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AIBU?

Share your dilemmas and get honest opinions from other Mumsnetters.

Original poster

To object to paying £40 for a new bra?

397 replies

PomBearWithAnOFRS · 12/02/2015 03:09

Just cos I have Norks! (with a capital N Grin )
There is one style and brand of bra that I have ever found, that I can just buy "off the shelf" that I know will fit me -as long as I take the bloody instrument of torture wires out - but the damn thing is at least £40 :(
I have tried others over the years, but they just don't fit, even in supposedly bigger sizes Confused
I tend to have one really tatty one, one with no wires in that is on the road to being tatty, and one newish one for "best".
Last time I bought one I got lucky and found one in my size on eBay for £25, but today I had to fork out forty quid :( and to add insult to injury my new knickers were a ridiculous price as well Confused
£48 for six pairs of giant pants!
I give up, I am becoming a hippy and wandering the streets commando, with my Mighty Norks swinging free in the breeze round my knees from now on!

OP posts:
Jux · 12/02/2015 08:15

I was lucky, got 3 bras - 2 at full price and one in the sale - for 70 quid, in a High Street shop. I don't get measured any more as I was BIed a while ago... I would pay a lot more if it meant I had a bloody good bra though.

ClassSize · 12/02/2015 08:15

Find a factory outlet. I used to travel for about an hour to go to the Gossard factory shop in Leighton Buzzard. Got some fab bargains.

And like PP - are you sure of your size? If you are ripping out the wires is screams wrong size.

oliveinthemartini · 12/02/2015 08:29

YABU

£40 for something you wear that often isn't a lot

YABU to take the wires out. Why bother at all? Just wear a vest

missymayhemsmum · 12/02/2015 08:30

YANBU, but it's what happens when you need a specialist product. I have enormous wide feet and just paid £80 for fairly normal shoes.
Wouldn't have minded normal feet and bigger Norks!

Catsize · 12/02/2015 08:42

Yab way more u for paying £48 for six pairs of pants.

MonkeySeeMonkeyDooo · 12/02/2015 08:52

Go to Bravissimo, best thing I ever did. They don't use tape measures just look at you.

Yabu to spend £48 on knickers, you don't need to. Why take the wires out? Have you been properly measured? See point one.

PolterGoose · 12/02/2015 08:53

This reply has been deleted

Message withdrawn at poster's request.

SorrelForbes · 12/02/2015 08:55

Oh, I expect I'll loiter around a bit Grin

ScathingContempt · 12/02/2015 08:56

To the people saying YABU, the point isn't whether it's worth it, it's that women with smaller boobs can pick up bras for £10 or £20 more easily. When I was an E cup, I could shop in most shops and get a reasonably priced bra and they would be reduced on sale sometimes. Now I'm an HH and I can only wear one brand because all others look hideous on me. It costs £36 and it's rarely available cheaply on eBay etc, though I do check.

It feels unfair, when you don't have a lot of money, to have to spend like that. A few years ago we were on benefits for a year and I was limited to £40 a week to feed a family of 5. So to have to spend £30-odd on a bra was a huge expense, whereas I'd have just picked up a couple of primark or asda cheapies to manage with, had I been a B or C cup. Even now, we're not flush and I find myself wearing my bras way past their shelf life, when they are sagging and uncomfortable because I can't justify forking out for a couple of new bras.

InMySpareTime · 12/02/2015 09:15

The thing is, most of the people wearing the cheapy supermarket bras are in the wrong size! Most women, properly measured, are at least a D cup. The more people know their real size, the sooner the cheap retailers will have to adjust their range.

musicalendorphins2 · 12/02/2015 09:46

40 is a good price for a bra. Your comfort is worth it. It isn't frivolous like spending 40 on let's say, getting make up done that only will last for one day, for a random example.

You're worth it and you deserve to have comfortable underwear.

DixieNormas · 12/02/2015 09:55

This reply has been deleted

Message withdrawn at poster's request.

SDTGisAnEvilWolefGenius · 12/02/2015 10:44

The two best fitting, most comfortable bras I ever owned came from Rigby and Peller, and were £65 each! They are the only underwired bras I have ever owned that never tried to stab me to death with their wires.

Sadly they did not last forever - though when the wires broke, I took them out and wore the bras without, and they were almost as good.

I am going to get a bit of money to spend revamping my wardrobe later on this year, and I plan to invest in a couple more of these bras - I can't wait. At the moment, every bra I possess pinches the side of my right boob, so I have a weak, scarred patch that is really sore. I am hoping that the expensive bras will not do this and will let this bit finally heal before my whole boob goes runny and falls off.

InMySpareTime · 12/02/2015 11:48

Mainstream retailers need to look at their own sizing charts and see the glaringly obvious fact that their bra sizes don't match their clothing sizes.
Eg. Tesco clothing, size 6 fits a bust size of 31" (waist 24.5"), but the smallest bra band size they sell is 30". The discrepancy is obvious if they choose to look. Their bra size guide uses the outmoded"add 4/5in" method, but chooses 25.5" as the smallest underbust measurement, trying to wedge them into 30 back small-cup bras! They know these women exist, why not sell bras that will actually fit them?

Jackieharris · 12/02/2015 11:55

Taking out the wires is lunacy!

A bra intervention is definitely needed.

I've paid up to £85 for a bra (rigby & pellar) but it wasn't that much better than my usual trips to bravissimo where I get a choice of a few colours/styles in my size and spend £25-£45 on each one.

I gave up on matching knickers 15 years ago!

engeika · 12/02/2015 11:56

Another vote for Bravissimo. Just got my new bra fitted after several years of weight gain/ weight loss and low self esteem.

32JJ. Three lovely bras for about £32 each I think.
Considering the work that goes into them, the range of sizes and how very important they are to how you look and feel I think that bras are not that expensive.
Definitely get a proper fitting though.

Good luck

engeika · 12/02/2015 12:00

Sorry - I did miss the point that small-boobed women can pick up cheap bras and big boobed ones can't. True. I hate having big boobs for that and many other reasons.

InMySpareTime · 12/02/2015 12:04

Technically I'm a small-boobed woman, doesn't mean I can get cheap bras! On a 26 back, my GG-cups are barely a handful. I daresay the likes of M&S would gladly wedge me into a nice cheap 30C, but it wouldn't fit in any way.

GoooRooo · 12/02/2015 12:05

PomBearWithAnOFRS is it the actual wires you're taking out? In which case it's lost most of it's supportive structure, or just the side wire things? I have done that with this bra - I can't wear them with them in, they dig in something rotten.

Anyway, I have discovered these bras at Simply Be (I have enormous norks too) and they are a) reasonably priced b) fit well and c) look ok

Thurlow · 12/02/2015 12:08

I'm so Confused at the idea of taking the wires out...

I agree they are bloody expensive. I know for the number of wears you get and how important they are then they are well worth it, but it's a pain in the arse when you realise you need to spend £32.

But then I've found "my" bra and refuse now to wear any others. It's comfortable and insanely flattering so I'm just buying several a year in various colours and that's it.

I'd love to buy cheaper ones, I'm hardly large chested - it's not the cup size, it's the bloody back size - 28's are turning out to be impossible to find...

SorrelForbes · 12/02/2015 12:36

Thurlow Which bra is "your bra"? Perhaps one of us can find something similar for you?

Thurlow · 12/02/2015 12:38

Grin Just after I've spent £64 replacing them!

I love this one, bras without a little padding just look quite strange on me. Since finding out I'm a 28 (not an M&S 32...) and realised how a bra should fit, I've been struggling to find a 28 back that does feel tight enough.

But cheaper copies are always welcome!

SorrelForbes · 12/02/2015 12:43

I'm not sure I can help with cheaper but here goes...

I own a few Satines and other styles that work well for me include Cleo Marcie, Millie, Lily, Meg, Bella.

However, none of these are padded. Cleo do a couple of lightly padded styles (Juna and Maddie) which could work. Panache do a moulded version of their Idina Balconette which comes in a 28 band.

CobbOnn · 12/02/2015 12:48

Totally agree. I finished breastfeeding in oct. Waited till early Jan till my boobs had settled down before going to bravissimo and buying 2 basic tshirt bras for over 70 quid in total. Then I started losing weight and the bras are now a bit big. Ffs. I'm not going to stop wearing them.

Claybury · 12/02/2015 12:51

What is actually wrong with the bra industry though ? I recall shopping in a large shopping centre, several shops including john Lewis - and being told they can't fit me for a bra. Not one ! Let alone an element of choice !! I am an athletic build, size 10 and to look at very average bra size. In fact I need 30E or 32DD or thereabouts. Almost impossible to buy.
Why do they think most people are 36B!?
Fwiw I live in Lululemon sports bras since discovering them.

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