The Cardrona Bra Fence in NZ
Is their any other daily garment more cumbersome than the brassiere? “Women who wear the wrong bra size” stories are a staple of the slow news cycle. It’s always the same: Massive percentage of women wear ill fitting bras; are dumb. Why don’t those dummies just go shopping? The full story after the break I’ll tell you why my bras don’t fit. It’s because quality bras are ridiculously expensive, every fitter gives me a different number, and nearly all stores carry the same, very narrow size range. Victoria’s Secret doesn’t even carry anything above a 36 D in their stores and they charge more for all the D’s. Elastic is not made to last anyway, and I’m skeptical that a $70 bra from Wacoal would really last long enough to be worth buying. Vanity sizing is the last of so many straws. You have to be refitted for each and every brand.
There have been a couple of bra rants that I’ve seen recently, this one from Shakesville, and this one from SarahMC at Harpyness, more contributions to an emerging genre of feminist bloglandia, the classic, of course being this one from Bitch, PhD. The comment sections are always huge, full of complaints and testimonials from women who put on, say, a G cup and experienced such a revelatory lack of pain for the first time since adolescence, that they have to evangelize for their solution. “Haha. I’m a dude” or some such shows up a lot at Bitch, PhD. Not sure why they felt the need to share that, maybe just because they weren’t being talked about.
Anyway, this is the 21st century and we have a black president!(sarcasm) I’m not writing this because I want a recommendation for a little boutique in London that will change my posture and my life. I just want to let it be known that it is massively, spectacularly wrong that women have to deal with this sort of shit when it comes to our underwear:
Selected comments from around the interwebs:
I’m an odd bra size (36DDD) and out of the four bras I regularly wear, some are upwards of $100 a piece. I have to shop at Nordstrom or specialty stores, the one I’m wearing now was $150 with tax at a place called Intimacy while I was visiting family in Houston. That said, one of my really good bras had the underwire pop out of it recently, and that was as I was wearing it. I think I had it for 4 months? I hang dry my bras – I have to put mine in the washer, I don’t have a sink in my dorm room…
Hmmm… I should probably go get measured by someone professional. I think the measurement rules fall apart once you get above a 38. I measure as a 42 C but generally actually wear a 40 B. I’d be happier, I think, in a 42 B, but they seem to exist very rarely. And I have yet to try on a C cup that comes close to fitting. Every time I go bra shopping I remember why it is that I don’t wear one 90% of the time. I hate bra shopping more than I hate shopping for any other article of clothing. And that’s saying a lot since I generally find clothing shopping to be a frustrating and demoralizing experience.
no, you’re not the only one who gets a negative number — I do too. But I’ve found the Holy Grail of itty-bitty bras — Olga Petites. Their sizing is completely wonky — I measure at a 32 AAA (no, those don’t exist, *sigh*) and 99% of 32AAs are too big for me, yet I wear a 34A in Olga Petites — but they’re the smallest well-cut bras out there, and for cheap bras ($28 regular price at Kohls, but they’re on sale pretty frequently) they’re actually pretty comfortable (once you cut the horribly itchy tags out, anyway). And they’re nicely molded and lightly padded in a way that they don’t just squash down the itty-bitty boobage, but actually make one look like a full-grown (although still pretty flat-chested) adult of the species. (I think because the cup actually extends into the armpit instead of being entirely in the front like most itty-bitty bras — not squashing that side-boobage flat under a band seems to help quite a bit.) (As I’m well into my 20s and still get carded for R-rated movies once in a while, I find this whole “full-grown adult boobs” effect a major benefit. )
Something I heard on NPR last year – the average American white woman, when fitted properly wears a 40D. The average American black woman wears a 42DD.
Back to the bra thing…is it any wonder women wear “the wrong size bra”? Check out bra-size calculators…I entered the same measurements (36 ribcage 41 breast) and came up with these results: 42D, 42AA, 40A, and my personal favorite “42, but if these numbers are accurate, you don’t need a bra”. Why thank you…they are rather perky, aren’t they? So, what size do I usually wear? 36C. I used to go for 38B, but the 36C cups fit better (they’re smaller!). Any size 42 bra I’ve seen is laughably huge for me…though I can’t say I’ve ever seen a 42AA!
My mom was a c cup and had no sympathy for me with my already DDDs by high school. She thought she could buy me the same inexpensive bras she bought herself. I’d wear two or three at a time trying to avoid the sag.
Even now, when I know what to buy, I have permanent “bruises” on my shoulders.
Fortunately, I found a lingerie store owned by a lovely Greek-accented woman who took the time to measure, assess and provide me with a wide selection of bras that didn’t look like my grandmother would wear them or feel like medieval torture devices. I will be forever in her debt.
Amen. If Jesus touches breasts, he did it to me the day that I found a boutique bra store that carries my size… although now, he needs to touch my bank account to make that gift financially accessible to me.
