Decided last night on a whim to go to Nordstrom Rack this morning, even though (or maybe because?) I have exams coming up pretty soon. It took me forever to figure out where the bras were 'cause they were shoved away in a corner marked "accessories" - I've never really considered a bra an accessory, but whatever. Finding my size was another ordeal. I only ended up finding one bra in my usual 30F, a nude Chantelle thing that look monstrously large for being my size... the wires were too wide, the gore was angled in a strange way so that it poked into my chest at the top and prevented me from pulling the cups up so the underwires were in the correct location. And despite being massively too large for me in every dimension, it still managed to cut into the top of my boobs. Super fail :[
Tried a few bras in a cup size too small:
a Simone Perele purply-flowery-lacy thing in 30E that made it look like I was trying to squeeze my boobs through a small hole, like frosting out of a bag ._.
a 30E Freya Ginny half cup that gives me hope for other Freya half cups to work in a cup size up
a 30E Betsey Johnson thing with this lavenderish-bluish-greyish lace overlay on the cups with a band that somehow managed to be tiny and still have 3 hooks in each row, haha
The most exciting thing was finding a Freya Piper longline in 32F. It felt okay if I fastened it on the tightest set of hooks. The cups were too big, as I expected, but I'm hopeful that a size smaller would help. I didn't wear it for more than a minute so I don't know whether I'd like the way it felt over a long period of time/would have problems with it rolling up as people seem to mention.
I also noticed that every 30 band I tried on felt really, really loose, and was easily hooked on the 3rd set of hooks. None of my Cleos has felt even remotely that loose. Maybe it's time to try 28 bands?
I'm reluctant to completely write off the Nordstrom Rack here as I was budgeting my time, but it appears to be slim pickings for my particular size range. I'll have to go back some other day when I have more time to look around.
Shared on Apr 01, 2013 Flag this
It's so sad that it's so hard to find good-fitting bras... I have an equally as rough time as you, if not worse. I'd NEVER be able to find a bra in-store here in Sweden. We basically only have Change if we want something in a decent price range and the wires are really wide on their bras and I need *very* narrow wires so I can't fidget around it by bending the wires either. The bands are always too big too. I have to rely on heavy altering to make bras work for me :P As my username suggests I'm petite (the "pretty" is like an encouragement to embrace who I am and that I don't have to feel out of place in regular clothes nor lingerie or shoes, anything really just because I don't fit the mold) so the straps are ALWAYS set too far out, are ALWAYS too long (I'm high on chest with full-on-top boobs with a very small distance between boob and shoulder), the cups are usually either too wide or the armpit area has excessive material, or a mixture of both. Sometimes the cups come up too high, extending excessively above my armpit line. There's several issues linked to my stature and I know lots of women have troubles finding bras even when they technically should be able to find a size that actually fits them off-the-rack.