Does anyone else now wince after reading the bra threads on here...

[showtunesgirl]

...when encountering people who go: Oh I'm a 34A when they really are most probably not?

I am finding it hard to convince people out of believing their M & S sizes and refer them to the bra gurus fitting guide. But it's so deeply ingrained into common thinking that anything over a D is massive and that they MUST be a 34/36 frame even when they are blatantly smaller than me and I measure as a 32!

Indeed you have Stats. [proud emoticon]

It's quite funny really - we were walking along the other day and I was having a bit of a fat day (par for the course!) and a girl with a gorgeous figure walked the other way. I made a comment to DH about "ugh, I'd kill for her figure" or some such and he responded with "yeah but did you see how bad her bra was, they were bouncing and she had quadboob"

i am currently trying to "lose" my DDs bras that are blatently the wrong size....

im a size 14 and a 34C.
she is a size 6, ok, she is taller than me.....but i found her wearing a size 34B this week! wtf!!!!

she is clearly at most a 32. (and thats pushing it)
probably a B or C depending on fit. probably a 30. 32 maybe (she has quite a broad back)

but hey. im only her mother - what do mums know eh?? she is 16.....

I'd doubt she's even a 30 tbh vicar. Most people have an underbust measurement which is within around 3" of their waist. At size 6 she must have a pretty wee waist.

Did she fill the 34B (as far as you could tell)

the cup yes....but the back is too big.

she is quite broad shouldered - she is 5ft 7 tall so a 32 seems to stay put pretty well....
a 34 she certainly aint.
i think she is a B cup.
its the back measurement she gets wrong....

i learnt the hard way. i used to think i was a 34A....(scoffs!!)

i was in fact at that time a 32B. we used to have a little indie underwear shop where the fitter - Bernie (a woman of consierable experience!) used to simply clasp your boobs to determine your size....have to say she was NEVER wrong!

If she is filling the 34B, then she won't be a B cup in a smaller back size - not all b cups are the same.

If the fills a 34B that suggests an overbust of somewhere around 36. I'd hazard a guess she's more likely to be something in the region of a 28F. A size 6 waist is apparently 23.5" according to a size chart I just glanced at. It would be really unlikely for her to be a 32.

Maybe get her to look here to see what "real" bra sizes look like?

oh lordy....
how can i get her properly checked? Bernie no longer works.....or id take her for the "grasp" test!

If you have a tape measure, get her to whip her bra of an first of all, measure firmly underneath her bust in inches. Then, bend forward so that her back is flat and boobs dangling, and measure round the fullest part. Not glam but fairly effective. The underbust measurement is basically her backsize - and I'll be utterly shocked if it is more than a 30. picture here

If she would rather get fitted then Bravissimo or John Lewis. Not, under any circs whatsoever, M&S, La Senza, Ann Summers, BHS....and a whole load of other offenders.

Btw...are you sure of your size :)

Oneholycow - you're actually the same measurements as I am now and I've just bought a 32FF and a 32G. Even before now, the worst I've been at this weight was 34DD - and even then I wondered why I had back fat!

She's bigger than my 32FF - she looks petite Not seen her on TV) - I bet she's a 28H at least and I bet, if she was my age with 2 kids behind her, those bras would give her serious armpit lard.

I'm taking dd1 (13) to get fitted for new bras at the weekend. It suddenly dawned on me while reading this thread that she hasn't been fitted for about a year and she has surely developed somewhat since then, being at that age and all.

She's going to hate it, but she'd rather have our very nice and very well trained fitters do it than have me look even vaguely in the direction of her boobs. She's going to be big too, last year she was a 32 DD (at 12!!!), and I don't think she's got any bigger round the ribs but she's definitely busting out of the cup. No pretty, dainty teen bras for her then, sports bras for school I think and hopefully we can get something prettier for wearing under summer dresses etc.

Ok I'm confused.

If some shops add four/five inches on to your back measurement, but then also add it on the bra label, doesn't that work out on overall? What am I missing?

It's too late tonight but I promise to measure myself in the morning... My mum's bras look like an X at the back which I know is wrong, so I'm determined to sort myself out before sorting her!

Giraffes. No, they only add it to your measurement not to the bra itself. I'm a 30GG and my bras measure around 25-27" un-stretched and around 28-31" stretched.

Schooldidi. It might be worth getting her to measure herself as per the instructions above. If she's below a size 12 dress size I'd be surprised if she's a DD.

We have a lovely lingerie shop nearby but the lady always fits people one band size too big!

I go to a local lady in town who seems to get it right, which is lucky as I'm biiig.I checked her against the MN way just to make sure and I think I got it right in 32/44 is 32J
I now have to find another wad of £ to fund my extreme norkage support system as I need new bras really anyway as it's been 2years a while. The last ones i got are nursing bras (still nursing) which I loathe so I went back to my relatively new under wired ones (which are 34k ish ) as I was pregnant when fitted.

Sorry Schooldidi. That should have read "if she's a 32"

Question! How tight should the measure tape be for measuring round the widest part of the boob. I did a tentative measure this am and I think I've gone from a 38A to a 30/32E!!

Also, with my new measurement, have people found they are able to walk into the likes of M&S and fit straight into their new size? Are their bras rubbish? Or is it just they are unable to measure properly???

She's a 10 but she mostly wears t shirts and other stretchy or baggy clothes so I think if she wanted something more fitted she'd be a 12 on top. She'd never admit it though because all her friends are about size 6 so she thinks even a 10 is huge. Never mind the fact that she's 5'8" and hit puberty early so she's perfectly in proportion.

I found that M&S bras are not necessarily bad as long as you fit yourself, trying loads of styles on, and you don't let the fitting ladies near you with their Calculator of Doom. And if you go into a larger branch they do do a reasonable range of 30s - according to their website they do 70 different styles up to a 30DD and another 15 up to a 30G (they only go up to 28C though).

I can't speak for the people with genuinely large norks though.

Good morning, I see you've been busy

For the ladies that have said that they are more fleshy at the side than the front, and struggle to fill a smaller cup but measure bigger.

The cup needs to extend as far as your breast tissue does. This can vary massively, and cannot be fixed by scooping, unlike migrated tissue.

The narrowest styles are more projected forward (e.g. Cleo by Panache etc). You need the opposite.

My best findings so far for you are the Fantasie Salsa, the Fantasie Belle full cup, and the new Tutti Rouge range which was launched at Bravissimo recently. The Belle comes up a cup bigger than the Salsa.

You need to avoid any wired style that has a side sling as that will dig into the breast in an attempt to push it forward.

For a soft cup option, the Royce Charlotte is pretty good, if a little functional, and their Sadie is a bit softer and prettier.

I'd be lying if I said these were vavavoom bras, but comfort has to have some say and the Salsa is quite delicate, all things considered.

I measure as 30GG but find 32FF in Fantasie or G in other brands a better fit, as I have ribs that bras annoy.

I find Debenhams comfort cup tshirt bra in a 32G a little tight and the straps fall off of my shoulders.

I've been bra fitting for over 5 years, and even before then, every now and then I'd try to find a bra that fitted me in M&S. It's been over 30 years since I first needed a bra. They fitted me once as a 36DD. I was less than 9 stone at the time

Given that they don't do a FF, the 32GG tshirt bra and another one that I spotted in their outlet store recently seemed like a good test.
They were vice like, to the point where I struggled to close it at all, even back to front to exclude the cups.

Another boo for M&S.

Thanks married that's really useful info. I've got a couple of friends who have very wide set boobs and are wearing 38A type affairs! What about someone who prefers something with a bit of padding?

I'm currently wearing a 34D with an extender because I didn't want to splash out on anything bigger during the late pregnancy/postnatal period. I've been aware for a while that it wasn't right. Having just measured myself the MN way I'm 30" under & 36/37" over, depending on how tight I pull the tape. Does this put me at 30E/F?! I mostly wear size 8 tops but I can never find button-up tops that fit because they either won't do up or they hang off my shoulders if I go for a larger size.

I was looking at bras on the weekend. I'm quite glad I got bored & left without buying anything if I'd have bought the wrong size! I shall insist on DH having the kids tomorrow evening while I go on a super exciting bra-finding expedition!

A friend who measures 27" under bust struggled to do up one of their 28 plunge bras back to front. It was at least 3" from doing up!

So, not only is their fitting awful, their sizing is bonkers too!
Fantastic.