The Perfect Bra Search Saga Continuation

[joreth]

I've had this one bra for ages.  It wasn't perfect, because it's an American-cut bra and American manufacturers can't size bras to save their lives.  But it sufficed.  What I liked about it was that it was convertible.  It could be a standard bra, but I could also change the straps to halter or criss-cross or go strapless if I wanted (which I never do because strapless tops just don't stay up on me no matter how tight I made the band).

But what made it noteworthy is that it was ALSO low-back convertible.  That means that I could wear the band at a normal level, or I could pull down on the extra-long strap that goes across my ribcage and lower the back of the band to wear a low-back dress or shirt.  This one bra meant that I didn't have to buy a strapless bra, a backless bustier, and a convertible-strap bra all to do the same functions that this one bra did.

But I bought this bra years ago, before I discovered the style of bra I have completely switched to these days.  I posted a while ago about finding the perfect bra-for-me and buying like a dozen in white to dye different colors and to put some away in storage for when these wear out.  Because that bra fits me the way a bra is supposed to fit, I have actually noticed that some of the extra tissue that had started to appear under my arms (as happens to so many women as we age), had started to DISAPPEAR and I started to fill out my bra cups better.  Apparently, I learned, that tissue is breast tissue that migrates away from the breast when we wear bras that don't fit right - particularly when the underwire presses on the sides of the breast instead of the root of the breast.

I haven't exactly increased my cup size, but I am noticeably fuller now.  I went from a full A / flattish-B (depending on the manufacturer and how the bra was cut) to now a very full B and I can't fit into an A at all anymore.  And, when I wear European bras that are sized correctly, I'm actually a 32C or D! (Because cup sizes are relative to the band, not just Big / Medium / Small, which is how many American bras are cut).

My convertible bra is an A cup, which I was always a little snug in but could still fit.  I was fine with being snug in it because it made me pop out the top just a little, which, as a smaller chested person, I rarely ever got to experience and since I wear the bra for dressing up only, that's a silhouette that I would often want in a dress-up bra anyway.  But now I can't fit into it at all.  I overflow the cups both top and bottom, and the underwire doesn't sit at the root, it sits on the breast tissue.

So I've been searching for a replacement bra for about the last year or two.  I have been unable to find anything at all.  I can find convertibles but not with low backs.  I can find low backs, but not with the option to wear standard strap arrangements.  I can find the bustiers but that doesn't hep me when my shirt is both low back and midriff-bearing because bustiers cover the ribcage and sometimes even the stomach (basically all the costumes I wore for Bollywood dancing were both low / open back and midriff-bearing at the same time, so I really needed this specific bra).

I finally found one a few months ago, right in the middle of one of my moves.  Since I was leaving for a trip in a couple of weeks that I needed that bra for, I went ahead and ordered it and prayed for the best.  That bra sucked.  It was complicated, way over-engineered, and because it used so many straps to accomplish the different arrangements, it never actually fit me in ways to match the dress.  What I mean is that, when I put it into halter mode, the two different settings made the straps show either inside the halter straps of the shirt or outside the halter straps of the shirt.  The connecting points weren't where the shirt halter straps were.  When I converted it to low-back, the strange double-strap band was too high under the arms so it was seen.  If it had only used the single-strap band (the bottom strap), it would have been fine.  PLUS, the various hooks and straps didn't stay hooked during wear!  It kept popping open in various places randomly throughout the night!  I finally resorted to just safety-pinning the bra to my dress, so it was essentially a way-over-engineered version of just adding built-in cups to a dress and the band and all the straps did nothing.

I'd given up on finding my bra anywhere and I was starting to contemplate just making one.  I had literally just stopped in the notions aisle at the fabric store the other day to price out bra supplies and get an idea of what kind of bra supplies were available, to plan out the design of a bra.  Then, the next day, I just happened to be in a mall for totally non-shopping reasons.  On the spur of the moment, I decided to look one more time at department stores for a replacement bra, before I went through the trouble of making one.

I discovered that Dillards, in Fashion Square Mall, is converting itself to a clearance type store instead of a department store, so everything in the store was on a steep discount.  I actually got distracted by the $20 prom dresses and almost forgot to look for a bra (I found one, btw, and I'm so excited to have a dress appropriate for a ballroom formal now instead of my old prom dresses which are not suitable for ballroom dancing or my dresses which have skirts appropriate for ballroom dancing but aren't formal, and to have found one for only $20 because I have so far refused to spend the full price on a formal gown for a dance that isn't a landmark dance like a prom and that I probably wouldn't wear much, if at all!).

Anyway, as I was walking out with my amazing find, I passed by the lingerie section that I had been unable to find until then.  I grazed through, not expecting anything, when suddenly I spotted MY bra!  In my size!  The only one left!  It was exactly the bra I've had forever and no longer fit into and have been trying to replace!  And it was $10 because of the sale.

Now nothing can ever happen to this bra and it has to last me forever because I'll never find it again!

Comments

Shopping win!

[ewen]

Congratulations on a successful find (I'm sufficiently far from Standard Sizes myself to consider "available in my size" a win, and "on sale too" doubly so :-) ).

Now that you have a precise brand and size that you want, that you know fits, I wonder if it's feasible try to find another one on, eg, eBay, or else where online? Before they all vanish. I'm assuming that if they're in clearance in one store, they're probably in clearance somewhere else too.

Ewen

Re: Shopping win!

[joreth]

First thing I did was search online for more. Couldn't find them at all, which is why I had to resort to taking my own pic of the box for this entry :-(

They probably are on clearance or discontinued elsewhere, but they weren't on clearance at this store, exactly. Everything at this store was getting removed because they were turning the store into a different sort of store.