Guest Post

Hi all!  I'm excited to get going with my guest blog posts!  Learning from other people's journeys is something that I think is really important in life.  So, onto the first post.  She wishes to remain anonymous. I'm sorry to say that I've been having difficulties getting all the pictures to post, so I'm sending this out without all the photos.  I will keep trying to get them in!  Sorry!

This is me. This is me, October 2012, so approximately a year ago. Seems like a lifetime ago, in some ways.

There has been so much in my life that’s changed it’s difficult to list it all. But the one thing that dominates it all, every change, is me. Myself. I’ve changed.

And that has all started with finding the correct bra size.

In the photo above, I was wearing the very-expensive Ulla Dessous bra I had been wearing for years. Size: 75L. For the UK-sized people: That corresponds to 34H-ish. (side note here: online converters differ in their opinion between G and J, but I believe it’s H or HH for sure). This photo was taken at my graduation, and is looking like what I currently refer to as “sad boobs”. Meaning that my boobs droop down quite a bit.
This was the norm for me, for most of my student years. Because the Ulla Dessous bras cost roughly €100 (around but mostly just above it), this is not something that I was able to buy often. So, I purchased maybe 1 bra per year. Especially when I really outgrew the somewhat-cheaper brands that stopped at European I-cup, couldn’t ignore the quadboob anymore and really needed to move on to K- and L-cups.

I had heard of the English brand Freya, but the one store that had them also sold Ulla Dessous and the bra fitting lady told me “If you’re used to Ulla, you’ll never want Freya. Ulla has much better quality and the same size!” Which, in my ignorance, convinced me to stick to Ulla Dessous.

I remember really well the visit I went there. There was nothing in stock of course because it’s the end of the range, so while I got to try a bra in a sister size she was going to order some bras for me and I’d come back to fit them. Easy said, easy done. I could even choose between 6 or so bras that were available to order in 75L! Imagine my surprise when I finally visited again (delivery took months, I had almost given up on hearing from the store again) it turned out that from the 3 bras I had chosen, the lady had ordered only 1 in 75L! The other two were in 75K. No surprise that they were too small, and in retrospect also the 75L was too small but hey it didn’t quadboob so it fit. 

Yes, the only criterion on which I judged bra fit was the (non-)existence of quadboob. Now, looking back, those bras were a horrible fit. Of the 5 bra fitting points (to be found aplenty on the webs), the only one that the bras could tick was the quadboob one. And that one not even fully, because I did not scoop&swoop. Band riding up, gore floating every which way, wires sitting on breast tissue… all there.

The fitters in every store I had visited told me that the band is normal like that, and that the gore like that is normal. That with boobs my size, it’s impossible to get the gore flat like you hear it should be sometimes. So I accepted this as normal. Below, I’ve included pictures of how that looks….

How loose a 34 band is on me. I now know that I need a super-tight band to properly support the weight.

So, that’s the starting point of my bra journey. At this point, I owned 4 or 5 bras that fit more or less the same, and still had a few smaller-cupped bras in my drawer for those days that everything was in laundry and I tried to get away with quadboob anyway.

It did not make me feel good about my boobs. At all. On top of that, I was wearing clothes that fit the same way. By which I mean not fit at all, either very baggy or a couple sizes too small so I was near bursting out.

Self-confidence issues? Check!

Then, The Change started. After graduation, I could not find a job, so I have been unemployed for a while. Thanks to some lovely people, I obtained half a new wardrobe. These new clothes changed my outlook: it is possible to look better! There are plenty of clothes out there that fit my body without bulging out of them, or being overly baggy.

OK, in all fairness, some of the clothes (tops & dresses) were still a bit baggy around the waist, but that’s because I have a larger difference between bust & waist than most brands cater for.

Together with the new clothes, I started criticizing my bra fit. I googled around, and remember that I first found the wonderful FullerFigureFullerBust blog. The whole atmosphere of loving your body, the awesome looking clothes, and the bras…. Oh the bras.

I started following FFFB, and of course because I had relatively much time I was able to expand into much more blogs and websites very soon. CurvyWordy was an extra eye-opener for me, because her bust measurement is so close to mine. I discovered Bratabase, which I still love and adore.

Thanks to the pointers to proper bra size calculators and helpful advice from people online, I scraped the money together and ordered some Curvy Kate bras in 32K. The Angel bra, and the Romance, at least. 

Strangely enough I did not experience any letterphobia (for explanation of this, see the interwebs), maybe because I went from K/L cup to K cup. European to UK sizing, but same letter.

When they arrived, I was overjoyed. So. Pretty!!! And the band! It was tighter, and felt SO much more secure!

Sadly enough, after an hour or so of wear, my boobs settled into the bra and I discovered horrible quadboob. That’s when I discovered the importance of bra shape.

I learned that in general Curvy Kate balconettes are cut wide & shallow, and I need at least deep cups and narrower too. Oh, and also important: a pretty open top, because my boobs are full all over and need space both in the bottom AND the top of the bra.

To date, I’ve tried lots of bras. Bullet list time!

-          Curvy Kate Angel

-          Curvy Kate Lottie

-          Curvy Kate Romance

-          Elomi Caitlyn

-          Ewa Michalak PL Black

-          Ewa Michalak PL Stalowka

-          Fantasie Kara

-          Fantasie Cally

-          Panache Ariza

-          Panache Harmony

-          Panache Melody

So no, I still have not tried Freya. Because, from multiple people, I’ve heard that in the top cup sizes, the wires are not strong enough to support the boobs. Such a pity, I love the patterns and am thinking of trying at least one sometime in the future to test the brand & wires.

And finally, after those all did not work for me for various reasons (most being too shallow and/or too wide, or plain simple too small), I tried the Panache Jasmine.

It was love at first sight, that beautiful navy floral pattern and the stretch lace sounded awesome. When I tried the bra on… I was lost. I don’t think I’ve actually cried with joy, but I’ve surely danced around the room!! I adore this bra.

This bra is just amazing. The wires fit around my boobs nearly perfect, the cups are wonderfully deep and the stretch lace is simply amazing. The gore tacks, it’s the first bra ever that I tried where the gore actually tacks!

After this first purchase, more Jasmines followed. Right now, all the ill-fitting bras have been expelled from my bra drawer (the ones still for sale put in the back of another drawer). My bra drawer now consists of 8 Jasmines (in all colorways) plus a semi-fitting sports bra in 34K. Yes, the Freya Active does not quite run as large in the cup as the Jasmine, but because it is supposed to be one of the sportsbras that run largest it’s the best I can get at the moment. So I make do for that one ;)

Changing my bra size has changed my life. Literally. Because of my new bras, my boobs now look happy. It looks like I’ve had a lift, without doing a thing! Remember the first photo? They were kind of drooping down. In the proper size, my boobs are lifted to an amazing shape, and they don’t hide my waist anymore either.

Below I’ve put two photos, takes just minutes apart. In both photos, I’m wearing the Panache Jasmine in 34K (I took the band in so it’s now 32KK). Everything is identical except the shirt.

What’s clear to see is that my waist is hidden on the left side, and more shown on the right side. Officially I’m overweight, but I’m happy with my size. But I like to show that I have an hourglass- or figure-8- shape instead of hide it. 

Now that I’ve found wonderfully fitting bras, I have also read up on the proper way to care for them. Handwash of course, and don’t just hang them out from the gore or one side of the band. Because I like to do my laundry in one go, with this size it means my sink is too small. Yay for bathtubs! Fill it with handwarm water, drop the bras in together with gentle detergent (baby shampoo or lingerie detergent is what I use), and agitate some. Using my hands, I rub mostly around the wires and rest of the band to free up sweat and dirt. Then the bra goes under the running water and I rub the same places to get the soap out of the whole bra.

After that the bra goes up in the “bra tree” to dry. If my partner or I needs the shower, he’ll have to wait until the bras have stopped dripping and help me move the bras to the drying rack to dry further 


I hope you enjoyed reading about her experience!

<3
Laura