance in 30/32K as well.

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Curvy Wordy Contest

I had won the contest for a Freya bra as I've said before, but I had no clue what size I was in Freya so the representative I spoke to was kind enough to send me a few different bras in different sizes. Unfortunately, none of them fit. I also received a brochure on all their bras, so I'll be ... looking through that for MOLDED bras only. I honestly think that any sheer cups are not for my breasts. While I know there are many women that can wear and pull off beautiful bras in my size and larger, my breast tissue is not made for loose fabric such as sheer.

I'll be emailing the representative with the unfortunate news to see where we will go from here. After looking at my fittings in the Freya bras that I've recently put up, any suggestions on where to go from here? The band is perfect, it's the cups and material that I simply can't do.

Are there any molded cups in Freya that go up to the size I might need? I think a 30GG would have fit me better for the Carys, but that's only a guess, I'm still new at the bra fitting and I know a molded bra would fit me differently than the non-molded ones.
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Shared on Nov 23, 2012 Flag this

izzylawliet

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83 bras

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• The Freya Deco comes up to GG-Cup in a 30 band.

  Edit: I just looked at your pictures. Carys in 30J is just loads to big. Carys in 30H is like 1-2 cup sizes too big I think. Since you like the Gem better, you could give it a try in 30G/GG ? Or anyway try the Deco in these sizes.

• Do it Nesoa style; buy a bigger band size and alter down? That way you could get one of the padded halfcups :)

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