AIBU to think that any bra measuring services are utterly inaccurate.

[microfight]

There is always talk of so many women wearing the wrong bra size but I have been measured differently in three different shops! From a C to an F and 34-36!

Shouldn't they all measure me the same?

That works for the women whose boobs sit together LeQueen. Most of the time, I find you need to put your hand into the cup on the opposite side and pull diagonally upwards towards your chin get breast tissue out from under the wires. Then you can do your finger smoothing

What happens if you go beyond a HH cup?
My DD is 17 a size 8 and currently in a 28HH ..and appears to have grown a bit more . She has a couple of bras from Bravissimo and they are great but at her size, with such a small back there are few styles even there that fit and we are pretty sure she is a J cup now ..

It really affects her self image as ALL people see is a bimbo (she's not at all but with the boobs and waist length pre-raphaelite blonde hair that's how she is seen) and she hates them.

We don't have R+P funds and are always looking for nice, trendy supportive boulder holders!!! (and there is me at a 34 B... talk about unfair distribution

A line I repeat several times every working day. 'Tis a brilliant job

I truly believe girls should be taught how to put a bra on properly as part of lessons in school.

Medusa - Ebay! I get my Panache ones from there for about £15 inc postage and brand new with tags

Just typed in 28J bra and quite a few came up

Figleaves do 28J

Oh thanks... off to have a look at ebay and figleaves!

Pingu please do open a chain of independents! A one stop shop where you can try on many makes/cuts and have a great fitting and personal experience. None of this horrid M&S "if your name's not on the list then you're not coming in" bollox. And PRETTY bras with COLOUR please! If I see another mono-boob nursing bra in leopard print I may turn savage.

Oh and I had my friend over for lunch who had been measured as a 38/40B and got her into my old pregnancy 36 D's, thanks for the tips on measuring ladies, she was thrilled plus I got rid of 6 bras I'd barely worn thus freeing up space for more

Yes my dd is 17 and is a 28 across the back. She is an E to F cup so definitely bigger than me. She goes to bravissimo or we can sometimes get bras in John Lewis. She hates frumpy bras and some of them tend to be a bit like that in bigger cup sizes.

Hi i am a H cup abd i would seriously recommend taking a trip to Rigby and Peller. They are the best at bra fitting and carry such a good range.

They do have high prices so on some styles so i have a fitting, buy the cheapest bra, then order the bras i have seen in the store at an online store called Affair Lingerie - they carry the same range but on average are 15 quid a bra cheaper. I would recommend an italian range called Primadonna, the quality fit and shape are excellent, there are lovely styles and colours and matching sets. They can send you a Primadonna catalogue and order you anything from it.

When i had my first bra fitting from Rigby the difference was amazing. I got gift vouchers from my husband as he was sick of me wearing my milky nursing bras and complaining about M&S ranges.

I have an arm injury and i actually got feeling back in my arm following a day of wearing my new bra. I never get digging cups or straps or slipping backs etc. The support is so so amazing i wanted to cry. I went shopping afterwards in my new bra and i had gone down a clothing size in H & M!

The ladies in Rigby can tell your bra size the moment you walk in the door! They are amazingly accurate even if you are in the wrong bra! They also show you how to put on a bra properly and check all the fittings. They are very kind and supportive.

Just a quick question - does it seem to anyone else that young girls are tending to have bigger boobs these days? When I was a teenager in the dim and distant past, I think only 2 of my friends were above a D cup, everyone else was on the smaller side.
Whereas now - a friend's niece has colossal norks (don't know what size but she appears to have trouble holding them up) and so do several of her friends - anyone else noticed this?

I've never found a bra that felt comfortable. I've had a couple of fittings at John Lewis and even when I took the bra back (after the first fitting) and said it was uncomfortable they told me that it was right. Looking at that figleaf video I think that they were giving an orthodox view, but as someone with a very small bust I don't want the bra to feel snug. At all. I just kept having to take them off because I felt all strapped up and that I couldn't breath properly.

So I stopped wearing bras. It's interesting that bras have such a uniform basic design. When I was googling I found this www.zeebraz.com/ which I thought was quite interesting. But I also wonder why bras seem to be presented as something so compulsory, even for those of us who aren't really very endowed.

Yes, but Only because they're so much fatter, Thumbs :(.

In central London, the Selfridges bra fitters are fabulous. Took me from a 34D as advised by Marks to a 28E. They show you what a well fitted bra should look like and how to put a bra on. This was years ago and I have never been back to M&S.I get all more bras from there now including have regular fittings during my pregnancies. I wish I had worn better fitting bras in my 20s!!!

I know what you mean Thumbs, my neice and her mates are 15 and very slim. I was looking at a picture of them at a birthday party and they are all very well endowed. They are also v confident about it, in low cut tops, i never ever put my pups on show i was mortified as a girl of being big.

Mypoor husband didn't know where to look at some of the pics!

ragged - I don't think it's just that though, even the slim ones have bigger boobs. Lots more in the E+ cup range than I ever remember seeing before (as whattheheck is saying)

Have had a good look at my bra and I still think it fits. Close round the body. No bulges.

Is a lot of this a labelling thing, though? I mean, do Marks and Spencer label a bra that in other shops would be a 32 as a 36 to fit with their "add on 5" guideline? I have tried a 34A, rather than my usual 36AA, from there, but it was definitely too tight. Uncomfortable and gave me flab under the arms. I am 5' 7" and weigh 9 stone, so although I am a little flabby I am not fat!

Hormonal contraception makes my boobs grow at least a couple of cup sizes so could be the same for some youngsters.

On the other hand there are a lot of bust enhancing bras about these days, could just be that.

Thirdly bra sizes have definitely changed over the last few years. I've gone from a dd to an f but bust hasn't increased at all and my older bras still fit.

Where's good if you aren't well endowed enough to go to Bravissimo? I'm not sure if I'm over a D. I need some pretty nursing bras.

I used to hate wearing underwired bras until I got properly fitted last year. A well fitting underwired bra gives amazing support, and all my bras are now underwired.

And I was going to add that DD at age 11 is now budding out and needs a bra, so I went to shops with her to fit her first bra, using the bravissimo guidelines. I got them from Peacocks, but she's very happy with them and very comfortable. She also wasn't embarrased at me sticking fingers in around the bra to check the fit

I have corrupted her somewhat I've encourage her that when she talks to her friends about these things, to say that the measurement method doesn't really help with sizing. As others have noticed, girls seem to have bigger boobs these days, and the more girls that get properly fitted early on, the better.

Bra fitting should be exactly that - measurements with a tape measure don't work as a lot depends on the cup spacing and style/shape of a the bra. I find balconette style bras tend fit me well but plunge bras hardly ever fit me well, no matter what size I try on. I am a 36C (worn on the middle setting) but I prefer to wear a 34D (smaller back size, same cup size) as I like my bra to be tighter and more supportive (most of the support comes form around the chest and back, not from the straps) and I also prefer the smaller back size (worn on the largest setting) to allow for more stretch before a replacement is needed. I find that sizes vary slightly from one maker or brand to another - I am a 36C or 34D at La Senza and with Gossard brand bras, but in M&S own brand and other chain stores the cups are often too large for me in that size and I have to go for the next size down.

I first went to Rigby and Peller about 20 years ago. I had the same experience as others, you walk in the door and they know your size. The fitters were fantastic. I will never forget her saying about my m&s bra, 'I could get the whole of London in round the back' and I went from a 36d to a 32F. Suddenly I looked infinitely more shapely, I rediscovered my waistline and my bosom was nearer my chin than my navel. Judging by much of the above M&S remains useless at fitting bras for the well endowed,
I would still go to R and P for special treats but use Bravissimo, who are good, and about £25 for an everyday bra and have got me down (or up) to a 30gg in some makes. Bravissimo bikinis are very good too.

Anyone else quite amazed that the majority of this thread shows mass agreement that a major high street brand is continuously putting women into the wrong bras? If the wrong bras really are as damaging as I've heard then why isn't there a massive uproar about this? Why do people still seem to think M&S are the place to go? There should be boycotting and perhaps the Dept of Health could investigate and get them to stop peddling their useless badly sized bras, and often rude and embarrassing ways of sizing. Imagine the amount of money wasted every year!

Oooh, morning rant over

We should send this and another similar thread from Style and beauty to M&S, maybe that would help?
Even their size chart on website tells you that if you measure 31 inces under bust, you should be in 36 bra. Why? Why?? Has nobody there ever actually measured a 36 bra and figured out that it is, indeed 36 inces?