Savage x Fenty Added H Cups But I Still Can't Find a Damn Bra

I wrote off Rihanna’s lingerie line Savage X Fenty soon after its launch in 2018. Not because the selections weren’t cute, but because their bras topped out at a DD cup. It was a fact that I found irritating, particularly juxtaposed against the brand’s accomplishments: Savage X launched with plus size offerings (up to a 3X in underwear and a 44 band size) and dark-skinned models who wore nude bras that actually matched their skin tone. But with a cup size range that was little better than Victoria’s Secret, I quickly determined that Savage X Fenty just wasn’t meant for my 36H cup boobs.

Life moves on, there are always alternatives.

For the last year, Savage X Fenty promo emails have clogged my inbox, and I’ve become accustomed to glazing over even their most eye-grabbing subject lines (though “Your Nudes Leaked! 7 For $37 Undies!” did make my heart seize).

But a couple of days ago I received an email from Team Fenty that was impossible to ignore: “DDD, G & H Cups JUST DROPPED!”

I immediately clicked on the link boasting new “extended sizes.”

But my excitement was short lived.

As I attempted to refine my search, I realized that my size wasn’t available. I scrolled, scrolled again, and re-scrolled, assuming I was just spacing out or somehow misread the email. It wasn’t there:

Here are all the cup sizes available to a 36 band size:

Here are all the band sizes that are available for an H cup:

Okay!

I could opt for my sister size, a 38G. But in my experience, that alternative has been hit or miss (mostly miss).

Brands tend to correlate large cups with plus sizes (which, in the lingerie universe, means a 38 band and up). Under this model, some people are bound to be left out. Just as there isn’t a 36H bra anywhere to be found on Savage X’s website, there also isn’t a 44B, or a 32H. It can be a challenge to find large cup sizes for small bands and it can be a challenge to find small cup sizes for large bands.

This isn’t new. In 2015, a blog post at The Lingerie Addict, writer Holly Jackson lamented on this very issue.

“While it’s great that the lingerie world is embracing customers with larger cup sizes and with larger body sizes, they don’t necessarily have the same set of needs when it comes to design and construction,” wrote Jackson. “One of my biggest issues with the use of ‘extended [sizes]’ is that it furthers the assumption that all plus size women have larger breasts, which is simply not true. There are as many 42AA customers out there as 42G customers—and all are plus size.”

And when a brand like Savage X has heavily peddled inclusivity in its marketing—and, in many ways, has delivered with its actual product—it’s hard not to utter a tiny sardonic snort at that fact that my bra size still is unavailable. I’d have had as much luck looking for my bra size at Victoria’s Secret… which also tops out at DDD for a 36 band.

But as annoying as this venture back onto the Savage X website was for me and my 36H boobs, I still recognize that it’s not the end of the world. I have alternatives at my disposal and I’m perfectly content waiting for my favorite Simone Perele bra to go on sale.

And expecting Savage X, a brand that is trying to sell its products to an ever-growing laundry list of sizes, to hold every torch is unrealistic. As Cora Harrington—The Lingerie Addict’s editor-in-chief and author of In Intimate Detail—told Jezebel in an interview last fall, “There is no way for one single brand to make all sizes.”

You will not see me tweeting at Rihanna in outrage, or claiming that Savage X isn’t the inclusive brand it purports to be, not when so many brands (especially Victoria’s Secret) remain regressive in their sizing, nude selections, and models.

But you may see me finally checking out Third Love to see what all the hype is about. And would you look at that: they sell a 36H, in 10 different styles.