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My first bra fitting (along with a partial summary of my bra journey thus far)
Ok, so I have a confession to make. I'll be 24 in just over a month, and before today, I was never fitted for a bra. When I was about 15, my mother took me out bra shopping, which I was loathe to do, I might add, and she basically guessed what I'd need, because I'd stretched out my tiny training bras horridly. And lo, I wore a 34B until about a year and a half ago, when I started looking into bra fit and such online, because more than half of my bras felt as though they didn't fit anymore.
So, in October of 2012, I purchased for myself a couple new 34Bs along with a 34 1/2 C and a 32C. The 32C was probably my favourite of that trip, though I really liked the 34 1/2C, as well. Around Dec-Jan following that, I noticed my bras were getting rather snug again, but, being an incredibly broke university student, I had no money to do anything about it at that time. I ended up switching positions within the company I worked for (going from Fast Food Clerk to Server/Bartender) and I had decided that with my first couple week's tips I was going to go out and buy myself some new bras. So, I did, and I wore them for a couple months until I realized that my new 34Cs, of which I had bought 6, were now all too small. The 32C I'd managed to hang onto after my mother had made me purge all my 34Bs, and the one 34 1/2C, now barely covered my nipples. [Don't worry, it found a good home with my slightly less busty best friend]
Frustrated by having to change cup sizes again after dropping nearly $200 (a lot in my eyes at the time) on bras not even 3 months prior, I stormed angrily around the Sears intimates department, grumbling under my breath about their lack of anything bigger than B in a 34" band. I left there with only one bra, that I believed was maybe a little too matronly for my tastes, but it was reasonably comfortable, and seemed to fit. Next, I went to the La Senza just down the mall, and managed to find a couple more 34Ds that I liked, a white cotton one, and the purple one listed on my profile. The cotton one is actually the one I like best out of my 34D bras. I do have one more 34D bra that was purchased about a month later, as well, but that's another purple lace La Senza bra, this time with a bit of padding. [gasp, scandal!]
Last week, feeling ill-suited to my bras yet again, I once more took to the internet, finding blogs such as thinandcurvy, bustygirlcomics, Venusian*Glow, and this one, to name a few, was prompted to measure myself, thinking I might be going about this the wrong way. The results my findings gave me, based on a consensus of most sites I visited, was that a 38" overbust and between 30-31" underbust would place me somewhere in the ballpark of a 30-32F. Armed with this knowledge, I went to Google, to try and find if there was a place that sold bras in that size in my area. Living close to a large urban center came to my advantage, as a matter of fact, there were three, and so I selected what seemed to be the most apparently budget friendly of those, and looked them up, they even offered free, no appointment necessary, bra fittings [I don't know if that is standard, or not, but it sounded pretty good to me]. After that I looked up the fastest way to get there from my school, planning to visit after my class the following day.
I managed to get there pretty much without incident, and when I walked in, the saleswoman was wonderful and polite, and asked me to just wait for a moment, as she was currently helping someone. (She was the only one there) So, I sat and waited a couple minutes, while she asked her other customer a few questions, and then came back out to help me. Introducing herself as Brooklyn, (I'm guessing on the spelling) she led me to a change room, and I told her about my online findings. First, she took my measurements, coming up with the same for the underbust, but only 37" for the overbust. What proceeded was a myriad of, mostly beige, bras, each of which I found some reason not to like. Through this, I have discovered that: lace pretty much anywhere but the cups themselves is incredibly itchy and irritating for my skin, balconettes make my cleavage look rectangular [at least, I think it was the balconette], really soft cups make me feel SUUUPER matronly, the Prima Donna Twist bras and my boobs can never be friends, and are somehow both too big and too small, and if the band is really stretchy, I should go for a 30" band (in F, I'm assuming, since I think that's how that's supposed to work). Also, even though the Chantelle 32E was slightly tight on my right boob, the 32F was much too large for me, and, the E ended up being the one I went home with.
I feel like this was a journey of self-discovery of some sort. I learned things about bras, and my boobs, and my preferences on bras, and what fits me best, and if that isn't a Bra Adventure, I don't know what is.
<3, A
P.S.: I think the reason this is so long is because it's my first post, any subsequent posts will probably be significantly shorter.
P.P.S: I'll hopefully have the measurements on the aforementioned Chantelle bra up in the next couple days, I washed it tonight, and am planning on wearing it tomorrow~
Filed under Bra sizing and fit
That's quite the bra adventure! But sounds as though you're in the right ballpark now. As you read through the comments here, you'll figure out how t fine tune your requirements.
Awesome story! Reminds me so much of my own journey (it was like a walk down memory lane being frustrated at mall stores sizes, hopping on the subway, and heading up to a bra boutique in Toronto for the first time). Except I didn't know about cool sites like this one when I had my bra epiphany!
Lace cups can be problematic for sensitive skin. I almost never get along with lace or mesh of any sort. I've discovered that the Freya Deco is the best bra to try if you prefer a moulded cup as opposed to an unpadded cup. This is especially true if one is used to the bras at La Senza and VS. Moulded cup bras are by no means a starter bra to figure out your best size, but I've found that they are highly functional day-to-day bras once you figure out your size range and preference :)