Spring is the start of the open-air bra-spotting season. Once you know the signs it's actually easy to spot a badly-fitting bra through clothes, sometimes even from a distance of several meters.
Symptoms:
* Mid-boob is lower than mid-arm
If you're wearinga correctly fitted bra, center of the breast should be at the hight midway between shoulder and elbow. Give or take a couple of centimeters, and yes, even in really big cup sizes (like this perfectly-fitted stylish lady). Any lower and it means that the band is not supportive (too loose) and sometimes the breasts dip lower than the bra band.
* Jiggle, bounce
Breasts that move around with every step are a sure sign of a band that is too loose. Which leads us to:
* Clutching the handbag to chest when running to catch a bus
A band that is too big = breasts that yo-yo at every step. Confession: I have been known to do that, a long time ago. My breast size was way smaller than now, I'm guessing a 60B, but the only way I could run comfortably was with my big, sturdy college satchel holding by breasts in place.
* Band peeking out at the back:
When the band is too loose, it rides up at the back giving the clasp a chance to say hello to the world. Most low-cut tops and dresses (mostly tank-tops and halterneck styles) are actually cut at exactly the rights height to be worn with a correctly-fitted bra. Bands that are snug enough stay horizontal. If the band does ride up, it's because of the see-saw effect.
* The quadraboob
Quadraboob means when the cups are too small and the breasts spill over the top. From the side it looks like each breast was kind of double. Demonstrated here. Breasts spilling out of the cups may look sexy from the front to some, but everyone agrees they look terrible from the side view. And even worse -- under a high-necked top. This has unfortunately been made popular by certain celebs and even bra models. Get a bigger cup, unless you want to end up with armpit rolls.
* Armpit rolls
Breasts often get fed up of spilling over the top and find other sneaky ways to escape from a too-small cup. Like the armpits. With time they creep even further, and end up becoming back rolls. If you're curious about armpit rolls and migrated breast tissue, I've written more about it here.
* Shapeless shapes
Badly-fitting bras (especially wireless ones) often make bigger breasts look bottom-heavy and wide. Others flatten, smear and generally mistreat boobs. I'm sure you know exactly what I'm talking about. This usually makes me a little bit sad, because it makes the figure of the woman look heavy and frumpy, and I think that a bra that would give lift and support could change the entire figure.
By the way even when women are wearing coats and sweaters, you can pretty safely bet that they are wearing the wrong size -- statistics say 80% to 90% of women do.
Don't get me wrong -- everyone has the the right to dress as they please, however wearing a correctly fitting bra is much more about comfort than about looking good. It makes me think that if only she were wearing a different size she'd be so much more comfortable! Seeing someone with a badly fitting bra remind me of the time a woman with one slightly wonky high heel walking in front of me -- I could almost physically feel the discomfort.
What about you? Does seeing badly fitting bras out in the wild trigger similarly strong feelings? Or doesn't it bother you at all?
