BOOBS!

[crikeyaphrodite]

I've done loads of bra fits this week! That's me properly working as a bra-fitter now and it's actually really fascinating seeing how different figures fit. Every age from teenagers to great grannies and all shapes and sizes. Mostly larger busts though, the smallest I've done this week has been a DD, the largest a GG. It's amazing seeing the

Comments

[crikeyaphrodite]

I think it's a supply error based on misunderstanding and miscommunication. Lots of people (70% was the last figure I read) are wearing the wrong size and when they are they're generally wearing too big a back and too small a cup. So overall, in shops that don't fit or don't fit properly, maybe their figures suggest a different picture. However I'm in a department store that really promotes fitting and our customers are coming back and buying those sizes. And as we don't get that many in, they disappear quickly.

We get more in of our own brand ones, but the other manufacturers aren't so good on it. Something that suprises me for a company like Eveden (Fantasie, Freya) who specialise in fuller bust bras.

The worst culprits are Playtex who send mostly larger backs and smaller cups. But there's been an online campaign against them recently as it was found their website was still using the old Plus 4 method (where you measure your underbust then add 4 to get your band size) which is wildly inaccurate. But that would explain all the 36Bs and 38Cs.

[virginiadear]

I'm sure you're right; "demand" is being determined by sales figures.
Normally, I'm leery of "survey bias" but in this one instance, I'm thinking it would be a splendid idea to get as many women as possible to participate in a survey to find out what the deuce size bra they should be wearing, and work from that, instead of what's being purchased.
I am convinced that a lot of women "just know" that "36C" means their bust line (fullest part of the bust) measures 36" and----this part, they always grasp---that the "C" means a three-inch difference between the bust line and the cup.
I know: that's a misconception based on the old method of measure. Guys used to get that turned around, too---but you can understand, in their case, why and how that happens in their male-thinking minds.

Self-service is another contributing factor, as is, I feel confident, a refusal to say, "Well, I hate the fact that I've gained X amount of weight and now have to buy larger bras, but let's deal truthfully with the numbers," and then purchase a correctly fitting bra. (Of course, if we look again at prices, etc., and the near-universal determination to drop 3kg in six weeks, or what-have-you, thereby obviating the need for new bras....)

[crikeyaphrodite]

I agree, I think a representative survey could work quite well. Or even ask fitters to log the sizes they fit over a period - walk in size and fitted size. That would give a decent picture for fuller busts, because that's who mostly gets measured. Feed that back to the suppliers and they'd see, not only what people are buying, but how many are being forced to walk away empty handed.

Celebrities are a big problem too. Mad Men star Christina Hendricks for instance has claimed to be a 36DD! There is no way she's that. More like a 32H. That sort of thing doesn't help, as it just makes young women feel more self-conscious.

[sewcurvy]

Yes! I'm glad someone else has noticed this .. it infuriated me years ago when DvT described herself as a 34B !! (or was it 36B?) ... i think we grew up thinking that band size means big and we all want big boobs type of thing .. i think it still does to men ... perhaps that is what it is .. a man thing? My mother was certainly of that mould where band size, not cup size mattered, but then in those days, cups only went up to a D and DD was positively page three!

[crikeyaphrodite]

I think part of the problem is that, from what I've read, the US is still a fair bit behind the UK in size choice. So those celebrities are still in the mindset of a DD being big. What puzzles me even more though is that they must get fitted properly for costumes. Hendricks is perfectly fitted for Mad Men but then it'll be vintage sized bras which are different because of the lack of stretch. Which also meant our mothers had the wrong info for us.

Yes, I think there's a male confusion too. Probably goes back to beauty queens having their 34-24-34 statistics read out as they pareded by. That measurement then got associated with bra size. You see it in blog comments by men. They thing 40 is a huge bust, when it's just a bigger body.