Why Some Bras Squeak

Some women will be only too aware of the frustration of a squeaky bra and lots of you will never have encountered one. For those of you who are plagued by the squeaky bra I'm going to explain why it happens and what you can do to stop the squeak.

The squeaking is caused by the underwire rubbing against the the tube of material it is sewn inside when you move around. The material tube has been pulled too tightly and has come into contact with the wire which causes friction and squeaks.

In a perfectly fitting bra the wire and it's material tube housing don't come into close contact, or at least not under a lot of tension. The reason the material tube is pulled tightly against the wire is to do with the shape of your torso and the shape of the bra wires.

Rounded Torso
If you have a round torso then you need a bra with wires that can wrap around the shape of your body. Most bra wires are pretty flat but flexible enough to accommodate the curve of an average torso. If your torso is more curved than your wires can accommodate then the material around the wires gets pulled extra tight as the wires are under more pressure to curve further than they're designed for.

Narrow Torso
If you try on a bra that is expecting to lie relatively flat against about 14 inches of torso but you have a narrow torso (again, most likely you have a round torso) then the wire are having to wrap around your body sooner and more dramatically than they were expecting. This causes the material tube to get over stretched, come into contact with the wires and squeak.

This is why some women regularly find their bras squeak and some women never experience it. Don't despair though ladies there is lots you can learn about the squeak so you can banish it from your life. Here are my top tips for getting rid of the squeak:

1) Look for styles with narrower wires (and/or more flexible wires) - the less wire that has to bend around your torso the less likely you are to hear the squeak.

2) If you love a bra but find it squeaks then you can try one band size up and one cup size down (assuming the cup volume was right for you on the squeaky bra). If this compromises your lift or band support too much then it's not a viable solution but sometimes this will alleviate the squeaky problem.

3) Spend some time with your new squeaky bra to curve the wires so that they are shaped more like your torso. Bra wires are tough so you can get yourself a tennis ball and start to mold the wires to be more curved.

4) New bras are very rigid so you might find that after soaking it for 20 minutes and letting it air dry that the squeak is lessened. It's still going to take a few wears to mold the bra to your shape and the squeak will happen until the bra forms to your body more.

It's best if you can find bras that don't squeak to begin with (and this means finding brands and styles that suit your torso shape). However, if you fall in love with a squeaky bra then bending the wires, softening the material and breaking it in a little could be rewarded with months of squeak-free wearing. If you need help figuring out your size or shape then our free size consultations are a great place to start xx

Breast Roots and Bra Fit

Your breast root refers to the size and shape of the area where your breasts attach to your body. Just to clarify, this isn't to do with the shape of your breasts, which may be shallow, or full or long etc. It's a part of bra fitting that helps you work out which cup wires work for you. There are two measurements to consider when talking about breast roots; your breast root width and your breast root height.

Assessing Your Wire Width
There are, broadly speaking, three breast root widths; average, narrow and wide. The width of your breast root is linked to which width, or shape, of bra wire will work best with your breasts. Your bra wire must never rest on your breast tissue and ideally you don't want it to run very wide of the outside of your breasts (although some gap between your breast root and the bra wire is not terribly detrimental to your fit).

Think of the bottom of your breast root (the area of your breast that attaches to your body underneath your breast) as a smile. You can have a broad, flat smile or you can have a deep, curved smile and you want a bra that has a matching shape to your breast root. By understanding the width of your breast root you can diagnose if a bra wire is too wide or narrow for you when you put it on.

If your bra wire rests on your breast tissue then your first step is to check that your cup volume is large enough. Try a larger cup first and if that doesn't work then the wire shape could be too narrow for the width of your breast root so this isn't a style for you.

If your bra wire goes a long way past your breast root (most commonly this is when there is lots of empty cup around the side of your body, under your armpit) then you can try a cup volume smaller but it's most likely that the wires of the cup are too wide for you and this isn't the bra for you.

Breast Root Height
On average full bust women find that their breast root is between 5 and 7 inches lower than their armpit. If the distance between your breast root base and your armpit is less than 5 inches you often find that bra wires poke into your armpit. If this is the case for you then you have high set breasts and will benefit from bras with short wires that don't rise as high into your armpit.

Fit Point: If you find that you often get empty cup at the bottom of your bra then it could be because your wires are too long for your high set breasts. Look for bras with shorter wires.

If your breast root is farther down your body than 7 inches you can experience spilling at the sides of your bra no matter which size you try. You need tall bras with long wires that run equal to (or higher than) the side of your breasts.

Help Finding the Right Wire
Bratabase is a fantastic resource for finding out whether a bra has long or short wires and how other women have found the fit based on their own breast root width and height.

At Butterfly Collection we include the side height of each bra (the side compromises of the wing and wire) on the product page to help you work out whether the length of the wire is right for your breast root height.

I hope this helps you work out if your bra fit frustrations are being caused by a mismatch between your breast root and wire xx