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Some questions/considerations
First, and possibly the easiest: what are some great cleavage bras? I've asked here about Freya Deco's sizing, but I'd like to know what else is what there worth checking
Second, on bra fitting, bands and sister sizes.
I was professionally fitted at a store where I live, here in Portugal, where we don't use inches, but cms. Here is the table they use for bra sizes: http://damadecopas.pt/wordpress/wp-content/uploads/2009/09/TabelaCostasCopas.jpg
Now, I find their service really good, except... it's very contraditory with everything I've read online. I measure 83cms underbust, which would place me, according to that table, between a 36 and a 38. HOWEVER, they defend that women should wear smaller bands than that and put me in a 34. Panache 34s are very tight (yet comfortable) on me, so I accepted that. Everyone I know who went to their store was happy and well-fit.
Since they sell bras for too expensive prices, I started buying online and found the whole world of online bra fitting and bra blogs (and eventually, bratabase). All those blogs said to wear the band size one measures in inches; I found that odd, as I'd been placed in a band supposedly 8cms smaller than my body, so I took my mum's measuring tape, which has both cms and inches, and... 83cms is ~32,3 inches, not somewhere between 36 and 38. WHYYYYY do european sizes do this conversion then?! To add confusion to what is already difficult?
Still, I don't think the ladies' method was all that wrong, since, as I said before, Panache 34 bands are tight on me and some don't even stretch much beyond 32 inches, which might make the "+0 rule" not universally right. This, however, might explain the fact I found my 34E Freya bra too loose in the band.
Another note on that table: sister sizes. I have a 100cm bust, which, again, is about 39,4 inches. That places me between sizes, and they told me I could be a 34E/F or, if I wanted a "transition" size that wouldn't be so tight at first, a 36D/DD. According to that table, that seems about right, and I was thinking about the sister sizes being band size down, cup size up, and it actually doesn't make much sense to me. If you're going two inches down, wouldn't the difference between band size and cup size be TWO inches, too?
Just a couple of thoughts I'd like to share/discuss
Filed under Bra sizing and fit
8 comments
Ewa PL are good for cleavage :)
With regards to the cm/inches thing, i think that the cms way of measuring builds in the +4 that used to be normal with British sizing, thus it is not actually as straight a conversion as one might hope for!
I think the band sie also depends a great deal on how squishy or boney the ribcage is; for some people adding inches is simply more comfortable than not :)
Add to that the fact there is no consistency in bra labeling - it's a minefield!
I think sister sizes are done on volume of breast, but i completly agree that bra measuring makes no sense!!!
I have found a style i like in a size that fits and just got lots of them! But then, black is often smaller than it's white counterpart and so on.... grrrrr!
That table is indeed confusing, because it shows the weird discrepancy between UK and EU bra sizing. If you convert your 83cm to inches you do indeed get something close to 32,5". According to the +0 fitting method, for your UK size you just round up or down to the nearest even number which then is your band size, brand and model variations aside. For the corresponding EU size however you have to substract 10cm. The EU sizes indeed seem to have +4 'built in'.
As to the validity of the +0 fitting method: it indeed isn't 'universally right' as you put it (for me for example it doesn't work at all), but for many it seems to produce a useable starting point, MORE useable than the 'old' +4 fitting method anyway.
Now, if someone could explain me what is the 'logic' behind the French system, it would totally make my day ;)
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