Lingerie Trends

Could large-breasted women avoid reduction surgery by simply popping down to their local department store for a bra fitting?

Yes, says the British Medical Association, who believes that “many women requesting breast reduction surgery are wearing a bra several sizes too small”.

And one recent study showed that 100pc of women surveyed were wearing the wrong bra for their shape.

[One surgeon] in Dublin, said: “Many women I see for breast reduction surgery are squeezing themselves into bras that are too small for them. If they are a DD they will put themselves in a D. This can cause unnecessary neck and back pain”.

So why are women jamming their breasts into garments that dig into their shoulders, create a terraced effect on their backs and restrict their breathing, when they could put themselves in the capable hands of bra fitters in department stores across the country who won’t charge a cent for their services?

Read More About:
The Breast Book: An Intimate and Curious History
Buy From:
(Amazon.com USA) | (Amazon.co.uk UK)

For many it’s a case of denial. “Those wearing the wrong bra often want to hide their size and wish to be smaller,” said [one doctor].

But it doesn’t seem likely that they’re going to get their wish, because it looks like bosoms are only going to get bigger.

Marks & Spencer has recently reported that the average size breast has grown from 34B to 36C in the last five years.

Experts put the increase down to changes in diet and increased consumption of junk food. Karen Breslin, who has been a bra fitter at Brown Thomas for the last four years, has noticed the change: “Boobs and backs are getting bigger. Girls used to start with an A cup but now they go straight into a B or C. I see girls who are 14 years of age who have stretch marks”.

But while some women are frantically trying to decrease their bosoms with minimiser bras, others are trying to enhance what little they have with a push-up. Are we all just boob-obsessed?

For centuries the breasts have been sexualised, rhapsodised over, vilified and used to sell everything from cars to iPods.

Read More About:
The Big Book of Breasts
Buy From:
(Amazon.com USA) | (Amazon.co.uk UK)

Women have found them a source of power, pleasure, an inconvenience, provider of food for babies, a place of disease, erotic or just fat deposits that get in the way when you play golf.

Many hours have been wasted over the centuries by ladies musing over how to uplift the masses or make mountains out of molehills.

And there have been plenty of garments through the years designed to help us with our own individual chest mission.

We’ve come a long way from the very first bra – two silk hankies tied together with a bit of ribbon – that was patented in the US nearly 100 years ago.

Today there are bras with gel implants, air pockets, pillowy padding; bras that would serve as a parachute if you had to jump out of a plane; for hippies there are brassieres made out of modal, a fibre made by spinning re-constituted cellulose from beech trees, while the pampered girl can enjoy the moisturiser bra.

And finally there is a whole bra especially invented for those with implants.

The Le Mystere No 9 bra is made for the enhanced woman who typically has a rounder and higher bosom. Its main feature is a U-shaped wire with a lifted bust point.

Harrods boasted of a “fantastic” response in the first week they stocked it in their store.

One has to wonder why women are choosing breasts so far removed from real ones that designers have had to re-invent the bra. How will I, an au-naturel woman, ever keep up?

Choosing the right design of underwear for your chest is the first step but getting it to fit properly is imperative. “The back should be level with the front and not rise up. The wire needs to fit perfectly under the base of the breast and if the cup is too small you will get the four boob syndrome,” said Ms Breslin at Brown Thomas.

Spotting my two-year-old bra lying on the fitting room floor Ms Breslin reminded me that “a good quality bra will last for six to 12 months depending on how frequently it’s washed”.

After I left Brown Thomas I had a new-found awareness of bras and noticed that many women were suffering from the double bosom syndrome. In my newly fitted bra I knew I was in no such danger.
- Source: Irish Independent, July 9, 2007

No related posts.