Where did you get your first bra from?

[SushiSheep]

Just had a conversation with MIL about DD needing her first bra.
MIL said, well that's a trip to M&S for you then, that's where everyone gets their first bra.
I said not necessarily. I got my first bra from BHS.
She was like What?! Why did you not go to M&S?

Her visible shock was quite funny.
Thought she was going to say if she'd known this before I married her son, she would not have approved 🤭😂

So, are you a heathen like me or did you actually get yours from M&S?

Hand me downs, from my aunties. Not sure I got new until I started buying them myself mid teens.

My mum took me to Tyrrell and Green. I don't think my first one was a Triumph Doreen but the next ones definitely were!

Tammy girl too! My mum bought 28AA but it was a bit too small so I swapped with my friend who had a 30A that was slightly too big.

Mine came from an independent clothing shop in my home town, back in the 80's!!

The co op!

A pack of two white cotton bras with a little rosebud design design in the middle, given to me by my mum as a 12th birthday present. I think she bought them from the same local department store she bought her underwear from.
Rather unexpected as there had been no talk about me needing one beforehand.

My older cousin.
I remember my aunt giving me several starter bras that my cousin had. My mother didn't do the puberty stuff - my aunt stepped up and helped me.

Definitely BHS.

I'm thinking a shop called Contessa? Is that right? Would have been mid 80s. They had little birds on the cups.

Mine was from good old C&A!

M&S but we went to Tammy Girl first. It was long overdue, I was 32DD. I was too embarrassed to ask my Mum for one and she was too embarrassed to suggest I got one.
She had a bit of a hang up from her girls school where you had to wear an pinafore not a skirt until you had a bra and you weren’t allowed a bra until you could hold a pencil under your bust. As late developer my Mum was the one of the last in a pinafore.

Tammy girl for me too.. I loved that shop!

John Lewis

Littlewoods for me. (the actual shop, not the catalogue)

I think I bought dd's from John Lewis as they didn't use the plus 4 method

Message deleted.

At my girls school First and Second Years wore the pinafore / gymslip dresses and Third Years and above wore skirts and blouses. No rules about when we could start wearing bras though; in fact our PE teacher told some of my classmates to ask for one. Doing PE with D cup + breasts and no bra must have been so uncomfortable!
Your pencil test reference reminds me about Victoria Wood's joke about being able to hold a small branch of M&S under hers.

Woolworths!!
In 1977.. it was a bra and pants set, with (bizarrely) a fireworks pattern on it! I absolutely loved it. Quickly outgrew it and then had to have “sensible” bras.

I had my first set from Woolworths too with a picture of Top Cat on it we must be a similar age

Asda 1974.
Just bought 2 today in Rigby and Peller 😀

61 shortly…

There was an Ethel Austin in the town I lived in, in South Wales in the nineties/early 2000s. It was a bit like Peacocks iirc.

Thanks @TheFairyCaravan I hadn't heard of it before.
Are they still around?

Love the sound of Woolies bras with fireworks and Top Cat on them.

DD and I are going at the weekend into "town" (our nearest city) with no specific store in mind so we'll just mooch around until she finds something she likes.
MIL pointedly said "Oh good, there's a huge M&S there" 😂
I find her dedication to the store hilarious and very endearing, she's funny.

Another member of the 28AA club here, I could have continued wearing my cropped vests for quite a while longer, but felt so grown up starting Secondary school with a brand new uniform and a 'proper' bra!

Ethel Austin

BHS in Swindon town center!