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Advice please! Finding a starting point » All bra adventures

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Advice please! Finding a starting point

Hello everyone! New user here. I have a couple questions at the bottom of this post. I haven't worn an underwire bra for over six years. Now I'm fed up with chafing from sweaty boobs in wireless bras (Rhonda Shear, Torrid bralettes, Champion sports bras) and the elastic in all of my bras is wearing out, so it's time to see if I can find an underwire that fits! Or at least wireless bras that use actual bra sizing and provide some separation.

The prospect is daunting, I remember underwires as painful. Hopefully a good fit will help. Years ago, before I got fed up with the discomfort and marks that my bras made on my ribcage, I wore 32DDD in panache and Lunaire. That size definitely doesn't work for me now, and I'm doubtful it was correct back then.

About me (best guess based on guides): pendulous/projected, short roots high on my chest, slightly center full, narrow shoulders (straps like to fall off). I'm short (5'1"), so I've had issues with wings and underwires digging in my armpits.
Snug rib cage: 31"
Horizontal perimeter: 16.5"
Standing bust: 39"
Leaning bust: 46"

So far, I've added my body measurements to my profile, as well as bra measurements for some of my wireless bras. Next I placed a Prime Wardrobe order (picking sizes like shots in the dark, 34:7 and 32:9 in Cleo, Freya, and Lunaire) and inputted bra fit and measurements for those bras. I was comically busting out of those cups!

32 band seems to be correct. The A Bra That Fits measurement tool recommends 32H or 32GG (UK), 32:10 or 32:11, depending on my monthly fluctuating breast fullness. The Bratabase tool's recommendations are currently 32JJ - 32K (32:14-15).

Question 1: should I remove the wireless bra measurements from my profile, could they be skewing my results? They don't have real cups, and I wear the bands looser than you would for an underwire, because they're not actually lifting the tissue up to the IMF, just holding the breasts down so they don't swing around.

Question 2: is there a way to find other people with measurements like mine on bratabase? Seems like finding a twin or someone close to my shape might help. There's such a wide range between 32:10 and 32:15 that I don't know where to start. And it sounds like I might need a cup with immediate projection?

Any other tips are welcome! So glad to be here and meet all you lovely people.

Filed under Bras ups and downs

Shared on Jul 31, 2020 Flag this


7 comments

  • Gah, I just wrote a reply then accidentally lost the post before adding my comment. Here we go again...

    Question 1: You should enter in all bras whether they fit or not, as long as you're using the fit questions, then your profile will reflect that. However, I find that recommendations/size info don't really work very well until you've inputted a few bras that do fit. I used the ABTFs measurements as a starting point for myself. They overestimated my cup size because I'm projected leaning over and not very top full, but it was a good starting point. You'll have to try on a few bras before you finally find one that fits. Once you start entering bras that fit into here, the recommendations and sizing estimations get more accurate.

    Question 2: There are a couple great ways to search for similar profiles/boobs. -Start on this homepage and go to "browse" at the top,
    -then "browse by size", then click on your index size you want to search (ex: 32:11).
    -Then browse the pictures and click on one to view the measurements, pictures, profiles, reviews, etc.
    Once you find someone that has similar measurements, you can view their profile and the other bras that fit them. I find it helpful when the profiles also have their measurements listed, but not everyone makes this information public. You can also look at measurements of each bra and start to get a feel what will fit based on perimeters like "cup width" "cup depth" "cup height", etc.

    Another handy thing you can do is go to "browse"
    -"browse by size"
    -then click on the index size
    -Then there's a little button on the upper left "measurements", click there
    -From here you can modify the bra measurement you want to search for. So for example, if you want to search for a bra with cup depth of 8.7 - 9.1", then you use the dropdown menu for "cup depth", then then search by cup depth on the graph.

    It all starts making more sense once you find at least one bra that mostly fits. From there you can start to use the data to search for other bras and people that have similar measurements, makes, etc.

    You can also use the fit request once you start trying bras.

    I'll see if I can remember any users to tag for you. ...

  • alisa is somewhere around your cup index size and has inputted a ton of bra data.

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