Bra fitting help » A little tight, not sure if right shape.
Cleo » Melissa (6991) » 32FF 32:8
This is the best-fitting bra I own. However, the band is pretty tight, and I don't think the sides are keeping all my tissue in. I'm pretty FoB, which could be contributing to my shape concerns; it looks fine under clothing, and it's nicely slimming.
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Suggestions (5)
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helpfulI think you are correct in your assessment that it's too snug for you and that the fit of the cups is currently a little wonky, albeit certainly workable.
My guess is that the tightness of the band is distorting the cup fit in a number of ways, so whatever feedback we give now is liable to be a bit off base.
I would put it on with an extender, scoop/swoop/adjust yourself, jump up and down a couple times and see how the fit looks at that point. Maybe you can snap new pics if things change noticeably.
Updated on October 7, 2014 Flag this
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Yes you can just add them, I think... I've seen other posters do so.
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So I realized that I was wearing the bra too low on my ribcage and that I'm actually not scooping appropriately (I pulled the breast fat in, but the back fat needs to come forward, too). Having hiked it up, loosened it appropriately, and fixed the scooping, the bra now bugs the crap out of me.
*No over-spillage, but it feels too tight in the cup; I kept checking my shirt because it felt like my breasts were straining against the fabric.
*The bra is still slipping downward (I keep having to pull it back up under my breasts).
*There are still those little wrinkles at the bottom of the cup (visible in the first pic).
*At one point, one of the straps (which I had already tightened) had fallen off my shoulders, and it felt like the top of the cup was slipping downward.I'll try to get some pics today.
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Back fat in the cup? I'm confused... only breast tissue belongs in the cup. Are you saying you have breast tissue that extends almost all the way round your sides, i.e. very wide roots/horizontal distribution of tissue?? This is possible but if so, ditch the Cleos which are not shaped for wide breasts. Try Panache or Tutti Rouge.
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It's... very difficult to see where my tissue ends, actually. If we're going by where the breast creases, it is not very wide, but I do have a slab of fat that runs pretty far back and hangs out over most of my bra bands (including this one). I've tried wider cups but tend to be told to size down because they are too large for me.
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Where is this "slab" located? Tail of Spence area?
On many women, when the breast sags naturally (no bra) it makes a big thick crease diagonally across the side of the torso. This doesn't always mean your boob goes all the way to the back of the crease--for example, in my case, if I hoist the breast up to where it would be supported by a bra cup, the crease disappears and I can see that my tissue ends pretty close to the front of my torso. But on other people, that crease is really the edge of their breast tissue, which is spread on a sort of shallow V that wraps well around the torso. They can be a tricky fit because narrow wires cut off the side extension of breast tissue, but wide wires poke it because they're usually too tall for the breast.
If you like wearing wider cups and they don't cause you any discomfort, I think you should wear them, advice/fitting theory be damned. Personally I am pretty much wedded to wearing cups that closely follow the (narrow) shape of my breast because of an unfortunately placed rib flare, but for people who are comfortable in wires wider than their boobs, there's no real reason to avoid them.
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This is lower and farther back, under my armpit.
My best fit thus far is my Freya Gem, which is full-coverage and has a 6.25"-wide cup despite being a 32FF; however, the underwire on that one has a tendency to dig into my right side, and it still rides down my ribcage.
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It looks like you're quite projected as well, so wide + projected can be a tricky fit in this size range (it's more common in women who are a lot bigger in the torso). Maybe Bravissimo? I'm just throwing ideas out there, I'm not an expert in this particular shape...
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helpfulFollowing wendybien 's initial suggestion, I put on an extender. I also hiked up the bra as far as I could and made sure my poor boobies were not smashed in the cup. It looks better than it did. Unfortunately, the left (smaller) breast still escapes the cup, which it why it looked progressively more wrinkly over time. New pics tagged with names/descriptions.
Updated on October 17, 2014 Flag this
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OK, yeah, definitely seems like the super-snug band was obscuring some of the fit issues before. With the extender and boob adjustment I think we really just see a shape that is aesthetically nice, but doesn't really match your anatomy. If it is comfortable I'd still wear it, but in terms of finding the perfect bra design for your shape, the search continues!
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helpfulMy attempt at a side view failed, but if you look closely, you can see a bit of fat escaping the bra, so it's not entirely useless. In my pre-request question, I mentioned that the tissue is pushing the non-wire part of the cup outward; I hope that's also noticeable.
I have noticed, though it may not be so obvious here, that I tend to hang out the sides a bit -- that is, my breast tissue extends past my ribcage on the sides, even in the bra. I'm unsure if that is also a shape issue (I'm east-west) or a sizing issue.
Updated on October 7, 2014 Flag this
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helpfulIt's definitely too tight. Also the cups are too big. You can tell because: the straps are too far apart, it's giving you a pointy and downward-facing shape, and it's just not giving you the trademark unpadded cleo roundness. I personally love this bra and i think it might work better for you in about a 34E.
Updated on October 9, 2014 Flag this
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I own a 34E bra already, a Freya Phoebe with quite a bit more projection than the Melissa (10.2" compared to 9.8"); the gore does not tack, and it gives me the most godawful blend of smoosh and quadboob.
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not all 34Es are created equal. Freya runs much bigger in band and cup than cleo, and its wires are much softer (ie less likely to tack).
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helpfulI would go up a cup size. In my size range I think this bra runs small.
Updated on November 23, 2014 Flag this
wendybien, would I put those pics in the same thread?