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pondering about band sizing
I've been sitting and thinking about this and I'm wondering if there's any sort of write up simplifying it. Let me try to explain what I'm wanting to understand better;
Basically, the concept I'm thinking about is the scaling of small band/large cup bras, particularly with the effect the combo has on fit, and why it seems so hard to find a good band fit while seemingly between 28/30 band sizes.
Naturally, a band of a certain size should fall within a certain range of measurements stretched and unstretched, with the intent being to stretch some amount so as to provide support.
However, as far as I can tell, most of the stretch seems to come from the part of the band from the outside of the wires to the clasps. Basically, the back of the bra. Is this actually the case though?
My train of thought here is that, with each cup size the cups tend to get wider. This seems obvious in my size range in UK bras which seem to run unreasonably wide. But even for brands that seem to scale the cup width sensibly, realizing that breasts do not tend to wrap around to the back for most people, you can expect the wires to get wider.
Naturally, if the wires get wider, then if my first observation is right, then the part that does most of the stretching would like shrink accordingly, or at least do so slightly once every so many cup sizes.
Maybe this isn't so much of a problem on a larger band, but on a small band there's not much band length for the cups to "cannibalize" - so is my thought process right to think that it would be expected for the same bra in the same band size to measure fairly different at vastly different cup sizes? I haven't studied the measurements to get a feel for this, and even if I wanted to there's often not much info to go off of in the 28K range that I'm most interested in.
Does what I'm trying to explain make sense? Basically, that a bra that measures the same band length unstretched in both, for example, an E cup and a K cup, could effectively be tighter at the K cup due to the area doing the most stretching making up less of the unstretched length.
Not that I think the entire front of the bra doesn't stretch just that it seems like it does so less. Maybe I'm entirely wrong, or maybe it varies wildly on fabric and style(probably)
I better go to bed, I'm confusing myself now lol
Filed under Bra sizing and fit