So I've been wearing decently fitted bras for a few months now - fitted by me, with lots of knowledge from everyone here & a couple of bra bloggers. Besides feeling a million times better (back, shoulders & neck), looking much better (Lifted! Separated! Supported! No more quadboob!) in & out of clothes and a resulting confidence boost, I've also lost 20 lbs. (Amazing how you can exercise when it doesn't hurt & you're not so self-conscious about all the jiggle.)
Anyway, wanted to get a decent sports bra so I can step up the exercise and stopped at Nordstrom to try some on. Got asked by a fitter if I had been recently measured & thought I'd give it a go. Been happily wearing 32J EM bras, which is the size I told her I was wearing. She measured me at a 36 (yep, plus 4) and brought in a 36DDD to try on first. HA HA HA - no. I mean, I get the plus 4 36" band thing and I know that my boobs really don't look as big as they are (narrow but deep, sit crazy high on the chest, soft tissue, and I'm fairly tall. Plus still migrating tissue - which I didn't totally believe would happen but there you have it.) but you guys, a 36DDD. I put it on anyway & it was SO bad.
She did move right away to a 36G, which was simultaneously too small & too big. She also noticed and said to me that the band should be snug on the loosest setting & the center gore should sit flat, which of course it didn't in any of the 34/36 Gs she brought in. I had pulled a 32H Panache Sports bra (which I ended up purchasing, despite being too small in the cups) and it wasn't until she saw that on that she finally, finally brought in the 32Js that I had requested to begin with and acknowledged that they were a really good fit! Ugh. She was super helpful and nice but if I hadn't known what worked for me, I might have walked out of there in a 36 or 38G (what I used to wear - that did not work!).
Shared on Feb 15, 2013 Flag this
I have been sold a full price Chantelle and a full price Simone Perele at Nordstroms in the Bay Area. Both have narrow wires, whereas I need quite wide wires. I no longer trust Nordstrom bra salespeople. Like yours, they were all nice salespeople. My most recent bra shopping experience at Nordstrom involved a newbie who not only had never sold lingerie until three weeks before, but who insisted the band should dip down in the back, rather than be level horizontally. I didn't bother arguing with her, much less explain how some brands are designing an upward arch in the back of the bra bands. I just wrote down the links to bratabase and abrathatfits. The people in these two areas are the best ways to stay out of the clutches of misinformed or outright deceptive salespeople.