Any ideas for plus-size (42D) sports bras? I've been looking online and in-stores, but to date, they've either been chest-crushing (in that "hard to breathe once I started working out" sense) or looked good but allowed too much bounce.
I actually wear a 32d. Try to find that size in any normal store (with regular bra sizing) and you'll get why I hate underwear shopping so much. Usually I'm told to wear a 34c instead, which means my breasts are crushed in too-small cups while the band around my ribcage flaps around because it's too loose.
my breasts are not friend with bras. My sister has the same breasts and the same problem. Our small breasts are set very far apart, way father than most women, apparently because most bras want to push our breasts towards the middle of our chest. so they are uncomfortable and they gape and dont work. and my breasts are uneven so I prefer to wear contoured cups to even them out. so, i hate bras. i usually just wear a spanx camisole without a bra.
I don't know if anyone's mentioned this, but my cousin's got an odd bra size (small band/large cup) and she recommends this website: Bigger Bras.
They have sizing from 32AA on up.
All this is making me think I ought to be fitted. I don't give a shit if it's vanity, if my back doesn't hurt, it's awesome. No one's looking at my bra tag anyway.
I worked clothing retail for awhile and if I learned one thing it is this: size is just a number. Seriously, sizing is so different everywhere you go that it ends up utterly meaningless. If it fits you, flatters you, makes you feel comfortable and attractive, and is a quality garment, wear it and forget about everything else.
After working at VS for a year, I know more about bras and fit than I ever thought I did. It can be a bit of a headache to try on a few sizes but it can make a difference. Because of the porportionally similar sizes of going up a cup size and down a band size, etc. I used to wear 38C and it was ok, not great and then I tried 36D and it's been much better.
Also I can pretty much eyeball a woman's bra size.
I'm a (UK) 38G. In Evans (plus size store) I can go up to a 38H depending on cup. Of course, they're all fugly, and can I afford Bravissimo? Can I hell. I can, however, get myself into a 38F in Primark, and they are SUPER cheap but surprisingly comfortable and hardwearing - I just have to be careful again with cut.
I am so sick of being told I'm bra size x and turn out to be y. I trained to fit bras (its actually not that hard) and it's so weird to me how there's a standard way to work out sizes, but NO ONE seems to stick to them when they make the fucking things.
my problem, actually, is that my boobs keep changing size. I think it corresponds to whether i've been having sex regularly or not. A year ago they grew; then, they shrank, and stayed that way for nine months; now, they're much much bigger again. LIke, much bigger. Like every time I get laid, I swear they grow. I don't understand.
All I know is I fill out my bras again.
Also, I've discovered that the bras that fit me really well are the intimissimi line at victoria's secret. I was really surprised at that . . . but they're amazing.
Anyway, though, does anyone else's boobs get bigger corresponding to sex? It seems bizarre, but I'm guessing it has to do with a hormonal, subconsciously wanting to be as appealing as possible thing. I know it's definitely not pregnancy or birth control . . . any medical opinions out there?
@o português é muito sexy: Wow, not sure. Mine definitely change size in relation to hormones - swollen and sensitive before my period and very sensitive to changes in birth control. Does a lot of sex change your hormone levels? (Can you tell I wasn't a biology major?)
@Strictlyforpleasure: I have no idea. I mean, I have an IUD so my hormones, mood wise, are generally pretty stable. And it's weird because when I got the IUD, my breasts got smaller. But then they're bigger again, and it definitely started after I started having sex regularly again (after a dry spell). So I'm assuming they're correlated, but as it's said, correlation does not equal causation, so . . . who knows?!
Victoria's Secret kind of screwed me over. I needed a new bra, so I went in and they sized me up as a 34/36 D (compared to the 36/38 C I had been wearing). A week later when I went home from college, I trudged into Nordstrom and they sized me at 36DDD and I haven't ever had a better fit.
@vuitton: VS gives their employees a 15-second training on sizing and most of them do it half-assed, over your clothes. I hate VS bras.. but i adore their no-lines undies. so comfy.
Ooh, another question I have for you ladies. Has anyone ever tried one of those sleep bras? I've seen them on some websites and am scared of them but more scared of knee tits in 10 years...
I'm sick of all the smug salespeople and newsweek articles going on about how 99.999% of us are wearing the wrong bra. Most stores only carry the same narrow selection of sizes.
Gah. I hate bras. 9 days out of 10, I wear one. That last day is usually one where I'm getting dressed and just say "fuckit. I'm not putting that thing on." I'm a B (or am I?!) and I've measured myself and I still don't think I'm wearing the right size. I usually go with a 34b and wear it until it disintegrates. Lacy shit makes me rashy and my nips do this really cool thing once in a while where they sting if you even look at them. Hence, my undershirt days. Mine don't need much support at all, but I'm not crazy about their torpedo shape which is why I wear bras in the first place. Otherwise I'd be happily free-flowing all day, every day. I've come to the conclusion that no matter the size, boobs are pretty inconvenient sometimes.
@Strictlyforpleasure: Well if it makes you feel any better, my beautifully well-endowed sister used to call me Flatso. This was when my mam Bought me the My First Bra (it was actually called that. It said it on the box it came in) not because I needed it (at that point and for a few years after, all I had was nipples) but because she thought it was cute. That was a bit traumatizing. But sis later told me about the boys at her high school that made comments about her lovely rack and that she cried in the bathroom a few times because of it. So for a while there, neither of us was happy with our tits.
Does anyone want to join my in an entreprenurial endeavor? Let's start a bra company for women with, ahem, irregular (i.e. not perfectly symmetrical, far apart, etc) boobs!
@SarahMC: It would be nice to find a bra that worked with the valley instead of trying to pretend it doesn't exist, thereby giving me a) a weird space on the bottom of my boobs where the bra should be but is not because it rides up, or b) a sorry excuse for cleavage that always ends up looking like there's a tiny third boob in the middle.
@SarahMC: I'm totally down. Mine aren't 'irregular' enough to require two TOTALLY different sizes, but this right cup could use an extra 1/2 inch or something... I wonder if you could buy each SIDE separately?
You know why we wear the wrong bra size? Because even at the SAME store we can't get sized correctly. One day I went to Victoria's secret with a friend of mine who had recently lost weight and we decided, let's both get sized. And then we went to another Victorias secret and got sized. (I walked in wearing a victoria's secret 36C. Fits great. She was wearing a 32AA).
Her 2 measurements were 32A and 34AA, not too far apart.
I was measured as a 34D (no) and a 38B (also no). The 38 had the whole 'strap riding up in the back' thing meaning the 38 was too big, and my girls were spilling over the B cup. The 34 was cutting off my circulation. The worst part was how the fitter just cavalierly measured me OVER my bra and sweater and it took 2 seconds.
So guess what, lingerie industry! I blame your bra-sizing ladies and their poor technique!!
@PrettyPrettyPrincess: You might want to go to another store, or measure yourself since clearly that didn't work. You can find instructions online or go to a nice lingerie store or a department store like Nordstrom!
@PrettyPrettyPrincess: And they always chastize you with that statistic about how many women wear the wrong bra; always with the woman-blaming. I blame the crappy fitters, the stores for hardly stocking any sizes, and the patriarchy for insisting that breasts defy gravity for life, with my back and shoulders functioning like the load-bearing pillars of a suspension bridge.
@sarahxo: Nordie's rocks. They do always measure the best, and they take their time. Just kills me, you could do 6 fittings in one weekend and not get the same result twice - maybe I will entertain myself with hitting 3 different nordstrom's one weekend and see how it goes!
@HanaMaru: Yes. Also, why do the makers refuse to create cotton bras for grown women that don't look like "My First Bra!"? All the cotton ones I've ever seen have stupid patterns on them or they only come in one style. My skin is extremely sensitive dammit! Synthetic fabrics do not agree with me, especially when in proximity to the girls!
Also, I HATE Victoria's Secret brand stuff. Mass produced, lime/hot pink/lace/leopard SECKSY!!!!!!! things do not look good on me.
@PrettyPrettyPrincess: It's the ridiculous training at VS. When I worked there they would want me to measure women on the floor. I refused. I'd do it back by the fitting room. And I'd tell them you can measure and still be wrong. Which is true.
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They have sizing from 32AA on up.
All this is making me think I ought to be fitted. I don't give a shit if it's vanity, if my back doesn't hurt, it's awesome. No one's looking at my bra tag anyway.
12/30/08
12/30/08
Also I can pretty much eyeball a woman's bra size.
12/30/08
I am so sick of being told I'm bra size x and turn out to be y. I trained to fit bras (its actually not that hard) and it's so weird to me how there's a standard way to work out sizes, but NO ONE seems to stick to them when they make the fucking things.
12/30/08
All I know is I fill out my bras again.
Also, I've discovered that the bras that fit me really well are the intimissimi line at victoria's secret. I was really surprised at that . . . but they're amazing.
Anyway, though, does anyone else's boobs get bigger corresponding to sex? It seems bizarre, but I'm guessing it has to do with a hormonal, subconsciously wanting to be as appealing as possible thing. I know it's definitely not pregnancy or birth control . . . any medical opinions out there?
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Her 2 measurements were 32A and 34AA, not too far apart.
I was measured as a 34D (no) and a 38B (also no). The 38 had the whole 'strap riding up in the back' thing meaning the 38 was too big, and my girls were spilling over the B cup. The 34 was cutting off my circulation. The worst part was how the fitter just cavalierly measured me OVER my bra and sweater and it took 2 seconds.
So guess what, lingerie industry! I blame your bra-sizing ladies and their poor technique!!
12/30/08
12/30/08
12/30/08
12/30/08
Also, I HATE Victoria's Secret brand stuff. Mass produced, lime/hot pink/lace/leopard SECKSY!!!!!!! things do not look good on me.
12/30/08
12/30/08