Boobs, I mean, Bras, and the eternal frustration

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:(
all you guys have to do is go to a store and poof! surprise D cups.

Laura Lucy Lynn (La Lechera), Friday, 10 February 2012 13:32 (twelve years ago) link

So guess what, for the past few weeks my regular bras (same design) have been feeling a little uncomfortable and I partly blame this thread for making me realise they don't fit too well. I went into VS (I know...) an ill-fitting 34A, probably 34B and came out a 32C. I'm sure the sizing is messed up because the Bs fit me worse (too small --> quadroboob) than my current A's which are mainly ok just a bit off.

kinder, Friday, 17 February 2012 04:31 (twelve years ago) link

In my new bras, certain shirts are too small. However, I'm also piling on sugar-binge-too-tired-not-to-spike-blood-sugar weight so it might be that.

ljubljana, Friday, 17 February 2012 04:34 (twelve years ago) link

BTW never underestimate Victoria's Secret's capacity for sticking the word "sexy!" on everything. There was a t-shirt for sleeping in, in the changing room', which had a sticker on specifiying the size as "one size sexy!".

kinder, Friday, 17 February 2012 05:14 (twelve years ago) link

this thread is like a magical portal to having bigger boobs, i just know it

Laura Lucy Lynn (La Lechera), Friday, 17 February 2012 05:30 (twelve years ago) link

lol Lech - I'm pretty sure it's just that everything we've ever been taught about bra sizing is wrong and also that it may have changed over time. Honestly there's not way I have Ds in the sense that I've always imagined D sized boobs to look like. Wait - that doens't make sense. I mean - I think in my case it's partly beucase I'm tall so they don't look big on my frame? I think that someone who was smaller all around but wore the same size would have way bigger actual boobs. idk. It's very strange indeed.

wolf kabob (ENBB), Friday, 17 February 2012 14:18 (twelve years ago) link

My bra today is safety-pinned and dress-taped into place to make the band about 3" smaller than the smallest hook.

drawn to them like a moth toward a spanakopita (Laurel), Friday, 17 February 2012 14:33 (twelve years ago) link

Honestly there's not way I have Ds in the sense that I've always imagined D sized boobs to look like.

I feel the same way. Well, about my Ds, not yours.

tokyo rosemary, Friday, 17 February 2012 14:54 (twelve years ago) link

lol

A friend of mine has truly big boobs and recently went through her own proper bra fitting revelation. She has the kind of boobs I would have said were Ds and had been wearing a 40 D for years. She went into the store a 40D and came out a 38 K! I honestly didn't even know they made K sized bras.

wolf kabob (ENBB), Friday, 17 February 2012 15:02 (twelve years ago) link

Back in the years when I cleaned hotel rooms as a summer job, I saw some bras drying in bathrooms that were...prodigious. Like it seemed misshapen to 15-yo me to even be that big.

15-yo me was kind of a jerk.

drawn to them like a moth toward a spanakopita (Laurel), Friday, 17 February 2012 15:08 (twelve years ago) link

Come on, Amanda. Let's go to Isabel one of these days after work and see if we can't get you some tig ole bitties.

My bras are big enough that I can wear them as hats. And not yarmulkes. Like... full coverage hats. I know this because sometimes when I am folding laundry I put my bra on my head for lols.

My bras would definitely have frightened/horrified 15-year-old Laurel.

carl agatha, Friday, 17 February 2012 15:41 (twelve years ago) link

To be fair, and to crossover w that "things your mom said forever" thread, one thing my mom said forever was, "You're so much more...voluptuous than I ever was."

drawn to them like a moth toward a spanakopita (Laurel), Friday, 17 February 2012 15:43 (twelve years ago) link

I was not at all sure whether that was supposed to be a good thing.

drawn to them like a moth toward a spanakopita (Laurel), Friday, 17 February 2012 15:43 (twelve years ago) link

lol my mom always said I got my paternal grandmother and aunt's small boobs. I didn't really get boobs until i was in my 20s though which was sort of strange.

wolf kabob (ENBB), Friday, 17 February 2012 15:48 (twelve years ago) link

Lord, yes, my mom was always pointing out how I got my boobs from my grandmother, who is one of six sisters, five of whom were built like brick houses (the sixth was built more like an igloo).

carl agatha, Friday, 17 February 2012 15:50 (twelve years ago) link

lollll

wolf kabob (ENBB), Friday, 17 February 2012 15:51 (twelve years ago) link

I didn't really get boobs until i was in my 20s though which was sort of strange.

me too - i had always yearned for bigger boobs, then when i got them i realised they were really not worth the trouble.

just1n3, Friday, 17 February 2012 16:35 (twelve years ago) link

To be fair, and to crossover w that "things your mom said forever" thread, one thing my mom said forever was, "You're so much more...voluptuous than I ever was."
laurel your mom is obsessed with talking about bodies, my GOD!

Laura Lucy Lynn (La Lechera), Friday, 17 February 2012 16:43 (twelve years ago) link

I didn't get "real" boobs until my twenties. I thought I was done at 18 but I grew an inch in height between the my 19th and 20th year, also had to start shaving under my arms. Previously there was nothing there. I went from went from a 34B to a 38C between my 21-26 years old despite losing what my mother called baby fat everywhere else. This is why I don't think young girls should get breast implants as high school or college graduation gifts. You are still growing and changing sometimes until you are 25 or so.

*tera, Friday, 17 February 2012 19:50 (twelve years ago) link

As you may have noticed, LL, my mom is obsessed with TALKING. Lots of things have been said over the years, many of them repeatedly!

My bra feels great today, btw, being 3" smaller!!! I can't believe I've been wearing it so loose for months and months.

Question to all: How long do you keep a bra, on average, before throwing it out & replacing? Usually my answer is "under the underwires stab me in the soft tissues" but this whole band-size thing is making me revise that estimate downward.

drawn to them like a moth toward a spanakopita (Laurel), Friday, 17 February 2012 19:54 (twelve years ago) link

*Until the underwires stab me

drawn to them like a moth toward a spanakopita (Laurel), Friday, 17 February 2012 19:55 (twelve years ago) link

^^

Laura Lucy Lynn (La Lechera), Friday, 17 February 2012 19:58 (twelve years ago) link

Yeah. I mean - until the other week I literally had ONE BRA that I would just wash every couple or night or so and it had been that way for at least a couple years. It was a dire situation.

wolf kabob (ENBB), Friday, 17 February 2012 19:59 (twelve years ago) link

It is said that if your bra has the correct band size, the underwires will stab you less because they are held snugly against the body in the right place. Also the friction of wearing a too-big band won't erode the underwire casings.

Per my email, I bought my last round of bras on July 19, 2010 and since I don't really have any plans to replace them any time soon, I'll go ahead and say two, two and a half years. I have four, wear two each week, and wash them in the god damn washing machine like the good lord intended (but I don't put them in the dryer).

carl agatha, Friday, 17 February 2012 20:00 (twelve years ago) link

Although thinking about it, I bought those bras because the underwires were popping out of my last set. I lost an underwire from one of these bras but I just sewed it back in.

carl agatha, Friday, 17 February 2012 20:01 (twelve years ago) link

When the underwires stab me, it's because they've worked their way out of the casing by breaking through the lining fabric after like 3 years of ownership or more, so that's probably way past the time when I should have jettisoned them for other fit/quality reasons.

You all sound v sensible, I will assume that proper fit would prolong the wearability and proceed accordingly.

drawn to them like a moth toward a spanakopita (Laurel), Friday, 17 February 2012 20:02 (twelve years ago) link

Wait, I forgot to add my conclusion sentence:

Therefore, I replace my bras every two, two and a half years, but that's about when the underwires start springing out of them like springs from snake nut can.

carl agatha, Friday, 17 February 2012 20:02 (twelve years ago) link

I was somewhere relatively public, like a doctor's office waiting room or restaurant or the bus, and my underwire had wormed its way out of the casing and was poking up out of my shirt right in the middle of my cleavage. I actually poked myself in the chin when I looked down to see what the hell was happening to my boobs.

carl agatha, Friday, 17 February 2012 20:05 (twelve years ago) link

Real laffs in office.

drawn to them like a moth toward a spanakopita (Laurel), Friday, 17 February 2012 20:06 (twelve years ago) link

Then I had no choice but to just pull it all the way out and I was stuck running around at half-mast with one boob up and one boob down until I could get home and address the problem.

I felt like a chick lit heroine.

carl agatha, Friday, 17 February 2012 20:06 (twelve years ago) link

my bra situation has been dire for years and years and years. once upon a time i found these amazing t-shirt bras, i forget the brand (it was in nz), but they were a perfect mix of underwire/lightly-lined/not-stiff, and they provided that nice kind of relaxed-boob-70s-style kind of shape AND they were really comfy. but they were cheap and would stretch out like crazy after a few weeks and be totally useless.

while the target bras i got the other day are still not entirely the right fit, i was amazed by how bad my old bras feel in comparison.

just1n3, Friday, 17 February 2012 20:43 (twelve years ago) link

how do we feel about bralettes? i might get some for summer since i don't think i am going to the magic bra/boob store anytime soon.

Laura Lucy Lynn (La Lechera), Friday, 17 February 2012 20:51 (twelve years ago) link

(although i would like to go with you, jenny, i don't know where that store is or if it's downtown, but that's a two hour roundtrip journey for me, and therefore so not gonna happen)

Laura Lucy Lynn (La Lechera), Friday, 17 February 2012 20:57 (twelve years ago) link

It's off the Sedgewick Brown Line. I don't know why I said after work. I don't care when we go if you want to go.

carl agatha, Friday, 17 February 2012 21:54 (twelve years ago) link

I had my 'current' ones for a good 4 years or more, good old Marks & Spencers. They've held up well, just me that's changed. I am pretty desperate to get back to M&S actually.

kinder, Friday, 17 February 2012 22:57 (twelve years ago) link

M&S online all the way

ljubljana, Saturday, 18 February 2012 00:52 (twelve years ago) link

M&S are great. I also like getting Freya and Fantasie from Debenhams (sale only cos I go through bras very quickly).

I have several cup sizes on my mother, who more than once has shamed me in public by asking if I'm wearing a bra. Gave me a complex for years.

gyac, Saturday, 18 February 2012 15:49 (twelve years ago) link

I've been buying my bras from Debenhams but every time I find one that fits they discontinue it and then (optionally) bring out ones in the same range which look similar but fit completely differently i.e. not at all, so next time I'm going to M&S, where I may also be able to find a lingerie assistant over the age of 19 to measure me.

Hate it when the underwiring pops out, I bought a bra last year which fitted and I liked but the underwiring squeezed out after about 3 wears and would not stay back in. I was v cross.

Schleimpilz im Labyrinth (a passing spacecadet), Saturday, 18 February 2012 16:07 (twelve years ago) link

i did it! went to nordstrom's and spent $180 on... 2 bras. so poor right now :(

but i got this one, which is my absolute favourite bra style.

just1n3, Monday, 20 February 2012 01:53 (twelve years ago) link

chantelle bras are gorgeous

horseshoe, Monday, 20 February 2012 01:55 (twelve years ago) link

they are, but goddamn, i never even spent HALF of that on 2 bras before. AND i'm gonna have to hand-wash and line-dry them!

just1n3, Monday, 20 February 2012 01:59 (twelve years ago) link

oooh sooo nice! i want and must have

obliquity of the ecliptic (rrrobyn), Monday, 20 February 2012 14:10 (twelve years ago) link

found a bra i decently liked at target and went back to buy another in a different shade and it looks like they are discontinuing it! noo.. picked up two in weird colors for $8.50 each, but couldn't get one in a neutral color that can be worn under white :(

tehresa, Monday, 20 February 2012 16:56 (twelve years ago) link

i really wish i didn't wait till 32 to figure out my actual size start wearing really quality bras

this bra is amazing. but now i'm looking at the chantelle bras on sale on the nordstrom site and thinking "hmmm $51-55 isn't THAT much for a bra..." since i just spent $90. plus i got 2 black bras, and i mean, come on, i REALLY need a white one and a nude one, AT THE VERY LEAST.

just1n3, Monday, 20 February 2012 21:36 (twelve years ago) link

the target t-shirt bras? i got one a few months back - super comfy and fairly flattering!

sarahell, Monday, 20 February 2012 21:40 (twelve years ago) link

White bras are actually amazingly un-useful! I think bras shd only come in nude and black. And comedy patterns/colors, obv but like where utility is concerned....

drawn to them like a moth toward a spanakopita (Laurel), Monday, 20 February 2012 23:47 (twelve years ago) link

I mean because you can see the outline of a white bra through white clothing, because--shockingly!--your skin is less white than the fabric.

drawn to them like a moth toward a spanakopita (Laurel), Monday, 20 February 2012 23:48 (twelve years ago) link

That brings you down to only needing 1 nude one, and that's only $50. Nbd.

drawn to them like a moth toward a spanakopita (Laurel), Monday, 20 February 2012 23:48 (twelve years ago) link

but i need a white one to wear under a red and white summer dress! because i don't like nude straps showing

just1n3, Tuesday, 21 February 2012 00:04 (twelve years ago) link


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