Did you know that 80% of women wear the wrong size bra? My friend Elana and I recently got fitted at the Braporium on a whim, and what we learned changed our lives. Elana found out she’s actually a 34D—not a 38B as she’d always thought. But the real breakthrough was that I learned I’ve been wearing plastic bags instead of bras my whole life. Who knew?!
Our bra guru, Masha, explained how bra sizes work—there’s your band size, which has to do with the circumference of your ribcage under your bust, and your cup size, which describes the size of your bust relative to your band size. No wonder my current bra didn’t fit—it wasn’t the right band or cup size: It was just two sandwich bags held together with string!
Masha schooled me in everything I need to know about dressing “the girls,” starting with the fact that a correctly-sized bra is WAY better than wrapping a Key Food bag around my chest and putting my arms through the handles. I realized in that moment how little I knew about myself and my ta-tas. Thankfully, I’d come to the right place!
I can barely even describe how good it felt to put on a snug, perfectly boob-hugging strapless bra for the first time. I almost cried! I wish I’d had one this nice at my sister’s wedding, when I wore a rolled-up strip of heavy-duty trash bag under my strapless bridesmaid dress. Oh, the error of my ways! My new one even has detachable straps that aren’t Hefty twist ties!
Elana and I both left the Braporium with a whole new perfectly-fitting bra wardrobe, complete with every style imaginable, including full-coverage, demi, lightly padded, push-up, super push-up, strapless, racerback, seamless, front-closure, side-closure, no-closure, and a lace bralette each. Bras also come in a rainbow of amazing colors, patterns, and fabrics. And to think, I always used part of a clear blue recycling bag as my “fancy” bra! Don’t worry if you made the same mistake—like I said, 80% of women are wearing the wrong size! And I’m sure at least half of those were wearing bags for bras like you and me.
This is a big transition for me, but I’m ready for it. I’m even fulfilling my promise to Masha to keep plastic bags where I now know they belong—lining my trash cans, not holding up my cans! I really hope my experience will be instructive to all the other smart, stylish ladies who, like me, somehow unwittingly went decades without realizing that their bras were the wrong size—and also made of plastic bags.
