Blog post » All bra adventures

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• I've been mulling these things over in my head for a few days to think about things which I'd personally like from bras, and also the general needs of women with very large breasts.

  I think that people in the know have sort of figured out about the need for narrow and deep cups, although a bit narrower wouldn't go astray. Based on a small observational experiment run some time ago on Bratabase, there's actually very minimal variation in root width between women in any cup size, with the exception of those in large band sizes who have a more undefined root. There's only so much chest wall where breasts can sit.

  What I think is missing from even the better bras available is a logical understanding of anatomy. While breasts get deeper, bodies don't become taller and wider to match. My shoulders are fairly narrow, but considering that I would primarily wear 28 bands, this should honestly come as no huge surprise to anyone. Someone with a small ribcage will have a correspondingly small frame elsewhere. This means that straps should be closer together (particularly at the back of the bra), and also that the height of the 'armpit' of bras should be lessened. There's probably also a maximum logical height for a bra cup. I think that my breasts seem to be short in relation to other breasts and not just bra cups in this size range, but I think that bra cups seem to be excessively tall for everyone when you consider likely root height and distance between underbust and armpit.

  Very close-set breasts and extreme centre fullness also seem to be a common feature which isn't very well provided for. While overlapping wire channels aren't especially feasible, changing the angle of the gore, in the manner which is done when you take it in (because I find most ladies who can, do), so that the channels run right next to each other down the bulk of the gore instead of just at the top could be helpful.

  Generally speaking, I find that constructions just aren't strong enough to be truly comfortable. Wires will distort when I wear them, straps dig in, cups fold at the bottom. I've tried a variety of band tensions and I don't believe that it's because my bands are too tight or too loose, it's merely that the materials used are insufficiently stable. I do hear that brands who design for what is conventionally considered to be the plus size demographic (Elomi and so on) have stronger bras, and I would be very positive about some of those features becoming available. It's true that the full cup styles aren't 'young' and 'cute', but if they were strong and comfortable, I'd be quite prepared to overlook the aesthetics.

  I think something else which is worth mentioning is that just because a size isn't mainstream, doesn't mean that there aren't customers who will purchase it. I'm no expert in business, but it seems so odd to me that there have been so many brands in recent years launch or expand into the E-GG/H market, where there are already huge powerhouse brands who are meeting the needs of women. What I've seen happen is that the brands seem to either settle for what they have or go under, meaning that women with very large cups (and also very small bands, and large bands small cups) only ever receive good intentions which are utterly useless at actually keeping you clothed and supported. You're perhaps not going to get the tens of thousands of customers of targeting the mainstream sizes, but there's very little competition for market share (plus if you go for large cups, you could pretty much have one size of wire for all your cups and be done with it). I wish nearly every day there was a brand who was actually good, instead of just 'good enough'. I have to commend Comexim for even trying to address the needs of this sizing group.
  

• Thank you so much for the well thought out comment. This is actually kind of hilarious to me because I literally did nothing for 5 days since posting this with the blog post itself except kind of mull it over in my mind too. And I literally started working on it today and I was typing my first draft of my first post out when I got this email.

  What's even more ironic to me is that we decided the same things to discuss. I decided to do a blog series so that I can cover where I'm coming from with the basics and then I'm going to get into the nitty gritty - which was the same stuff you mentioned. It makes me really happy to see that we feel the same about what's important, it makes me feel like I'm headed in the right direction.

  I was genuinely surprised when Erica encouraged me to give my feedback and told me Comexim/AP was thinking hard about how to improve the sizes and even how to increase the sizes. It made me feel like it was worth the effort to talk about this stuff, because we've seen brands try to expand and fail every now and then and I guess we should try to take this opportunity to help others too.

  I feel the same way about the business practices. Everyday I wonder what the hell people are doing. It would be so easy for a brand to come along with the kind of information we've gathered and start a brand for it. I do see design students here from time to time and it gives me hope. I'd do it myself if I wanted to dedicate my life to selling bras. I mean come on, it's quite simple. There's demand and no one to supply it. Why are people so afraid of the upper cup sizes? It doesn't make sense to me...

  I'm going to carefully reread your post and make sure I hit upon all those points as best I can. One area I had only thought of so far in passing is the actual construction. I did "design a bra" I thought would work pretty well but other than underwires and stiff fabric, I haven't gone much into it. It also would help if I knew how to make a bra from scratch, but I'll do what I can with what knowledge I have. At the least, this stuff will be useful for designing our own bras too.

  Oh, I was looking at some of your photos when I was doing some research. Your short root is very apparent in some photos and so is mine. I actually tried on the 75K - Ewa Michalak » Bm Aqua (578) I am selling again and noticed that the bra is literally shorter. It looks odd to me, but I think EM may have realized we don't need all that actual cup height since the BM bras seemed aimed at us. Too bad the bra fails in other ways. I don't mind having a bra be tall if it doesn't scrape, but I haven't seen that be useful for anyone.

  I took a look at the breast shapes gallery too and I noticed it seemed like mostly everyone was high set and short rooted who looked similar to me. I think there is just certain kind of breast type and that Polish bra makers have only figured out two parts of it, narrow/deep and close set, but the issues we experience must mainly be present at upper cup levels.

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