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

Underbust in inches as band size, then each inch difference between band and overbust = 1 cup. VERY roughly, but gives a starting point.

I, like most other MNers, have had terrible advice from M&S over the years.

I would like to know if you have any plans to make teen bra's in 26 back and/or larger cup sizes? There seems to be a real gap in the market for teen (ie NOT sexy-looking) bra's in small back but large cup sizes - C+ as I know several teens (including my DD) who need this!

Actually, Id just say 26s in general. I go down to a 28 when I am lighter, and that is me still being far form skinny. I fitted my niece recently and whilst a 28 was OK, a 26 would be better. There must be quite a lot of slender women who are wearing a 28 and it's still too big in reality.

Thankyou mignonette I might give those a try. They look comfy.

In the USA you can get those Belvia type bra's in better colours- brights and less insipid pastels. Not sure if you can get them here but worth a try as they do look much better layered.

So my underbust is 31, my overbust is 39. Using the adding 5 inches method I am wearing 36DD. Should I really be in 32 F or something???

Try 30-32 FF-G. I made a similar change, you won't believe the difference!

I've never ever been measured

I did once book myself in to get measured at M&S but the lady booking the appointment was so dour faced that I couldn't bear to go through with it.

After giving birth I went to make a booking for Bravissimo but felt like they were making it really difficult and so ditched that too.

I use guesswork and I'm generally ok fitting, but I know I need to get fitted properly because it's sometimes uncomfortable and I dread buying new bras.

I have never had a fitting.... Far too embarrassing, can't imagine ever having the courage to be prodded, poked and discussed! So I sort of guess, have tried to use online fitting guides. But I just use trial and error, buy them if they're comfy. Usually struggle to get my back size right. Have 2 teen girls....they've not had theirs measured...feeling an inadequate mum now.

A mothers place -I am 30.5 under bust and 36 over and I wear a 30F. I can not understand how you are just half an inch bigger than me but are wearing a bra 6 inches bigger! Surely if you took off your shoulder straps it would fall down? Doesn't it ride up at the back?

Getting a good fit: I know you are supposed to measure here and there ... but I know my size and buy that. It has gone up and down with life events and pies but I then buy up and down. I make sure 'waistband' doesn't leave squidgey flesh oozing out but is snug

Cups - nightmare! Certain styles fit and others are terrible. trial and error for me.

Best advice was to get waistband fitting well and buy a bigger cup. That was an little lingerie shop in Surrey and I bought Triumph and Charnos.

Worst - small lingerie shop in a seaside town that fitted a bra which left me almost unable to breathe and insisted that was a good fit. Stock levels very low and I suspect they didn't have my size!

Do you find fitting/measurement varies between different stores? Yes

What about your first bra fitting - do you remember it as a positive or negative experience? Neutral. Didn't find it distressing but wouldn't plan to do it that often. The shop in Surrey was brilliant -private yet attentive, good advice and tried and tried until we found perfect bras.

Do you have a DD you might take for a fitting soon? If so, where do you think you'll take her? Yes M&S

Also, how easy or difficult do you find shopping for bras? Horrid. Try on loads. I need a supportive bra and too many have elasticated straps - they look ok but will not give enough support. Bit of elastic.. yes but it needs to support

Where are your favourite places to shop? M&S - large one near me so lots to try on.

How confident are you that you're wearing the right size? Very

worst experience was mothercare for a nursing bra - they tried to tell me i was a 44F and i was actually a 36E. Also an independent who had no idea how to fit a nursing bra while i was still pregnant. she told me to wear the bra on the tightest setting then make it looser and bigger after i had the baby. she got rather shirty when i pointed out my ribcage would shrink after i had my baby and become narrower so surely my bra would need to get tighter?

Best experience nct bra fitter and royce bras.

none pregnancy related Debenhams

Am currently a 34GG and have spent a fortune on bras over the years. Best advice I had was from an amazing fitter at Bravissimo, who spent ages with me, showing me how to lean forward into the cups so that all the breast tissue under my arms was in the cup rather than squashed under the band.

She also showed me that a tight band may feel uncomfy at first, but is essential for supporting larger breasts and avoiding diggy-in straps.

Also want to recommend the John Lewis fitters. I went for a nursing bra fitting when my first DS was 2 days old, and the woman was so, so lovely about my horrid saggy belly and enormous zeppelin boobs - I was mortified when one of my breast pads fell on the floor of the fitting room, but she was so kind that it didn't matter.

The worst fitting I've ever had was at M&S - on more than one occasion.

The most recent time I was going back to 'proper' bras after 18 months in a nursing bra, and 6 months before that in maternity bras. The woman fitting me was obsessed with the cup size, would only change that when the fit was right and wouldn't even consider that a smaller chest size with the original cup size would fit me better. It was very much the attitude that "I've had the training, not you, how could you possibly know what fits you or not". The single most awful way I've been spoken to in a state of half undress.

On the other hand, the best experience I had was a little independent boutique in my town. She picked out a load of different styles to show me the different effect they'd have on my boobs, different comfort levels etc. She showed me that different styles would require different sizes to get a comfortable fit that supported my boobs at the same time. I felt amazing during that fitting - I've never seen my chest look so good! I'd love to only buy my bras from there, but obviously being a boutique, I can't afford their bras ever on a regular basis

ever since pregnancy, i've struggled to know what size bra to buy. i've been fitted in debenhams and bought some very unflattering bras which were recommended because the were comfortable.

i've also used M&S and not been happy with what was recommended either.

bras for pregnant and breastfeeding women in both these shops were very ugly and unflattering. yes, they were comfortable, but never looked good under clothes.

I still have no idea how to measure a correct bra size!

Was measured at seven hams for a strapless for aweekend away! It was so tight I spend the weekend braless! And binned said , expensive bra!
That was my first and only fitting!!
I now try on until one feels right! Although I am now living in my genie bras . Desperately need fitting as I have no idea on my size now after a 3 stone weight loss

Debenhams lol

I find it difficult because I keep changing size - having babies, bfing, losing weight again. Then I get 4 different measurements from four different shops. My method in the last year or so has been to order lots of bras online and just try them all until one fits.

I must admit to being a bit sceptical about Bravissimo, wondered whether people like them because they effectively tell customers they're thinner than they thought they were and have bigger boobs than they thought they had. But I am cynical, and my Bravissimo bra was so uncomfortable I watched a play thinking almost solely of it rather than what I was watching.

Have decided to go to John Lewis for my next fitting; I've not been to them before and there seem to be a lot of good reports on here. The M&S bras I've tried seem to fall into two groups - comfortable but made for grannies, or prettier but torture to wear. My first fitting was of course M&S, I found it excruciating, but sure that was down to me!

My own size - anywhere between a 34C or a 32F apparently!

Just reading the above post by mrsbugsywugsy.... I could have written this... my experiences were exactly as she describes. M&S = terrible (suggested 34C). Bravissimo = fantastic service (I was a 30DD!), now I don't go anywhere else, even though I know my size in certain styles if I need a new one I always go back to get fitted at Bravissimo. Love panache, (and some other brands specialising in "big" sizes)

I've never had a fitting - too shy when I was younger, by the time I was older and braver I was self-sufficient, ie hooked on Bravissimo! Teens and early 20s though we're spent wasting my lovely figure in 36DDs as that was as big a band size as I was prepared to entertain and as big a cup as M&S did. I'm 40, have had a child and wear a 32 band now, no way was I a 36 at 16! Needless to say the back rode up, the cups were too small and my boobs fell out of the bottom. Discovered Bravissimo pre-Internet, via catalogues, wore a lot of pretty but unsuitable bras that showed under plain t-shirts and didn't always fit that well, but were at least nice to look at! Never believed the thing about the band taking the strain until I finally found bras that DID fit, never would have worn anything padded ('big enough already, thanks') until I bit the bullet and discovered t-shirt bras are WELL worth a little more bulk. Understanding how bra sizes actually work has enabled me to fit myself through weight loss, going down two band sizes but keeping the cup letter the same.

What might make me get fitted would be if you, Panache, stopped producing the Porcelain bra, as that is all I wear. Please don't! Make more in fact, more lovely colours like my fabulous purple one.

Oh, and DD when the time comes - think I might do a 'secret shopper' and find somewhere local that can fit ME properly, and then take her there! It's either that or personal recommendations, and given the genetics and her build already, I suspect she will be one of the first of her peers to need a bra, poor sausage, so I may not have recommendations to go on.

I've had a bra fitting in JL that was OK but none of the recommended bras really looked right or felt that good - the worst bit about it was saying that I didn't want to buy any of them; the sales fitter seemed to assume that I had to buy something as I had had a fitting. Obviously - I wasn't going to as I don't see the point in buying something that was wrong - but it left me with an awkward feeling (never good when you are already feeling wrong-footed by being half naked in the store) but I won't be rushing back for another fitting. Mind you - probably won't be a problem as our JL has just been refurbished and they have swept away anything that looks like it might appeal to people over 50 or over a size 16. And whilst I am much closer to 40 than 50, I am more of a size 20 these days - they didn't seem to have any bras bigger than a 38E, which as loads of people have pointed out is not really that big if you are in a properly fitting bra.

So many questions - why - when they do stock bigger bras - are they nearly always in white - or black or flesh if you are lucky, but no pretty/sexy/classy/etc ones? Just because I've gone up a size or few doesn't mean I suddenly want to start wearing boring bras.

And why when they do the bigger back sizes, do they then stop doing the bigger cup sizes? Surely it is not rocket science to think that if people have put on weight and got larger around their rib cage, then they might have put weight on their boobs too and need a cup size bigger than a DD. If you look at the Debenhams shop by lingerie size chart you can see that they have JJ and K sizes in stock for 30-38 back size - but only up to a J for size 40, an HH for 42 and an H for 44. Maybe some of that is just because their big sizes disappear very quickly because there is high demand and not enough stock (which should be telling them a message in itself) BUT - it's a trend I see time and time again in lots of different shops and needs somebody to wake up and do something about.

I have had a reasonably good fitting recently though - in Debenhams. Lady measured me to start with but just as a starting point, and then used that to work out a set of several different sized bras to try on to see which was the best fit and to get a 'base' size. She then decided (and I agreed) that the shape was wrong - my boobs seemed to be pointing out to the side rather than forwards and I had no cleavage, so she then brought a new set of bras to try on, with a better shape for me. Added to that she knew her stock well so knew when to bring a slightly different size in one bra as it came up smaller/bigger than others typically. And I did end up buying a couple of bras that were both comfy and looked good. Plus she told me to hold off buying any more as if I came back in 3 weeks they were going to be having a sale so I'd be able to get them much cheaper which I think was nice of her!

Finally - a long ago fitting in M&S - the fitter had a gadget that she slipped under the shoulder strap to see if it fitted right or not... Seemed madness - no thought of looking to see if it was right or not, regardless of how it felt on - if the gadget said it was ok then it had to be. seemed to be a way for m&S to protect itself with minimum hands on needed to do a fitting.

I have only been fitted twice.#

First time was in mothercare for a nursing bra. I had delivered my twins prematurely and was told by the woman that she didn't know how to measure me for a nursing bra cos I should have done it 2-3 weeks before I had my babies so she knew how to adjust the measurements

Second time I had been finished bf for 4 weeks and I only have vague recollections of a woman in M&S just doing it by sight.

I guess my third experience is the wonderful SorrelForbes and others on a thread over the last few days who have convinced me that I am not a 38A but more like a 32DD or 34D. I am off to Debenhams tomorrow to try and get a proper measuring.

I am nervous cos I don't know what to expect - bra on or off, tape measure, pure judgement and experience...knowing what to expect would have made me more likely to have done it before now.

tape measure usually equals WRONG. The best fitters will ask you what size you are currently wearing at look at that bra on you to see what is wrong with the fit. And then go by sight and trial and error until they get you in one which is perfect. You don't need to take off your bra, I don't mind changing bras while the fitter is in the cubicle but they will usually offer to wait outside if you prefer.