Halloween Haunts

" You would never think I am a 34DD!", shock horror.... This sentence still comes back to haunt me years later. I stated this in a job interview for the bra fitting boutique. Knowing what I know now, if I had been the interviewer, I would have been smurking inside (and I learned later that they were). I will never forget that interview because it changed my life and the way I feel about myself forever. I will also never forget that it took place on Halloween and that the staff interviewing me were all decked out in full Halloween fancy dress! There's nothing quite like being interviewed by Beatrix Kiddo from Kill Bill and Melanie Daniels from Alfred Hitchcock's The Birds...

On my fist day I received the first professional bra fitting of my life and returned home that evening a slightly different woman. I learned that although I had been wearing the correct band size (34) the cup size (DD) I had been stuffing myself into was 3 sizes too small! It was weird that I was in the correct band size (34), I say this because it's common to find women wearing band sizes 3-4 sizes too big for them. Mainstream stores, "The Usual Suspects", don't carry the full size range that is available, because they want to make as much profit as possible, it would cost them too much to produce the full size range apparently. They actually choose to only produce around 20% of the sizes out there. So in order for a majority of woman to get a bra to vaguely fit they usually start by fitting the cup as best they can, and because the band size directly dictates the cup size, they find them selves in band sizes far too big for their bodies. Slimmer body types all think they are 36C's when they usually turn out to be a 34D or 32DD or 30E, depending on their band size (all the same cup size but the band size is changing). The curvy girls (like me) stuff themselves into the "biggest" cup size available to them, the aspired to or dreaded DD and in some cases DDD ( this is not a true size by the way. A DDD is actually an E but North American manufacturers are scared to state the true size for fear of lost sales) I should have been wearing the 40DD, in order for the cup to fit me. Instead I was walking around with an even smaller cup size, 4 squished lumps under my shirt and the constant need to tuck myself back in.

So... what was my accurate bra size? Well, it turns out that I was a 34FF! A what?? Oh My Gosh, Holy Crap, I'm a FREAK! These the initial shocked thoughts that came into my head. 24 hours later and lots of processing this new found information I finally came to the realisation that I was not so strange after all. I was finally experiencing the correct fit for my body, and that this was obviously going to change the size I had been wearing. Conditioned by "The Usual suspects" to think a certain way about size and what that meant about me, as a woman. I had become attached to the size on the label, so much so that it had almost begun to define me.

There was definitely a spring in my step and not in my bosom the next morning, wearing my new 34FF bra. 34 Feeling Fantastic!
This new found confidence started my boycott of 'The Usual Suspects" and an endeavor to empower and educate all woman, in all walks of life, all around the world.

**The Usual Suspects": Main stream bra stores, La Senza, Victoria's Secret, any North American department store.

A Brief History

My 1st bra was wireless, cotton and white with hot pink polka dots all over it! I remember feeling special being one of the 1st girls in my year to start wearing one and secretly enjoyed the attention it gave me from the boys, even though that "attention" was snapping my bra strap at every opportunity. I do not recall the size I was fit into at the tender age of 12 but I'm pretty sure (knowing what I do now) that it was incorrect. A few years later when I was 16 I was wearing a 34C, I'm not sure how I ended up wearing this size but a vague memory recalls me trying on my mothers stash and settling on a racy red lace demi and that the label read 34C. The combination of growing up and some weight gain bumped me up to a 34DD, which I attempted to size myself into due to lack of resources and guidance at the time. This is the size I wore for the best part of 10 years. During this decade my teenage physic changed from a little boyish to all woman and I began to notice that I was not comfortable in my bras at all anymore. I become frustrated as I could not seem to find the right size and did not understand fitting. I would notice that I had 4 breasts under my shirt rather than the 2 God gave me. The band of the bra would ride up my back causing me to constantly  be tugging and rearranging it throughout the day. I was miserable and desperate. I became resigned to the fact that this seemed to be my lot  in life, that this was the price I had to pay for having "More Than a Handful", uh, "Bonus Boob" some might say. Finally so frustrated by the state of my pitiful bra collection: 2 rather sad looking gals that just weren't up to the task of holding me up. I started to think, hold on a minute, I'm not the only woman out there that has boobs and some curves and that this was just plain wrong, there had to be a bra out there that fit me! I began the hunt for a bra that fitted me correctly. I decided to bypass the usual places I would shop for bras, La Senza and the other mainstream suspects, because they were not working for me anymore and I had nearly lynched the sales girl the last time I had stepped foot in one. I decided to look into a higher end boutique type store, you get what you pay for right? Unfortunately the price tag was too high for my purse but I did begin to notice more sizes in these stores, sizes  I hadn't seen before and this got me thinking. I began to realize that my body type wasn't some alien, weird or abnormal thing and that I wasn't the problem here, that I (and all woman) had had the wool pulled over their eyes for years by these generic, mass producing, mass brainwashing companies (we will discuss this topic in a future post)

A few months later  I landed myself a job in one of the bra fitting boutiques I had found on my travels, and so began my adventure into Bra Fitting.

Hey everyone, welcome to my little corner of the Internet. Come back often to learn more about how to find the correct fit and style of bra for your body, read reviews on new products, discussions on fit vs. style, tutorials and  much more! For more updates, follow me on twitter or become a fan on Facebook. Hope to see you around!

xo
The Fit Mistress