Back Fat and Bra Fit

This isn't a term I love but there's no getting around it, lots of women ask me about back fat. I'm going to start by saying that in the big scheme of things back fat is not something you need to worry about. No one who matters is looking at your back and judging you so you don't need to scrutinize yourself either. Having said that I know that it bothers lots of women so I want to help you understand how your bra size and shape can affect how your body looks under clothing. There are two main causes of avoidable back fat 1) bands that are too loose and 2) wings that are too shallow.

How a Loose Band Gives You Back Fat
When your band is too big for you it rides up your back creating an arch shape which cuts across the widest part of your back and pushes the flesh downwards which creates rolls on your back. The weight of your unsupported bust at the front pulls the tissue near your armpit to be pushed up which creates overhang too.

The red line shows where the bra band should lie so that the flesh is not pushed up or down

Lots of women think that a snug bra will give them back fat but it will do quite the opposite. A snug band will fit you at the narrowest part of your torso. The will stop the flesh above and below being forced up or down into rolls. A loose band doesn't just cause rolls it also lowers your bust at the front and causes your straps to dig in.

How the Depth of Your Wings Affect Back Fat
Bras with deeper wings will smooth out your back. Just as long panels of shapewear smooth you out under clothing so too a deeper wing will smooth out your back.

Left, Lucy by Cleo. Right, Profile Perfect by FayreForm

In the image above you can see that the wings on Lucy are shallower than the wings on Profile Perfect. The deeper wings spread out the pressure of the band over a greater area and so the back appears smoother than the shallower wing

Fit is more important than Fat
If you carry a lot of weight around your back then you are always going to get some dips where your bra fits but having a bra that fits you correctly is more important than something even you can't see without twisting in a mirror. If it really bothers you then you can wear shapewear over your bra that will add another smoothing layer to your undergarments but in general choosing a bra that is the best shape and band size for you will make a huge difference to the smoothness of your look xx

Bra Fit: 3 Things To Know About Bra Straps

The straps on a bra probably aren't the first thing you notice when choosing a bra but they can make a big difference to your fit so there are a few things you should know about bra straps to help you choose the right ones for you.

1. Pressure On Your Shoulders
One of the really big American bra manufacturers posed the question on their Facebook page "Which part of your bra should support most of your bust's weight?" The fact that the majority of their fans said "the straps" should tell them that their fit information is pretty bad! Straps are not there to take the majority of your bust's weight, that responsibility lies with your band. The straps should only be taking between 10 and 20 percent of the weight. You'll know if your bra band isn't doing its job (most likely because it's too loose) because your straps will dig into your shoulders (this is the major cause of shoulder dents).

From left to right: 36J, 30GG and 28E straps on the Tango Beige. Thicker and wider straps for heavier sizes reduce pressure

If you have a very heavy bust then 10-20% of your bust's weight is still a lot so you'll want your straps to have features that improve your comfort. Wider bra straps disperse the pressure over a greater area and so lessen the pressure on your shoulders. Some straps are cushioned at the shoulder area to ease the pressure too (Cleo and Superbra add cushioning as standard to their heavier sizes).

2. How Far They Adjust
Besides taking some of the weight of your breasts the most important thing your straps do is adjust the fit of your cups. When you shorten your straps it brings you cups closer to your body which you need if you have one breast smaller than the other. You'll need to shorten the strap on your smaller side more so that the cup is flush with your body. This is why you must adjust your straps when you try on a new bra to assess whether the cups are the right size for you.

Lucy (L) has fully adjustable straps whereas Profile Perfect (R) has partially adjustable straps

Some bras have fully adjustable straps which means the slider can be shortened all the way to the front or lengthened all the way to the back. This is an important feature for women with long or short torsos. If a strap is only partially adjustable (can only be adjusted over half the strap - the rest of the strap may be either padded or has a design that the slider can't go over) then you may not be able to shorten it enough or lengthen it enough to fit your body.

Related Video: How Straps Affect Your Bra Fit 

3. Their Position on Your Shoulders
If you have sloping or narrow shoulders then you may find that your straps slip even though your band is the right size and keeping your bra securely in place. If the straps on a bra are positioned too far apart they can fall off your shoulders which is frustrating. Look for straps that start closer in on the shoulder if you have sloping or narrow shoulders.

Melissa (L) has wider set straps and Leopard Sucre (R) has closer set straps

Good product descriptions will include the width of the straps, whether they are cushioned and whether the strap position is good for women with narrow or sloping shoulders. When you understand which strap features matter to your comfort you can shop more confidently. xx

Why Do Victoria's Secret Measure OVER your breasts?

Every week Lucy and I do online bra size consultations for women across North America. The majority of women who request a consultation have been fitted at Victoria's Secret and these are the women who invariably have the most bra complaints. These women are without fail wearing a band that is four to EIGHT inches bigger than their body as well as experiencing issues like straps that dig into their shoulders, cups that spill and straps that slip. The reason these complaints are so common with women who have been fitted at Victoria's Secret is because they measure for band size over the top of your breasts under your armpits. By measuring this way Victoria's Secret recommends that your band should be at least four inches bigger than your body, a fitting technique that is disastrous for full-busted women.

VS Fit Errors: Left: Band riding up, Center: Gore not against body, Right: Band not flush with the body

Victoria's Secret comes in for a lot of grief because good bra fit is not their main focus. Their models are often in the wrong bras in product shoots and runway shows and their over-zealous Photoshopping (to make models look skinnier or bras fit better) is legendary. In reality Victoria's Secret doesn't position itself as an expert in bra fit, they very rarely allude to bra fit at all. They are in the business of making a few bra styles and a few bra sizes in alluring colours and affordable prices that make you aspire to looking 'as sexy as an Angel'. The bra sizes and styles that Victoria's Secret do make are mostly suited to women with smaller breast volumes with closer-set breasts who need more band than cup ratio because their breasts are in a different position to full busted women.

Related Articles: The women who need to add inches to their band size

Victoria's Secret only makes 36 bra sizes and in practice there are over 175 bra sizes regularly available on the market (Butterfly Collection carries over 60 sizes) and over 148 other sizes available through specialty manufacturers. So you can see that the number of women for whom Victoria's Secret really can offer great bra fit is very narrow. The +4 measuring technique is appropriate for some of the women who can wear the limited size and style range from VS so that's how they can justify using the +4 technique. The problem is, Victoria's Secret will never tell you if their bras and bra fitting technique is not right for you (and let's face it, that's most of us). They'll never concede that your band size is smaller than those they carry or that your breast volume requires a cup size they don't have. Nope, they'll just use the same fitting technique on a full-busted woman and send her away in a bra that will causes a myriad of fit issues.

This is my greatest grievance with Victoria's Secret. Their lack of honesty about their fitting method's effectiveness leaves women feeling that their bodies are wrong, which doesn't make you feel 'as sexy as an Angel'. With their brand position in the market Victoria's Secret could be a hugely empowering influence on improving bra education and diminishing breast stigma in North America, but unfortunately they are part of the machine that perpetuates the idea that bra sizes outside of the 32-38 A-D paradigm is alien and that bra fit is secondary to looking sexy. 

No matter how dominant a brand is it's up to us as consumers to decide whether a product is right for us. Your breast health is too important to blindly put your faith in a gigantic marketing machine that tells you bras are just about push-ups and pouting. We need to be savvy shoppers who understand what good bra fit looks like and then decide whether Victoria's Secret bras offer us that fit (for many women the answer will be yes, but for the vast majority of us the answer is no).

How I Recommend Finding Your Band Size
I maintain that getting your band size right is the most important part of finding great bra fit because your cup size is determined IN RELATION to your band so without knowing your band size you can't begin to find the right fit.

Related Articles: Not all D cups are the Same and What Sister Size Bras Look Like

I recommend a good starting point for working out your band size is to wrap a tape measure around your ribcage directly under your breasts, against your skin where your band should lie. There's no need to breathe out or pull tightly, simply put the tape measure flat against your skin so that it is parallel with the floor all around your body. This measurement (in inches) is the best starting point for finding your band size (if you're an odd number then simply round up one to the next even number as your starting band size).

Related Tool: Bra Size Calculator

This is a starting point from which you might add or subtract inches depending on your physique. The reason that +0 is an impartial starting point is that as many women will need to add inches as need to subtract them so starting at zero means there's no weighting in either direction. As a very general rule of thumb, if you have a muscular, toned or just firm ribcage then you might have to add inches to your band size to allow for flexibility. If you have a fleshy torso or a springy ribcage then you might find that you need to subtract inches to find your band size because your band can't anchor to fat which moves up and down your body as you move so you need a firmer fit that account for the wobble of our middle bits (I wear one band size smaller than my ribcage measurement as my torso is squidgy).

I hope this helps you figure out whether your body and breasts fit one of the 36 sizes available at Victoria's Secret. If you are then you'll probably find that their over the breasts measuring method works for you, and if you're not then you've got another 300+ bra sizes to choose from! xx

The Bra Statistic That Just Won't Die!

"85% of women are wearing the wrong bra." If you're even remotely aware of bra stuff you will have heard of this stat. It's been around for almost a decade and I am sick to death of hearing it. Has no one stopped to ask the question why this statistic is still being churned out? There are two explanations, either;

a) Not one single woman is listening to the endless parade of boutique owners and 'celebrity' fitters on TV and in magazines who advise women to get fitted regularly and we're all just running around choosing the wrong bra sizes for the hell of it,

OR

b) The boutique owners and celebrity fitters churning out this advice are then putting you in THE WRONG BRA and perpetuating the cycle all over again.

I wrote to The Doctors show about how bad this fitting advice is (bands start at 28 and even lower in some brands!) - no reply. Watch Here

Why are Stores Putting You in the Wrong Bra? 
This statistic has been around for such a long time because about two thirds of lingerie stores and boutiques are not driven by fit, they're driven by sales. If you're driven by sales then you want to get as many women into as few bra sizes as possible and this means using the Plus Four Method. Getting 85% of women into 32-42 A-D size bras rather than the 40% or so who they actually fit makes a lot more profit at the expense of good fit.

There are around 250 individual bra sizes and that's a lot of stock to have available but rather than say "I'm sorry we don't have your size" many stores will simply put you into a bra that covers your breasts but does not support you in the band. Your band is the most important part of your bra so if it doesn't fit you're in trouble before you've even left the store.

Alison Deyette seems to have no problem advising women to wear the wrong bra size for Playtex. I got in touch with her to ask if she understood the dangers of adding inches - no reply. Watch Here

I know that adding inches to the band size works for some women, but they really are the exception and not the rule. For busty women the rule never applies, in fact you're more likely to wear a band size smaller than your ribcage measurement than one four inches bigger.

Every time I see a video of 'expert bra fitter explains how to find your bra size' I hold my breath to see if they're going to give out the right advice. Almost every time I am disappointed to hear them adding inches, denying the existence of 28 and 30 bands, measuring over the top of breasts, or saying things like "Some bras even go up to an F cup" as though it's revolutionary and the end of cup sizes.

Here are two of the worst video offenders I've found:
Measuring over the breasts and using the full bust measurement as your band size.

This video is from a HUGE company and they try to sell Plus Four as a 'fun story'. They add inches, advise expelling all the air from your lungs - common sense tells you this is a daft idea - and insist that the fuller bust model is a 36DD when she's clearly around a 32G. FYI, I would put the first model in a 28G or 30FF.

 

Be Bra Smart
Over the next few months you'll see some pieces from me that will all be marked with BE BRA SMART. This is my new campaign to empower consumers to demand more from the bra industry and boutiques. Your breasts are important, delicate and beautiful and deserve to have well made and properly fitting bras.

As you can tell from the image at the top, I want to turn the tables on the industry and shine a light on exactly how much bad bra knowledge, advice and fit there is out there. Our primary concern at Butterfly Collection Lingerie is that you can enjoy and feel comfortable being a busty woman. This means fit and knowledge are the main priorities. We're going to arm you with the basics you need to know about your breasts so that no matter where you shop you will know if you're getting the best service for your boobs. If you're not, then ask for better. It's only when consumers start to demand better service and product choice that we'll see a change and we can ditch this tired and meaningless statistic. xx

What to Expect When You Start Wearing the Right Size

We help a lot of women into their first fitting bra. This usually means that they start wearing a smaller band and a larger cup (mostly because so many stores fit women into bands that are too big). There is an instant joy at putting on a bra that encases all your breasts and lifts them into the right place but what can you expect to feel after a few hours, days and weeks of wearing your right fit?

Firstly though... Should you be able to feel your bra at all? 
Busty women have been a little deceived about how their bras should feel. There's this idea that you shouldn't be able to feel your bra at all and I'm afraid that simply isn't true. There are definitely some things you shouldn't be able to feel in your bra:

1) Straps digging into your shoulders
2) Any poking into your breast tissue (the end of a cup wire is usually guilty)
3) Your band chafing your back (this happens when it rides up - taking your back with it!)

These are signs that your bra definitely doesn't fit but there is one thing that you will be able to feel in a correctly fitting bra:

1) You should be able to feel your band. This doesn't mean it will be tight but snug enough to feel (think about the feeling you have when you wear supportive but comfortable tights).

 

Your bra is holding up pounds and pounds of weight which is why you need a snug band to be able to hold all that weight in place. A band you cannot feel at all simply isn't doing the job (and the dents in your shoulders are probably paying the price!)


Things to look for in a more comfortable band
Quite simply, the deeper your band the less you'll feel it. This is straight-forward physics; imagine the entire weight of your breasts resting on a piece of dental floss then imagine how they'd feel resting on a giant rubber band. When you wear a deeper band the pressure is spread out over a greater area reducing the amount you feel it. 

How will your brand new, correctly fitting bra feel after ONE DAY?
In a perfect world your new bra would be like wearing silk woven by fairies from the moment you put it on until you send it off to bra heaven, however, a new bra is like new shoes, it needs some time to break in. Bras are incredibly complex to make and the more pieces there are in a bra the more sections there are to break in. This simply means that the seams need to soften and the elastic needs to stretch to your figure so that the bra works for your shape.

 

After one day of wearing your new bra you may experience some more pronounced red marks than usual (marks are completely normal for busty women, it's the result of wearing something elastic under pressure - think about the line your sock leaves after you take them off and they're just holding up your ankles!) It's a good idea to wear your new bra for just four hours on the first day, then four hours again on the second day. This will give your bra enough movement to break it in without putting too much strain on your skin.

How will your new, correctly fitting bra feel after A COUPLE OF WEEKS?
By this stage you will have washed your bra and this has done a few things. It will have washed off the starch that bra manufacturers insist on spraying all over new bras (if you have an allergy to starch then you should wash your bras before wearing at all). It will have softened (and by this I mean break down which is the inevitable progress of every bra) the fabric so that the stitching is softer. It will also have stretched the elastic slightly (I don't mean stretched it out) so that your bra can move with you more. By now your new bra should be feeling like a good friend.

How will your correctly fitting bra feel after a COUPLE OF MONTHS?
By now you and your bra should have shared some great outfits, collected some crumbs in your perfectly supported cleavage and enjoyed some luxorious washes in lingerie detergent. You may well find that you are already on the second hooks and this is where you will be for most of your bra's life because the bra has molded to your figure (if you buy a bra that fits brand new on the middle hooks you'll migrate to the tightest hooks very fast with nowhere else left to go). If you're taking care of your bra you can be on these hooks for a while. As the elastic breaks down further you'll move to the tightest hooks and be there for about one to three months before it's time to say goodbye and start again.

Do you have some tricks for breaking in a new bra and turning it into a trusty friend fast? xx

How to Buy the Wrong Bra

It's very easy to buy the wrong bra but by pinpointing which Bra-Buying mistake you make you can learn how to change it!

1. The Big Band Brigade
This is the most common mistake. Buying a bra with a huge band that gives you no support. Women do this because they think that a firm fitting band is uncomfortable – it’s only uncomfortable when you’re in the wrong cup size. The most common size mistake I see is women in a 36C who should actually be in a 32E. Why is this? Because most high street stores don’t offer E+ cups and so women force themselves into what’s available.

The biggest ailment that comes with wearing the wrong band size is the band riding up at the back (giving you back fat) straps digging into your shoulders, straps slipping off your shoulders, wires digging in you at the sides and your boobs spilling out at the front. Measuring yourself regularly (or getting measured somewhere reputable) will get you a step closer to the right bras. If you're not sure what size range you should be looking for our Bra Size Calculator can help.

2. The Never-Changing Story
Ask yourself if you want the same hairstyle now as you had 10 years ago, or the same wardrobe, or makeup. If the answer is no then why do you think you should be in the same underwear? We all change with time. Our skin, weight and hormones all play a part in our changing shape. This doesn’t mean you can’t look phenomenal in lingerie, but it does mean you need to adapt your bras to your changing shape. At the very least you should be getting re-measured every year and more often if you are pregnant, experiencing weight-gain or weight-loss or going through the menopause. This isn’t just aesthetics; you can feel physically much better in the right sized bra.

3. Style Counseling
If you’re shopping on the high street and don’t have access to a store that carries a full range of sizes, not only are you squeezing into the wrong size, you are most likely in the wrong style. The bra industry is constantly trying to push-up, deep plunge and volumize smaller boobs with styles that are not designed for ladies with their own oomph! Your natural curves are heavier than the average 34B and so you need styles designed with better support. Every busty girl should have at least three supportive everyday bras that keep her boobs firmly in place. You should have a sports bra designed for busty women. Beyond that you might need a strapless bra, a plunge bra and I believe every woman should have at least one set that makes her feel beautiful and special!

Things you will discover in the right underwear
1. You’re figure is different. The right bra should lift your bust so that your nipples are exactly half way between your shoulder and elbow when stood looking in a mirror. This bust line makes your waist more pronounced showing your curvaceous figure.

2. Your clothes will fit better. Wearing the wrong underwear makes everything you put over the top of it look wrong. With the right foundations anything you put over the top will look more polished.

3. You wont be uncomfortable or in pain. Being free from these two things can revolutionize your life making you happier and more confident.

I hope you can figure out which bra shopping mistake you've been making and start your journey towards better fit. xx