NOW CLOSED Talk to Panache Lingerie about bra fitting and win a bra set of your choice or a £50 voucher

[KatieBMumsnet]

The folks at Panache Lingerie would love to hear your stories about the best and worst bra fitting advice you've ever been given. Here's what Panache say: "At Panache we know what a huge difference the right fitting bra can make to the way you look and feel. We want to hear your experiences so we can help make it easier for you to find your perfect fit."

We'd love to find out what you know about getting the right bra fit, and the advice you've been given over the years - what's the best (and worst) piece of advice you've been given? Do you have your bras professionally fitted, or do it yourself in store or at home? Do you find fitting/measurement varies between different stores? If you've never been for a bra fitting in a store, why? What would encourage you to go?

What about your first bra fitting - do you remember it as a positive or negative experience? Do you have a DD you might take for a fitting soon? If so, where do you think you'll take her?
Also, how easy or difficult do you find shopping for bras? Where are your favourite places to shop? Is your size readily available, or do you have to travel far and wide to find the right bra? How confident are you that you're wearing the right size?

If you'd like to find out if you're wearing the right sized bra you can join the 'bra fit challenge' or discover how to fit your bra at home with the at home videos from Panache and Caryn Franklin:

Everyone who adds their comments to this thread will be entered into a prize draw where 3 lucky winners will have the choice of a (D+) bra set from Panache Lingerie or a £50 Amazon voucher.

Thanks and good luck!

MNHQ

[LapsedPacifist]

Bigspring, I'm willing to bet the assistant KNEW you weren't a 36C, but as I discovered to my embarassment, they don't (or didn't 3 years ago) actually stock anything bigger than a 36C.

[wonderstuff]

Why why why are there no bras in a 28C?? this would fit me, but I have the choice of a 30 back or 28D which is too big! I cant be the smallest woman in the world..

[KatyMac]

You & my DD Wonderstuff

I have found some 28C but they were very expensive & DD is likely to change shape/size

[wonderstuff]

Where did you find them? spent ages googling.

[SorrelForbes]

Ewan Michalak do a 28c but I have a feeling the bras are non returnable in that size as they're made to order.

[SorrelForbes]

Oops, Ewa Michalak!

[wonderstuff]

they dont seem to do them now

[Twonker]

Good advice: from bravissimo; find a manufacturer that works for you.
Bad advice: from m&s; there's not a single bra in this shop that will fit you so just buy this one which doesn't fit.
Fittings: I have been fitted 2 times at bravissimo, and no longer need help.
Shopping: I buy 2 bras per year, in the winter and summer sale, always half price or less At my local department store, always the same manufacturer.

I had a drawerful of bras which didn't fit before I was fitted. I hated shopping for them because I needed them but coundn't find one to fit, and my figure looked awful.

Now Its completely simple and straightforward! No stress! Hurray!

[SorrelForbes]

They're not on the drop down menus, you have to place a special order. The web site says:

If you do not see their bra size drop-down menu, please contact us and we will sew it for you. Please note, however, that such orders are not refundable / exchange

[KatyMac]

here
M&S they didn't used to do this size I KNOW
here

[GhostShip]

I was fitted in La Senza and was told I was 'in between' sizes so she couldn't give me a correct size. I asked what she'd go for and was told 'I don't know'. Not much help to be honest!

That was the first and last, I'm too embarrassed to go now.

[androbbob]

Worst fitting - M&S (again) as too hurried and poor choice for the larger bust

Best fitting - local independant shop as lady took time and found the right fit / style for me in a variety of sizes and ended up with Panache, so I now wear the Tango II balcannette and buy on line

[HauntedLittleLunatic]

I've just had a huge brainwave.

They say that 80% of women are wearing the incorrect size.

All of the main high street retailers (including debenhams and john lewis who are recommended by many mnetters) having online fitting guides still use the +4/5 rule as the basis of their fitting charts.

If those charts were corrected to the same guidelines that professional fitters use (with the caveat that many fitters don't measure overbust) then that would start to address and reduce the numbers that are poorly fitted..

[ThePsychicSatsuma]

I got measured last about 7 years ago in Debenhams, the woman took one look at me and hollered across the sales floor 'You're a 32, love'
was a bit shocked, as I wasn't in the measuring queue.
Mum chivvied me along though, and we grabbed a couple of armfuls of bras then when it was our turn, discovered I was, in fact a 32. Quite impressive.

Havent been done since then though, so probs should after breast feeding 2 kids.,

[wonderstuff]

Katymac you are a superstar.

[StuntNun]

I usually go to John Lewis for bra fitting. The last time I went, in April, I knew I had changed size because I had gained weight. They fitted me and I went home with five brand new bras. But when I took any of them off I was left with a big red mark all around me where the band was digging in. I went back and complained and was re-fitted and told that the size was correct but the back straps hadn't been set correctly and that's why they weren't fitting well. They were so confident they convinced me they were right so I went away with the same bras. Needless to say they didn't fit and I was having to pull the bands out of my skin as they were so tight. £100 completely down the drain, so I won't be going there again.

[Naoko]

I wore the wrong size bra until earlier this year. Like so many women I believed that I couldn't possibly be the size that it turns out I am because I don't look to have huge boobs and so thought I couldn't possibly be bigger than the D cup I was already wearing. 2 band sizes down and 3 cup sizes up later I'm much more comfortable. I went to Bravissimo to get fitted because I heard so many good things about them and it wasn't the superb experience others have had (I felt the assistant was dismissive about the things I was saying about the fit of the bras she was handing me, and I'm only 27, stop handing me plain white granny bras....) but they did get a lot closer to my correct size than anyone else ever has.

I'm not exactly spoiled for choice of bra suppliers/fitters where I live, my nearest Bravissimo is an hour and 20 minutes on the train away and locally (other than the supermarkets) there is only Debenhams, whose fitters in my experience wouldn't know a well fitting bra if it came and bit them on the boobs arse, but now that I know what my size is I love their range of underwear. Being on a tight student budget I tend to go for their own range, especially the Gorgeous ones, preferably when on sale, but I really love those. My favourite thing about them is probably the fabric, there are a lot of bras in it that have satin/satin feel on most of the bits in contact with skin and I much prefer that to the pretty but uncomfortable mesh or lace you get sometimes.

30G is harder to find than it should be, especially in the cheaper ranges. Not only wealthy women have large boobs! I don't have many bras, I just can't afford them.

[changeforthebetter]

Mothercare put me in a feeding bra which was a 34E - not a size I have been even when not pg/bf! Lingerie sales staff need to have a good attitude. Arriving with my small back and compartively large cup size, they seem to see me as a nuisance. Admittedly, there isn't a lot on the market for my size 28/30 HH/J. I competely agree with the poster who said upthread that she wants bigger bras which cover nipples. If you already have comparatively large boobs compared to the rest of your frame, you really don't want your nipples showing as well (well, I don't). I want good T-shirt bras. I don't wear very tight tops ever but I do wear fitted tops as I am average height so baggy tops make me look like a barrel.

I feel the lingerie market for larger cup sizes has improved in the past 10 years. Far too many companies still advertise that they sell bigger cups/smaller backs and then you find there may be only a couple in their entire range.

The poorest aspect of this whole business is the swim wear. I do not want to look like a Jordan-wannabe on the beach! Tankinis (incuding 2 or 3 Panache) ones, offer poor support and come in a very limited range including some really vile patterns. Plus, I also want swimwear for actual swimming, not just for sunbathing.

Oh and I nearly forgot the state of maternity bras and breastfeeding ones is utterly dire for the larger woman. Everyone goes up several sizes in pgcy and bf and yet the range is lousy and none of them offered anything like an acceptable shape. I just put up with it really but I can imagine it would put some women off.

[swallowedAfly]

i think the worst advice is the idea that you can actually be 'a' bra size. there is no way on earth that all bra makers conform to the same sizing requirements across the range of sizes. even with jeans i know to buy different sizes depending on size - i can look at them and think i'll need a bigger/smaller size in those dependent on the cut.

best advice is if to take several sizes into the changing room and see. i can be a 36D, 34DD or 36E in decent brand bras - they do vary and the room your boobs need in different styles varies. it can't just be me whose boobs behave differently in different style bras? a balconette bra for example does something very different than one that moulds your breasts more and has a diagonal seam across it - i would need different sizes in those bras.

what's awkward with bras is the same as i find awkward in dresses actually - i have quite wide breasts and a narrow back - i could do with a bra that was proportioned like a 36 at the front and a 32 at the back. it's hard to get a bra that is wide enough in the cups without it being flapping at my back or wide enough in the cups without having flappy bits in the cups. not sure if that makes sense.

[Sabriel]

I wore badly fitting 34B for years until I was fitted at an independent shop as 30DD.

Over the years I've put on over 3 stone and since having the last DD I'm permanently in about 36GG.

I found a really comfortable bra in M&S and went back and bought another 2, only to find that while the original bra remains really comfortable and despite being the same size and make, the 2 new ones really don't fit .

Once over a D cup you really do seem to need to go to "proper" shops, but that means £££.

[LadyLetch]

I own a few panache ones too. I'm another bravissimo convert. Always went to M&S and looked fat (at 7st), as I had big boobs. They always put me in a 36c. Then I read an advert for Bravissimo in a magazine and travelled up to covent garden (was their only shop then) for a fitting. I came out with a 30f and a waist! Loads of people thought I'd lost weight, when all I'd done was change my bra. I no longer shop at M&S but now get most of my bras from bravissimo (although it's a 50 mile round trip). If I go on a girlie day shopping I'll try to go somewhere with a bravissimo so I can get a new bra first before shopping.

Best advice I've had: don't let the back strap rude up your back & it's okay for the bra to feel tight. Now I'm used to it feeling tight, I find it hurts if I wear a bra that's too big in the back.

Worst advice: M&S who measured me as a 30f,but then told me that didn't sell any bras in a 30, so I'd have to buy a 32/4 instead. Needless to say, I declined .

[SloeFarSloeGood]

M & S don't put the engineering in to the design of their bigger bras so the wires pop out, which they then blame the customer for.

[notcitrus]

My first bra fitting was cringeworthy only because my mother was there - I seem to recall the John Lewis lady being quite lovely. Since then I've had terrible fittings at Debenhams, M&S and others of the 'tell the customer a random size we stock' variety, and excellent ones at JL, now-closed Contessa, M&S once, and Bravissimo.

Though my most recent fittings on the same day at JL and Bravissimo weren't very good - I went in asking for nursing bras after baby #2, as the ones from #1 were too small in the cup. I told the JL fitter it felt tight in the cup and wouldnt fit once I added engorged breasts and pads (I'd fed the baby just before to avoid squirting the merchandise...), but they told me it was the only size that would work they had. I was unchuffed to find it was the same brand and size as my old bras! Then Bravissimo did exactly the same thing, but explicitly said they had no 34Gs so an F 'should do'. But kudos to both places for having comfy waiting areas with water, and lovely staff coming to joggle the baby while I got fitted by a colleague. Also I have hand problems so can't try bras on myself and they have always made me feel it's no trouble to assist. Shame there's no loo in Bravissimo Regent St - that would really help. And not getting stuck in the lift!

Have had a couple Panache bras - they were well-made. However I never get sets of bra+pants because the pants invariably aren't cotton and even when there is a cotton gusset it doesn't come up high enough at the front to count, so I can't wear them.

When dd is old enough I'll suggest a fitting if she doesn't ask for crop tops etc first, find a friendly fitter and then butt out of the fitting room unless asked.

[CouthyMowWearingOrange]

I HATE Bra shopping. I don't like to do it online, because I find sizes vary between manufacturers.

I invariably end up in tears because I am on a very limited budget, and am in a 34G at the moment.

All I want is satin, plunge bras, in various colours. In my size. Easily available in my town.

I have department stores, and various shops that sell bras in my town. But if you get above a DD/E cup, especially with a small back size, you often have ONE bra or no bra, lacy (I hate lacy bras, and they're not strong enough for every day or they wear out in a couple of months daily use.), high cut so I can't wear half of my clothes, OR something that looks so much like scaffolding that my granny would refuse to wear it.

And I know SO many people who have this issue. We are often made to PAY for the bra before they will order it in our size, with no refund, only exchange possible if it doesn't fit, which is useless if there's nothing else in the shop that fits.

I got my first bra when I was 11yo, and already a C cup, my first bra also had to be ordered as it was a 24C.

Why do bra manufacters (bravissimo aside) not cater for those of us with larger cup sizes but small rib cages?

Fittings annoy me, because they measure me, bring me bras to try on, and they won't even do up, or are so loose that my Norks slip out of the bottom of the bra as it isn't tight against the rib cage.

It doesn't matter if I tell them that their tape measure will NOT give them a true picture of my true size. And they often insist on trying the hard sell of bras that obviously don't fit me, so that they can sell me something, anything.

I take my DD to be fitted every 6 weeks, as she is going through puberty and her size is changing frequently.

She hates it because she has issues with people touching her due to her ASD.

Make satin plunge bras in pretty sizes to fit me!

[CouthyMowWearingOrange]

I take my DD to the local department store to be fitted, but don't always buy her bras from there.