The Misadventures of Plus Four

This fitter is wearing a white coat and smiling, she must know what she's doing...that or she's thinking "Sucker!"

Before elastic became a major part of bra manufacturing the bra fitting advice was 'add 4 or 5 inches to your underbust measurement to find your band size.' This Plus Four Method never works for women over a D cup. Plus Four only works for some women under a D cup (women with very close-set breasts or an athletic frame can benefit from the plus four method).

Unfortunately Plus Four comes in very handy for unscrupulous boutiques and brands (Playtex I'm looking at you) who use it to put large breasted women into bras with huge, unsupportive bands and smaller cups. Because cups are relative to their bands (for example, a DD cup on a 38 band has more volume than a DD cup on a 30 band) you need D-K cups in order to give enough cup coverage on a smaller band. Just increasing the band size to get more cup volume is the Worst Kind of Fitting Betrayal. For more information on how to measure yourself at home, click here.

I see images like this all the time and it's just bunkum! Measure your band size where the band lies, around your ribs.

To try and legitimize this dangerous and outdated form of measuring (adding inches to your band size was necessary for breathing in the 1930s and 40s when lingerie was made with whalebones!) some clever marketing bod came up with the idea of measuring right underneath your armpits and OVER your chest to find your band size (like measurement 1 on the diagram above). Common sense tells you this is as bonkers as measuring your feet to find your hat size!!

This kind of lazy bra fitting promotion is usually coupled with daft suggestions like 'exhale and pull the tape measure really tight' or 'form a loosish gap over your bust measurement'. This kind of advice is needlessly complicated and it drives me up the wall, so I've come up with my own version of how to put plus four to use... introducing The Misadventures of Plus Four!! xx

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The Mental Leap from Wrong Bra to Right Bra

Any bra fitter will tell you that the most rewarding moments are when you fit someone who's been languishing in the wrong bra into the right bra. It's wonderful to see the mixture of disbelief and joy when a client realizes her boobs don't need to rest on her midriff anymore! However, just physically getting someone into the right bra isn't the whole story. For some women being in the right bra can be as mentally distressing as the physical strain of being in the wrong bra.

Don't Get Used to Low and Wide Boobs
Some women spend decades in the wrong bra, it becomes their norm and even though they experience shoulder dents, riding bands and sagging breasts, their 'wrong' bra is familiar. When you wear the wrong bra for a long period of time you'll get used to your breasts either lying low against your body or spreading wide across your body. Either way, your breasts will appear to have less volume because they're being spread over a larger area than if they were in a correctly fitting bra.

Breasts look so much bigger when they're unsupported and spread out

It's this 'dispersion' of breast tissue that leads to shock when put into the right bra. The right bra will lift your breast tissue up and away from your body and cup all your breast tissue close to your body (the closer your breast tissue is supported to your body the less bounce you encounter and therefore less damage to your breasts). When all the breast tissue is lifted into the right cup you can see the true volume of your breast and countless women are shocked that their breasts look 'big'.

Don't believe the Big Boob Stereotypes
While it's totally understandable that wearing the correct sized bra for the first time can be a shock, it's really saddening that so many women are upset at the idea of having larger breasts. Large breasts don't say anything about who you are just as having large feet or a small nose don't define your personality. And yet, we have these preconceptions that large breasts are a 'bad' thing. This is a crippling myth that we just have to eradicate because it's so harmful. Being in the right bra can be rewarding on so many levels:

1. Your posture is improved when you're in the right bra and this improves your circulation and takes pressure off your back and neck.
2. When you stop worrying about your shape you free your mind to think about more important things.
3. You'll see your waist again!

From a professional point of view a large breast that sits high on your chest (midway between your shoulder and your elbow) and is well supported is a far more flattering and healthy look than undefined, low-hanging breast tissue (which I think looks much bigger) that makes you appear much heavier.

Embracing your figure and supporting your bust is good for you physically and mentally.

Why Accepting Your Body is Good for Your Health
For over 15 years my Mum has worked with physically disabled children and has always told me "You only have one body and when you're fortunate that it works perfectly you must celebrate it and look after it every day." I know this is an extreme example but it's always stuck with me that your body is unique and nothing to be ashamed of. Your breasts are not out to make a mockery of you, they don't define you and they don't hate you. They are part of you and deserve to be treated well so try and accept and love your shape rather than hiding it. I'd love your thoughts on why wearing the right bra is such a scary prospect for some women xx

Sorry to break this to you, but people know you're wearing a bra

This t-shirt was a Dorothy Perkins hit

Living in Canada there are lots of occasions where I feel conspicuously English; every time I say lift and not elevator, bin and not garbage, cooker and not stove. In the world of bras the time I feel most English is when my clients say they don't like "bra seams you can see under clothes." Bra seams being visible under clothing was never something I was aware of when I lived in the UK. No one passed comment on it, to me at least. Here in North American it's evident that visible seams are a big concern as though women feel it would be an embarrassment if other people knew they were wearing a bra?

Are You Hiding More than Just Seams?
Almost every lingerie rep I've spoken to in Canada and the US has told me that North American women like seamless, neutral colour bras. There has to be something deeper at the root of this 'seam-phobia'. I think it has something to do with the sheer lack of bra size choice North American women have experienced that has bred a continent-wide disillusionment with bras. Canada and the US have a disproportionate lack of readily available bra sizes in comparison to the UK and Europe. Add to this the giant influence of the t-shirt bra from huge manufacturers like Victoria's Secret and women have been trained away from the benefits of other shapes of bra.

It's no wonder that generations of women forced into bra sizes that were available rather than ones that fit have learned to hate bras. There is a distinct lack of Big Bra Celebration in North American compared to the UK and I think the knock-on effect is this desire to blend into the background and hide your breasts, hence the epidemic of seamless bras.

I love that the seams are part of the design on this bra from Freya (Lyla 2011)

Are Seams Really That Big a Deal?
I always think of these two things when someone says they don't want their bra to be visible:

1. Everyone knows you're wearing a bra, especially when you're busty
2. No one who matters is looking directly at your bra seams and judging you

People are definitely going to notice that you look better in the right bra but people aren't looking directly at your boobs or even more specifically, your bra seams. What makes no sense to me is choosing to wear an ill-fitting seamless bra that causes sagging and spillage rather than wear a seamed bra for fear of it being embarrassing. For women with heavy breasts you need seamed bras because the seams are what give you shape and support. The seams 'direct' the breast tissue up and away from your waist to give you definition and lift. Don't get me wrong, seamless bras are great, but they're not for everyone and they're not the only option.

My Outfits and Seamed Bras
I mostly wear seamed bras because my boobs are side heavy so they need some forward propulsion and I never feel that my outfits look compromised by my seamed bras. Here are some fabrics, styles and designs that I think are completely compatible with seamed bras:

1. Patterned Clothing - patterns distract from any seam underneath
2. Dark Fabrics - black, navy, charcoal and brown sweaters (or jumpers in my world) hide seams perfectly
3. Ruched Tops - Lots of busty friendly clothing has ruching at the neckline which detracts from underlying bra seams

I'm wearing a seam-free bra in only one of these outfits - can you tell which one?

I own seam-free bras which I wear with some stretch jersey fabrics, but that's about it. I find that seamless bras tend to spread out my bust more than a seamed bra. I prefer a narrower look from my bras so I mostly wear seamed bras.

Feeling happy and confident in your bra depends a lot on bra style and it has to feel right for you. Being trapped in one style of bra because of some mental barriers about your body image is quite a different thing. Are you someone who used to be seam-phobic but got past it? I'd love to hear your story xx