To think that the fashion industry discrimates against big boobed women?

[JellyDiamond]

I'm a 34 HH and it's almost impossible for me to find a decent, pretty and most importantly affordable bras on the high street. Most shops now go up to an E cup, but if your cup size is any bigger than that your stuffed. Debenhams do occasionally stock the bigger cup sizes but you have to riffle through the rails to find one of the larger sizes, and then they are always expensive and dowdy looking.

There is Bravissimo, but they don't have one in my town and when I'm able to get to one that does have a branch as lovely as they are, they are extortianetly expensive.

I know this is not just me, I've spoken to so many women in a similar predicament. None of us are overweight, which actually makes things even more difficult as there seems to be this idea that if you have big boobs your fat. Hence they don't seem to cater for the smaller back sizes. It seems to be a real problem that so many women can't get decen bras these days without breaking the bank.

AIBU to think we are being discrimated against?

thebetterbracampaign.blogspot.co.uk/p/fitting-advice.html?m=1 tells you how to measure

I'm a 36FF and I've never had a problem finding nice bras. I must be lucky!

We're certainly not being discriminated against

Thank you I'll have a look.

My mum was a large cup size and had the same issue as you. I'm a very common cup size and my size is always never on the shelf either because its always sold out

The fashion industry (designers) do this purely because they want their clothes to be noticed and the best "walking clothes horses" are skinny. They all live in a ridiculous selfish world.

worra from your first posts on page 1, my DD has the most amazing figure, completely hour glass, tiny waist (23 inches) - yet she's a 32G.

So she's technically in your list of overweight, but TBH she has a figure to die for. Out, in, Out at all the right places. She's been talent scouted by the music industry but turned them down.

If someone has boobs etc. it will detract from their clothes, designers will always make things small as they dont want their design/fabric to look anything other than their drawings depict.

Done I need to go down 2 back sizes and up.one cup size

Worra I'm quite surprised that you would assume the majority of people with the OP's bra size must be overweight. What do you base that opinion on? have a BMI of 22, but I'm 34FF - I've recently lost 18lbs, but not a single cm from my boobs.

Jelly I have to accept that spending a lot of money on bras is just the way it goes. I go to Bravissimo once a year and buy a couple of bras and a tankini. (I have to admit, spending £70 on a swimsuit rankles!!)

When I was in my late teens, I was 32/34DD (properly measured) and that was considered pretty large at the time; it was nigh on impossible to get anything above that in 'normal' shops, so I think things have improved in the last 25 years.

I think worras post is correct. There's a reason why average breast sizes have gone up as average BMI has.

And she didn't say that there's no slim women who boobs that size.

I'm sure that average breast size probably has got bigger as average BMI has got bigger, but at the same time there is probably also a perception of breast size having got bigger over the years when actually it is just a case of more women being fitted correctly as more bigger sizes become available. Lots of women were squashed into ill fitting bras because eg 28HH bras just didn't exist.

She didn't say it was impossible to be slim with big boobs, unless you have had surgery, but she did say she thought it was rare. But honestly, I don't think it is rare at all.

Purely anecdotal, but I've never seen a woman with bigger breasts that me who's been the same size or thinner than me. And I'm currently a size 14 I think. I was a D at size 12.

Grays, she said 'I thought it was quite rare for a slim woman to have breasts that size', which is what I paraphrased in my first sentence. I guess it just irritates me (for no good reason, really) that people would assume somebody's overweight because they need a larger than average cup size.

I am a 36J. But when I was underweight due to illness (size 6 trousers needed a belt) I still came in at a 34H. Just because some slim women have small chests does not mean all do. There is a lot more body variety than the bulk fashion market caters for. Well fitting clothes need to be tailored for most people. But that is not cheap (even with sewing skills).
Cheap and low overheads are the aim 9f fashion.

I am currently fat, I admit that. My breasts currently look significantly smaller than they did when I was a skinny and very fit 13 year old. Optical illusion because I've just measured them and they are actually exactly the same size as they were then. Funnily enough I was regularly told I was an unnatural freak then too. I remember acquiring a sharp knife and sitting in the school toilets trying to work out the best way to cut them off. I was so ashamed.

32H even.

I was very self-conscious of my chest when I was younger. For a long time I squeezed myself into a 36D bra until, in my mid twenties, a friend recommended Bravissimo. They sized me as a 32F. I was really embarrassed - surely anything over a D cup equals enormous! But when I tried the bras on I was amazed that I actually looked smaller with the correct sized bra on. So much comfier and great for my confidence. No more boob sticking out the sides in an attempt to have a 'normal' bra size.

Definitely not true that it's larger ladies who have all the big boobs - I'm a size 10. I have many family members and friends who are the same - slim / smaller frame with big boobs.

Shops are gradually catching up with the idea that D+ cups are not only normal but common; though online is still a better bet for a wider range. Even then, a 32F from one shop will not be the same as a 32F from another shop. Just like a 10 in Next is the same as a 14 in Top Shop. So you have to shop around and try them on to find the best fit.

annies :(

When I was in year 6 the boys used to grab my breasts and call me 'tissue tits' because I was the only one with boobs. Was horrible.

anniesaunt Me too

I felt like such a freak in my teens, I used to slash at my breasts with a knife in exactly the same way as you describe. I remember having a realisation when I was about 14 that I could live another 70 years and have these 'things' attached to me, and I cried for days.

Now I realise that I wasn't all that unusual to a lot of other women, it's just that I had been properly measured and was wearing the correct size, whereas loads of other girls/women were wearing completely the wrong size. So when girls at school said they were a 40D no one batted an eyelid, but if I had told anyone I was a 32GG (which I would never ever have done, ever) I would have been a laughing stock.

anniesaunt, that's awful. I hope you feel better about them now?

I'm curious as to how you can be the same bra size now as you were as a 'skinny 13yo' - even if your cup size has stayed the same, surely your back size has increased? (Unless you carry your weight around your lower half, of course.)

I'm a 32FF - and definitely not overweight - wear size 8 or 10 skirts and jeans.

Agree it's not discrimination but damn bloody annoying. On the 'high street' only Next and Debenhams seem to carry larger cup sizes. The Next ones have to be ordered in and their sizing is very hit and miss - some styles are true to size - others ridiculous. Obviously there isn't a Debenhams everywhere and though it's the best of a bad bunch for own brand larger bras they do seem to place a lot of emphasis on padded styles - and I don't need or want that!

As pps have said, you can get affordable stuff often on eBay if you're confident a particular range suits you but it's a right faff (usually) to have to return eBay stuff so that puts me off unless I'm 100% sure of the style I want.

Bravissimo is great - and various department stores carry a lot of their lines - but personally I find them so expensive - and do resent having to pay so much for a necessity.

And don't get me started on larger cup bikinis ...... even harder to find than bras. Again, Next purport to stock these ..... I have had to return both 32FF and 32G because they were too small, yet I know that's my size and have plenty of bras to prove it. By the time you've bought a bikini top and a bottom from the likes of Bravissimo you can easily wave goodbye to £65 or so ..... yet could get a perfectly nice bikini for a quarter of that elsewhere if you had smaller cups.

Grays I'm a 30F although often buy 32E as that's all that's available - I'm smaller than a 14, in fact I have small shoulders and rib cage so tend to be about an 8/10 top. My boobs are by no means non-existent but they're by no means particularly large.
Another reason I often buy 32E is I can then get normally styled bras in M&S. I hate the styles of the DD+ range. As I said, my boobs are not that large and I don't require scaffolding - I like pretty little straps that I can if necessary have on show.
At DD/E there's a bit of intersection between the "normal" and plus ranges. At F, forget it. It's also quite hard to find a 30 back in the plus range.

Not remotely msvestibule if I could afford it I'd have a significant breast reduction so that at least one thing about me could be normal. BTW when I said same size I meant inch measurement across the actual as a result of being fat now I'm ironically a smaller cup size. My back size has only changed slightly, I have incredibly fat legs, fairly fat hips and a slightly thicker waist.