As an experiment, a bra fitter and her friend go undercover and surrender themselves to the mercy and dubious expertise of Lisbon bra fitters. The hilarious / tragic results (depending on your sense of humour) have been photographically documented for your entertainment and education. The post originally appeared on Bra Fitting Cidade.
Statistics say that 85% of women don’t wear the right size of a bra. Even in the Great Britain, which is a bra paradise as almost all brands that produce all sizes are British, a lot of women are still not fitted properly. Why is this percentage so big? Well, you can blame lack of knowledge, sticking to false beliefs that D is a huge size (and G is gigantic) as well as lack of real professional advice in lingerie stores. Unfortunately shop assistants in these stores don’t have a faintest clue as to what to recommend to you that will actually fit you. What’s more, the sizes that they give you to try on are sometimes so far apart from what you should wear it’s incredible.
Me and my friend M decided to look around lingerie shops here in Lisbon to see what “choice” is actually available and to see if any store would provide us with a good brafitting. Altogether we went to 3 shopping centres and 5 lingerie stores.
Let’s start the ball rolling with an exclusive shopping centre in the middle of Lisbon. Me and M. enter lingerie department. After finding a shopping assistant we ask for some bras, M. – for 80/115 cm, me – 72/101cm. Each of us is given several to try on.
M. gets: a Felina 85G and 85F; I get a Chantelle 70E, Gemma70E and Chantelle 70DD. Before you look at the photographs and see how badly these bras were fitting us, a few words about these sizes. European 85G is for a woman measuring 110cm around breasts(85F for 108cm), and about 90cm around ribcage. Why? We measured the underband of this bra. The Felina we were given is 80cm unstretched and 96cm stretched to the maximum. A bra has to provide support for your breasts, and to do it the band, which is elastic, has to be smaller than your frame. Look at the photographs, how unsupported M.’s breasts are in these 2 Felinas, you’ll also see the cups of these two bras are too small. And just for you to compare, M. in her correctly fitted size (Read on to find out what it really is). Notice a difference?
 |
| M. in a correct size |
 |
| M in 38G |
 |
| M. in Felina 38F |
 |
| M. in Felina 38G |
The bras that I was given: 70DD ( – is actually for 91 cm around breasts), 70E ( – for 93cm). I have 101cm around breasts… Just look at the photos…
Again you can see a difference between the looks of breasts in a correctly fitted bra and a bad one. Too small cups mean a lumpy-bumpy look, as if you had four breasts instead of just two. Not to mention an additional pair of them under our armpits – this is what too small cups do. They cut your boobs into as many pieces as possible and squeeze them out of the bra.
Me in correct size
Me in Chantelle 70DD
Me in Gemma 70E
You may say that we look quite ok in these bras but the photos above don’t even show the massacre that these bras did to our breasts, it’s really really bad underneath our tops… :(((
Me in Chantalle 70DD Me in Gemma 70E
Do you think it looks ok? This is absolutely not a way a properly fitted bra should look like on your breasts.
... to be continued
She reveals her real bra size in the last segment of this series, till then -- can you guess it ?