I can't find the answer to this question, though I'm sure it's been asked elsewhere...
I've found a bra style that fits me really well. I'd like to find a non-lacy (smooth) version of the same shape. I'd also like to avoid having to buy a bunch and try them on and return them. Is there a place where people say X bra is just like Y bra...?
Thanks in advance!
--Heather
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So, I got a response from Anna at Anna Pardal For Comexim this evening. Considering the amount of mail she likely gets inundated with, I was really happy that she responded within 3 days. She wrote back:
"Thanks so much for your email! I'm basing this mostly on the Comexim bra photos, as it's the one that's closest ... to our pattern. I definitely agree with you on the Doyenne and think it would be lovely on you.
Just to note, the biggest differences between our Doyenne and Comexim's half-cup:
- The Doyenne has a 3-part cup
- The straps are moved in even further than this one (to 3cm from "standard"), and the gore is lowered 1cm from the "standard"
We could also certainly reduce the cup profile further -- I agree with your comment about this in the Bratabase review. [If you look at my review of the Comexim Mimi half-cup in 60K, I noted that although the bra was otherwise too small all over, the cup height was about perfect. A rarity for me; most half-cups give me full-cup coverage, and often more than that, even.]
Thank you so much for reaching out to me with this, I hope I have helped! I'm here to chat if you'd like to talk about it more.
Warm wishes,
A"
I know in terms of adding data to Bratabase, the best thing to do would be to order an unaltered Doyenne. But in terms of fit, I probably do need the cups further reduced, and likely need the gore to overlap-- that's an alteration AP offers, and I did find it would have improved the fit of Mimi.
I'm torn. Do I do the right thing for the data, or do I go straight to what's likely to be the best thing for my boobs?
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HI imabratinfluence . Do what is best for your boobs of course! You can always still add the info for Bratabase. It will just be a customized bra. All of my Comexims are customized, and it is just a couple extra clicks as far as adding data. ;) Bratabase is built and only gets better with more data being added. It doesn't have to be the same for every single bra. That defeats the purpose. Get your customizations :)
Tanzilove Thank you for the encouragement! :)
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I wrote to Erica at A Sophisticated Pair, earlier this week, and Anna at Anna Pardal.
Erica wrote back, and was extremely helpful. She did suggest I wait for word from Anna on whether I might need the cup height reduced further (the cups are already designed with reduced height in my size range). My boobs are just so darn ... short!
She did say she finds AP's half-cup to be a bit more friendly to larger cup sizes than many half-cups, including Comexim's. Her sense was that the Doyenne fits a bit like Curvy Kate's original Tease Me with more depth. Given that description, as long as the cup height works out, I think I'll love the Doyenne.
I'll post again when Anna writes back, and when I order!
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When did you email Anna??? I emailed her on the 23rd and haven't heard back yet.
Apparently I just needed to comment on her cause she just emailed me back LOL.
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My Anna Pardal For Comexim Nuance plunges and my Ewa Michalak S bras have become my work horse bras. I love them to pieces, largely because I can work doubles in a fairly active job (barista/server in a busy cafe) and even after working doubles they just feel like part of me. They don't ... hurt, rub, chafe, scratch, squeeze, or poke.
I like Comexim plunge, too, but I do feel its wires more, and even though it has reduced cup height, the edge of the cup rubs under my armpit, especially after a few hours of wear. The apex of my Comexim plunge is also a bit higher than my natural apex, whereas my apex and that of the bra lines up nicely on my APs and EMs.
What's the deal? Am I in slightly the wrong size in Comexim, or a slight shape mismatch? Should I stick to AP and EM?
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Idk, i wear what works . . . i know comexim has lovely materials, but i'll never wear them - i think they look like crap in an N cup
but i'm just grateful to have bras that work at all. i am starting to think S is my best, too
Comexim plunges don't really work for me either. The cups are just not the right shape for me and I dislike the fact that the seams show as a dent under clothes.
I suppose they're just not for everyone, so as long as you have other bras that work well I'd say go with those.
I have been wearing the wrong bra for years and the three years prior to my augmentation I only wore sports bras in large sizes with no support.
I believe I've measured correctly now but I have one question about band size measurement
Do you ladies measure directly under the bust crease or slightly lower where the band would actually sit?
thanks!
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Directly under the bust crease, while watching in a mirror to make sure my measuring tape isn't riding up or down, because that is where the band is supposed to sit ;-)
lcl0706 thank you!
When I was stuck in the bra matrix, I wore size 32B. When I used the bra calculator it spit out 28E. Doing manual calculations gives me 28DD. However, I find that 52% of bras that fit me are 30D, 24% are 28DD, 16% are 30C, and only 8% are 28E.
My conclusion is that while the bra calculator can ... put you into the right ballpark, it often cannot pinpoint the exact size that fits you best. Certainly 28E is closer to my best fitting sizes (30D and 28DD) than 32B, but I personally feel that doing manual calculations might be more accurate than using the bra calculator.
What did the bra calculator give you? Was it close to the actual size(s) that fit you best?
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i guess for me, it depends on HOW i measure. if i lean over and do overbust, i'm 36", but if i stand up and do it, it's 35".
and my underbust is all over the place ranging from 29ish-33.5ish! so i get sizes from 34C-30E.
i round up and do manual calculations and a 32D, usually fits me.
then, some online calculators just do different sizing, so it's all kinds of crazy.
It gave me pretty close to what I wear. I have a fairly full all over shape, that's short rooted and my best fits seem to be 34HH/36H in projected bras. My measurements were 36/34/46/49.25/46. It's more accurate now that I've filled out with tissue distribution and my standing matches my laying now.
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I'm sure someone has brought this up before, but over the past few months as I've been learning more about finding bras that fit, I've noticed product images from major bra companies where it looks like they put the model in the wrong size (you can see wrinkling or gaping at the top or bottom of the cup or the ... center gore doesn't sit properly on the sternum/chest). Has anyone else noticed this? If companies are charging $40-$150 for a quality bra, you'd think they want to give the model the best-fitting bra! If the sizing looks wrong on the model, how can we be sure it will look right on us?
I'm sure there might be instances where they have the model lift her arms or hold an odd pose that might cause pulling, but I doubt that is happening in ALL of these photo shoots.
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I noticed that too. It's ridiculous-especially when it's a brand with such a wide range of sizes to choose from. One site (can't remember what one :/) actually made a note in their descriptions when the model wasn't wearing the right size (something like "we didn't have a sample in her appropriate size) which was something I had never seen before. It's even worse when it's glaringly obvious and the first thing you notice.
yeah, it comes ever every now and then around here lol
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Well, today I passed by Aerie and figured I might as well try on some of their bras, since I know they have tester bras in 30D even if they don't stock them in-store. I'd previously bought a Sunnie Pushup online and returned it because it quadded, but I was going in more or less blind.
The good side: sales attendants ... on point. Very helpful, excellent knowledge of how size and shape both matter equally, and didn't react with the VS-standby of the eyes raking over my chest like 'D-cups are too big for you'. (Seriously, VS sold 30Ds online at some point, and they still think that?) Anyway, she found me some lightly-lined testers - Sunnie & Katie - plus 3 bras that had been returned in 30D (two Bridgets and a Katie.)
The bad side: holy mother of quadboob. Now, I suppose theoretically I could have grown out of 30D, or this might be a full part of my cycle, but my breasts don't change size that much and, for that matter, my Natoris fit fine (as does the Cleo Neve I just bought.) So I'm concluding that, for me at least, Aerie's cups run bizarrely small.
Except for the Sunnie, every single one of those bras is either average or narrow-wired, which led to some impressive armpit-boob and, conversely, my very first experience with wires on breast tissue. I'd always heard about it, but it'd never really clicked what that actually *meant*. Well, ladies, today I ended up with a wire halfway up my breast tissue and a gore pulled over my larger side. Ow.
Even the Sunnie, which had wires that were wide enough, had some impressive quadboob effects on me. I think the worst was the Bridget (which may have been a pushup version, thereby explaining why half of me was out of it) but all of them were far, far, far too small in the cups...
There went my hope of cheaper and super soft bras, I guess.
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I'm wide root and shallow and find the Aerie Sunnie to be one of the best fitting and most comfortable bras I own. If you have any projection I can see how you'd quad with the Sunnie. I also have a Bridget that is good for shallow breasts, the cups fit great but the band is very stretchy. You should try the Sophie, it is a great bra, good for projected and narrow root.
You know, it's bizarre. I have a very shallow, broad shape, but somehow despite that Sunnie was still quadding. I mean, I may have just grown into some awkward kind of in-between 30D and 30DD size, but it was weird either way.
I've no idea what was going on there. I tried a Sunnie Pushup a while back, and that was quadding *less*. Either I grew a lot, or maybe they had a 30C mislabelled as a 30D or something.
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Does anyone else find it a bit mind-boggling that while some manufacturers try to consider scaling, apparently NONE have thought to change the type or gauge of wire depending on size? It gets wider or narrower curved, and longer or shorter, but not heavier gauge or lighter, nor do any of them (to my knowledge) use the soft plastic wires ... on one end of the scale and Panache-level stuff at the other end of the scale.
Among the most common stuff I see about wires are complaints from those in sub-30 bands that wires are too hard, or dig too much. In 30 to roughly 36, people up to about FF/G sometimes have the same issue, while those in larger sizes often seem to lament that no one but Panache puts out the wires they need.
It seems to me that wire strength should be a consideration in scaling, yet not even the more designer type brands do it.
Why?
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Hmm very interesting observations. I am a 28F/28FF in most bras, and I actually like more stiff wires as opposed to soft ones. :P My breasts are now between wide and medium width, and projection between shallow and medium as well (used to be straight up wide and shallow). But I still like my breasts to LOOK as projected as possible, and I find stiffer wires have a better capability of pulling my tissue front and center. The cups could be super narrow and projected, but if they have soft wires, they tend to stretch out so the cups give me a more wide and flattened look.
Here is my very long and detailed answer, get ready:
Mostly it has to do with suppliers and the minimum number of items you can order from a supplier/manufacturer. In the world of wholesale, you usually have to buy thousands of wires/yards of fabrics/other materials/etc. at one time or it's not worth it to the manufacturers to start up their machines and pay their workers. Of course there are smaller suppliers, but they wouldn't be able to handle the number of wires needed for mass-producing bra companies.
Suppliers usually specialize in only one or a few items. If a bra company wanted, say, 5 different wire thicknesses/softnesses, they would probably have to find 5 different suppliers, which just gets really difficult in lining up schedules and shipments and everything else in the production of the bra. Each supplier also probably has their own wire-making specifications, meaning that they scale it up and down across sizes a certain way. Different types of wires across different suppliers would be scaled differently, so then you have an inconsistency issue.
And then there's the problem of deciding which size will the cut-off be between one type of wire and another. Considering that there are many body types, there could be a very soft person wearing a 34 band, so the wires could be more stiff, but then a muscular person could also be wearing a 34 band, so they would need softer wires. Since there is a variety of body types from very squishy to very bony/muscular across all bra sizes, if a bra company wanted to survey women about their wire preferences, they'd probably be back to square one with a similar number of women saying they want soft wires or hard wires and not knowing which type to put in which size. (I am one of those squishy 28 band wearers btw :P )
It takes money and time to survey thousands of women on their wire preferences, so it wouldn't be very efficient for a bra company anyway. How could you efficiently go about surveying women on their wire preference? The company would have to physically go up to women with several different wire types and ask them to flex them and choose which one they preferred, because if it was just online or on paper, someone's super stiff could be another person's medium stiffness. It would be a mismatched, mangled bit of information!
I studied Apparel Design in college and took many classes on the buying-supplying-manufacturing-promoting-selling process, and it's really complicated. :P But mostly it comes down to what can you get from suppliers in the amounts you need, and having enough variety of body types that you would need many different types of wires for each individual size to cater to everyone, which would be impossible.
*Whew!* I hope that wasn't too long, haha!
I love the depth of your reply, Slava-Zone ! Thank you for the perspective, from a designer's viewpoint! It makes sense.
I think what is strangest to me is that Comexim and Anna Pardal, who do alterations, don't offer that option. Although from the supply, cost, and size consistency standpoint, I can see how it could be pretty difficult to incorporate that change.
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I think I will be making an effort to start talking in terms of technical right fit, and personal right fit. Someone on ABTF mentioned militant attitudes, but I think there's a lot of room for people to say, "Yeah, I know that's usually a fit guideline, but this works better for me if I tweak/disregard that particular fit guideline."
Once you know the signs of ABTF, I don't think there's anything wrong with modifying it for yourself. That's where personal fit guidelines come in.
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i agree, if i didn't use my personal fit rules, NO bra in the world (that has an underwire) would EVER fit me, lol. :)
I remember a conversation on here where when you go through measuring and evaluating a bra, you should select for technical fit over personal, with adjusting the next station to personal fit. I personally will never have a technical fit (gore has a very hard time tacking due to center fullness and close setness), and all my reviews are marked that way.
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What's the difference between the CH and CHP? It seems all the ones they're making these days are CHP, which seems to not work for me, I'm wondering if the CH is significantly different enough that I should seek one out..
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In my experience, CH is slightly narrower and more projected than CHP. The gores and wings are similar heights and both have annoyingly wideset straps. But both are basically the only bra to fit me right now. I think the differences between the cuts are subtle in smaller sizes and get more pronounced as you move up.
My experience mirrors that of PetiteCollegiate.
I seek out CHs because they are no longer made, same with the HPs.
Basically, the HP holds your breasts close to the body. It's very round and slightly minimized.
CH is held out from the body the most. Boob shelf if you're big enough for it.
The CHP is a sort of hybrid of the two. Up and out, but also in and round.
The difference is really subtle in my size (65E) but it is there if you know to look for it. The difference is quite a bit more noticeable in larger sizes, but I don't know where it starts to become more evident.
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I don't feel bad or something because I get them
for some of them my breast could be the biggest size of their life that they've ever seen
However I've always thought that what size should I tell them.
Should I say UK SIZING? or POLISH SIZING?
Do you tell your UK SIZE or POLISH size?
Or USA one or? EU ONE?
I JUST TELL THEM I CUSTOMIZE MY BRA SO THERE IS NO SIZE ITS JUST ONE OF A KIND.
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If someone ask, I tell my EU size (65F) because this sizing is used in my country (Czech Republic).
Its even more fun in the US, which has its own sizing which no one thinks goes above a DDD. When I say "32J" (but it should be JJ now, sigh) people already think I'm making it up. thats UK sizing, because I only seem to fit Panache (UK sizing) and EM which uses something very close to UK sizing.
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Hi, I'm new to bratabase. Closely working towards finding a bra that fits. I placed a big order on Comexim, thinking I could return them but it turns out you can't return size 60! My best fit was the Summer Time. Any recommendations for what other Comexim styles to try? I am close set, projected, and narrow (pretty sure). I ... found the gore too high and cups too small on the 60H Vivien and Ingrid. On reddit I was encouraged to possibly try Ewa M. Any suggestions? Like I said, I'm new to bratabase so I'm hoping I'm doing this right.
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I'd size up to a 60HH and ask for a reduced gore if you want to stick with Comexim. Ewa CH/CHP and PL will have lower gores than Comexim too.
What size for Ewa? Thanks so much.
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Just got a couple of my Anna Pardal For Comexim bras in the mail today, and between these and the Ewa Michalak I recently got, I'm thinking I may never wear non-Polish bras again.
Better fit + cleavage + more comfort = yes, please and thank you.
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I'm leaning toward the same! My Polish bras are SO comfortable it's like wearing nothing, except your boobs are defying gravity :P
I'm slowly migrating to all Polish bras too. All of my padded bras are Polish now. I have 4 unlined bras, and none of them are Polish, but eventually I will likely switch those over too. It's just a funding thing at the moment lol.
So now that it's basically winter, I was wondering if anyone has any swimwear around a 26FF/G, 28F/FF, or 30E/F. I'd love to have a tankini or one piece but I'm interested in anything brasized really. My current bikinis and one pieces are pretty umm obscene on me at the moment because I think I've grown a bit. My budget is fairly low, but show me what you've got!
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I don't have any to get rid of but was wondering what you might have to sell that is too small? I am on the hunt for bra sized bikini tops in 28e/f or close to it. Hoping to get some that people are clearing out!
I only have non bra sized ones other than a VS bombshell one in 32D that I shouldn't be let out of the house in. Sorry!
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I want to cry. I received a 34GG Cleo Lily from Twoflower and it is SO CLOSE. I get just the slightest bit of in cup quadding on my bigger side and I want to cry because otherwise I think it may be perfect, and the 34H I also received is definitely too big D:
(Reviews and possibly fit help requests to come)
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oooh that sucks! Which color way is it? The bird prints and the solid colors seem to differ quite a bit, so maybe you could try it in another color?
The 34GG is a solid coloured one, and the 34H has flamingoes. The problem is that I can't find any more as they've been discontinued D:
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Do they even reply at all for bra-related sizing?
For Comexim owners of 65G/65H plunge bras, how tall are they (unaltered)? From the underwire, to the tallest part of the bra? I just need to have an idea before i place a custom order.
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It can take a day or so. They're generally really helpful with any questions.
My 65Gs vary quite a bit. They are all unaltered plunges. I measured inside the cup from the wire to the top of the cup along the center seam, then I measured diagonally from the wire at the center seam to the top of the cup at the strap.
Poison Ivy: C -5.75", D - 6"
Victoria: C - 6", D - 6.25"
Ingrid: C - 5.5" D - 5.75"
Irish Coffee : C - 6" D - 6.25"
The Victoria measurement does not include the eyelash lace.
thank you. that's helpful. now i can place my order. i think. :)
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Does anyone have an idea about Samanta sizing?
They are currently on sale.
samanta.eu
http://www.samanta.eu/
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Hope this helps some. http://www.missunderpinnings.com/2013/04/guide-to-samantas-constructions.html I ordered a Samantha from Zulily but it hasn't arrived yet, so I can't give you my experience.
i just discovered that they do not ship here. :(
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No, definitely different. EB bras are much more loose in the band than EM and Comexim bras. The cups are quite similar though.
Ewa Michalak and Comexim dont have the same sizes - comexim cup sizes are totally different from each other. I'm a J or JJ in ewa michalak and an N or so in Comexim
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Thursday I'm finally off for a day! Instead of working doubles, I'll be measuring the 65GG - Ewa Michalak ยป S Kamea (600) I bought from VioletIridescence78 and maybe digging out and measuring anything else I haven't gotten to yet.
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Ugh ended up getting called in and working a double shift today-- after two trainees opened by themselves. One has worked for us for about 2 weeks, the other is on her 4th day. Needless to say, the store was a wreck. I'll probably still get to measuring at least the EM bra before bed.
sometimes here in bratabase you can find 'same model' listed . . . idk, check all the tabs on that bra. But thats only same model from same brand. It wouldnt have any padded ones compared ot non-padded ones.
Or you could just ask us - does anyone know of a padded bra that fits like (bra name) in (bra size) - size matters. Different brands scale differently
I gambled on the t-shirt version of my favorite bra, Chantelle's Rive Gauche 3-part cup and the risk paid off - if I hadn't found it at a low price I probably wouldn't have taken the chance with not being able to try it on. There are a couple of Natori t-shirt styles I like but given the track record I have with the brand for that bra type (way too shallow and quads because the foam takes up most of the space my boobs are supposed to be in) BUT there are a few unlined that have caught my eye lately and I'm wondering if they would work where the others did not. Opposite problem but similar. ;)
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