Bra fitting help » Where to go from here? Think I need narrower wires but same bottom projection

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Freya » Fifi Balcony Bra (1046) » 30GG 30:10

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Suggestions (5)

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  It's a bit hard to judge shape because this bra is just too big in the cup.You need something in the region of 10 or 10.5" deep. Look at your lying down breast perimeter, that is roughly the cup depth you need. Your bra list looks like you've tried a ton of shallow bras (not suitable, obvs,. that is why your boobs can't settle into the bottom) and then a number of deeper cuts, but in overly large sizes. A too-large cup is too loose and there isn't enough tissue to "push back" against the band tension, which often leads to gore pain, incidentally.

  You will find it easier to troubleshoot shape once you focus on trying cups closer to the correct volume. You look to be average to narrow, somewhat projected, not a lot of root height. Your proportions are actually quite typical for your size range. Cleo often has some great options for people with this shape, e.g. Marcie, which is a very popular mid-range FB design with very good reason--it fits a lot of people in the 30-32 band range who are within an inch or so of 10" cup depth.

  Your shape is not a flaw or a consequence of poorly-fitting bras that needs to be fixed, by the way. Your boobs are A-OK just the way they are, all you need is a bra that fits them!

  Updated on December 10, 2015 Flag this

  
  

  • I'm going to get a Marcie and Lucy, and some Freya plunges, based on my generated recommendations. Hopefully then I'll have a clear(er) picture.

    And wendybien I'm totally fine with my boobs, I'm just realizing I have some tissue migration, and I'm sure that has something to do with the fact that I've never had a properly fitting bra!

  • not all of us believe in tissue migration :)

  • melifish good point. but I think sagging is a bit of an inevitability, and I'd like to prevent it ;)

  • Whether bras help at all with sagging doesn't seem to be clearly established.

    Tissue migration seems to be real, though - I went from wearing 38FFs to 34Hs within a few months of wearing approximately correctly fitting bras. (Both were professionally fitted, and I found 36s intolerable when I got the 38FFs, and somehow went up a cup size. It wasn't due to weight gain; I lost about 5-10 pounds during this time).

  • larabloom I'm lucky in that my boobs are still fairly self-supporting, but I have lots of tissue on the side, be it migration or what - I just know that fitters at stores always seem to ignore it and try to stick me in smaller bras that don't contain it, and when I scoop, I overflow the cups. If I can move that forward, awesome. But for now, I'll just settle for a bra that actually fits.

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    Where is this side tissue exactly? Is this high up in your armpit, flanks (perhaps interfering with the very ends of underwires when you have a tall cup), or sort of front of armpit such that it kiiiind of looks like it might fit in a tall cup, but in most cases doesn't fit easily? Because you'll want to seek out different fit solutions depending on where it is.

    Migration is a bit of a misnomer in my opinion. It's not that it is an imaginary phenomenon that doesn't happen, it's just that appearances can be deceptive. It is absolutely true that after changing to better-fitting bras, many women experience breast growth AND wind up in a smaller band. However, IMO this is down to the fact that compression (as with a too-small cup, which is a common fit issue prior to bravangelization) can inhibit breast growth (something medical science does recognize and has been observed) so when you stop wearing too-small cups, sometimes your boobs go Heyyy, guess what, we have a lot of catching up to do on our growth! And when your breasts grow in size, I mean true growth where you have more glandular tissue and not just more fat, your root grows a little bit too. Taller root that extends lower than before = your IMF is now lower on the body, and on most women this will mean that your bra band will sit at a point on your torso where you are more petite and smaller around.

    But this still isn't quite the same as breast tissue actually MOVING on the body. There is a clear consensus in the medical field that it is unheard-of for that to happen. This also means that if you have tissue on your sides or under your armpit that is not close enough to be "swallowed" by a post-growth larger breast root, that part of your body is likely to remain the same even if you do experience some significant growth after starting to wear better-fitting bras.

  • wendybien It's not really my armpit, as much as the side of my boob, so that when I push it in from the side it fits into the cup. Not my Tail of Spence, if that's what you mean. But whatever it is toward the side. And it's really not THAT much, it just feels like a smaller cups that "fit" me generally don't contain me properly (it has also tended to be balconettes/half cups, so I'm trying to look for something else).

    And that's an interesting explanation. I had never heard of this concept before I came to this site/starting researching bras, so I'm just taking it all in. But main goal - properly fitting bra!

  • OMG... "Tail of Spence" .... I had no idea that area had a name!

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  I could be wrong, but I wonder if part of why you went for wide - your breasts look somewhat wide-set for your size, I think? Idk. I've never tried a freya

  Updated on December 9, 2015 Flag this

  
  

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    I thought I'm wide-set, but now I think I'm average, 2 fingers at the sternum. I'm definitely splayed though.

  • Well, I'm a JJ cup and I dont have 2 fingers, but maybe its partly scaling. I dont have one finger really, but i can press down 1 finger without pain, so I havent had much trouble with too-wide gores.

  • Yeah, I don't know what the definition of wide-set is. I thought I was wide, but then I was looking at HerRoom, and they said 1-2 fingers is normal, and wide is 3. But I definitely have more trouble with narrow gores and narrow cup spacing, rather than with wide spacing.

    Most gores are just way too tall and painful on me, probably because they expect more center fullness.
    

  • Funny, I have a curvy kate Lola which - well, i ordered it too big, not yet understanding that you dont need as much measured volume in a plunge. It fits during PMS, but its too wide-set for me and i fall towards the center. I wonder if it would have worked for you - but its discontinued. i got it cheap on clearance. and curvy kate has changed most of their bras to be narrowed

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    Ha, I looked up your Lola - maybe something like that, just not angular, more human looking. I think I need to investigate the plunge options, probably starting with Freya.

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  I wonder whether you'd get along with a Comexim bra, perhaps with reduced cups.

  Updated on December 9, 2015 Flag this

  
  

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    I've been wondering about Polish bras, but I have no idea where to start. And stupid question, what do you mean by reduced cups?

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    ella20 You can email the people at Comexim and they'll reduce the cup for you-what this means is that the cup isn't as tall. It might reduce the amount of gapping you have, although a more open on top style might work too. Would you consider yourself short rooted? A reduced cup would work great for you then.
    EDIT: You don't need to be short rooted. I think (but don't quote me on this) reduced cups also help if you are really short or high set or a combination.

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    gratiat Wow, that sounds like an amazing idea - shorter cups! I'm definitely really short-waisted and high-set, so I think that contributes to a lot of my issues with tall cups. I'm not sure that I'm short rooted, because if I push up on my boobs they go up to my collarbone (that's tall rooted, right? I'm still trying to figure out all of this).

    I'm just intimidated by this whole Comexim idea - I'm nervous about ordering a bra overseas without ever trying any of them. I also haven't found a single other bra that really fits me, so I don't really have a reference size, other than a range.

  • I'm happy with standard cup height, so I haven't tried reduced cups myself, but I've seen various short-waisted/high set/petite people on bratabase say they're wonderful for them, and it came to mind with the fit issues you described. I don't think you necessarily need to be short-rooted for them, and I don't think where your breasts goes up to determines root height - as you said, you're high-set.

    I haven't found a Comexim that's a technical fit for me so far (their size guide seems to give everyone the wrong results), but I'm happier with them than with my bras that fit by bratabase criteria (but have overly wide wires for me, etc). Try to find what people more or less in your size range on bratabase had work for them; it's a better starting point.

  • Also if you have softer tissue, it can make you look tall rooted, but it all depends on how your breasts act in a bra. I can push my tissue up to my collarbones, but in a bra my breasts act short rooted. In a bra, from the side are you more like a b or a d shape, or \ shape?

  • Hootymyboobs Umm, "/"? Not sure. But I don't think my tissue is particularly soft - it's softer than it used to be, but I don't think it's soft. But again, I have no idea.

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  I don't know how to direct you here, but I just wanted to take a moment to commiserate, as I sit here literally with yet another Amazon Return Authorization Slip printout in front of me (between me and the monitor). So thankful for Prime, but I keep thinking that someone is going to be like "seriously? Again?" at any point. I have yet to find something that fits me properly...every improper fit is igniting even more determination (yeah, "determination"...not "obsession"...haha) to find something that works. I wish you luck on your journey and hope that the next one try is the one you have been looking for all along! There are so many wonderfully knowledgeable and supportive people here...I am sure you will get some good suggestions!

  Updated on December 10, 2015 Flag this

  
  

  • Yeah, it's pretty ridiculous that something so basic as finding a proper bra can be so frustrating. I got to a point where everything was so painful that I basically stopped wearing them - working from home I have that luxury; but it's definitely not a solution, and it's not doing my boobs any favors in the long-run.

    I call it obsessive determination, because hey, I am a bit obsessive. As long as Amazon doesn't flag me...or something...I shudder to think.
    I'm definitely feeling like I'm closer to finding something that fits than I was a month ago, when I started this seriously, thanks to all the feedback and information I found on here. Keep at it, you'll find something that works!

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  what wendybien said; also, have you tried any 32Fs? I just think this is a sizing issue more than anything else. Like I think this Freya would be awesome in 32F, so would Fantasie probably.

  Updated on December 10, 2015 Flag this

  
  

  • I've definitely been thinking about sizing down, but I'm worried about the bottom being too shallow. Although it seems that some Fantasie might be ok in a 32F - I was actually looking at a few. Ugh. I think I need to return a few more things before I can buy more to try. Why isn't there a magic tool for this?

  • Cup scaling varies a lot. Some brands have weird discontinuities in how much immediate projection (that is, at the bottom) they provide between different cup sizes. You can't really guess without trying, in general, though pictures in nearby sizes can help give an idea sometimes.

  • Yeah, guessing isn't working out so well for me. I'm just going to try them and see.

  • ella20 Yeah, it's totally true that shallow bottom cups are an issue you might face. But the thing now is that the size is so off you are *creating issues* you wouldn't otherwise have. Your edit about the extender throwing the fit way off: the extender is making the fit look worse just because it's really exposing the issue of the cups being too big. Without the extender, the cup is being pulled flat, masking the issue.

    For lots of depth: Cleo/Panache, Ewa Michalak esp CH/CHP, Fantasie, Freya padded half cup and balconette, unlined bras over molded cups. I'll repeat I'd love to see you in this bra in a 32F! Good luck.

  • melifish I did order some in a 32F, so we'll see.

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    I am a newbie here so no expert but to me it looks huge and baggy. Especially the top of the material and towards the middle-centre of your breasts where all the fabric is loose. When you bend over I imagine there is also a big gap but excuse me if I am wrong. I would try on the same bra two cups smaller :)

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