Tomima's Blog – Lingerie & Underwear Expert

We here in Dallas received an eye-full last week, when R&B singer Erykah Badu stripped naked during the middle of the day in front of families at Dealy Plaza.  Yes, the same place where President Kennedy was fatally shot back in 1963.

I’m not going to write about how inappropriate and tasteless this event was.  But, I am going to write on Erykah’s extremely poor choice of underwear.

Whoever her stylist is should be shot.  Let’s start with her bra.  A great example of a terrible fit.  See how the back is hiking up?  This is a tell-tail sign that the band size is too large. The front of the bra looked equally bad–sagging ill-shaped breasts.  Wrong bra, wrong size, wrong fit.

Now, glance down south to her bottom.  Again, a very poor fit. The panty is not covering her back side.   Ms. Badu has what we affectionately call a "bubble butt."   With that shape, she should have considered a thong – though that would have been an even more aggregious public display, or a boyshort like the one from Dumi, style 580 which would give a much more flattering silhouette.  Better yet, what about a great shapwear biker panty like the Sliminizer 12130?  Any of these would have been a better and more flattering choice.

As for Ms. Badu causing a scene of indecency in Dallas, I hope they throw the book at her.  It’s also a pretty poor example for all the young girls who saw the whole thing .  As an attempt to relaunch a has-been career, it was a case of bad decisions, top to bottom (so to speak).

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Posted by Tomima at 7:26am
Tags: bras, celebrities, panties
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Talk about the Yuck factor!   The Today Show on NBC did a hidden camera investigation on several prominant retailers to see if they would return to stock underwear that had signs of use.

Eight retailers including Victoria’s Secret, Nordstrom, Macy’s, Bloomingdales, and The Gap in a mall in New Jersey were targeted. Lingerie was purchased in each location.  The investigators then removed the tags and protective strips, marked each purchase with two small black dots on the label, and then went back to the store to try and return them. Oh, and the investigators also stained each garment with a few drops of baby oil so that this underwear would have a "used" look to it.

All eight stores accepted the returns for full refund. And, at Bloomingdales, Victoria’s Secret, Nordstrom, Macy’s and the Gap, the investigators found the merchandise re-tagged and back out on the selling floor for another customer to purchase.  The investigators did not find their merchandise returned to the floor at J. Crew, Saks, or Express.

All the stores claimed that this was not their policy and that they would be educating their employees immediately.

Like everyone, I watched this expose in horror.  The idea of buying underwear that has been used is appalling.  And, it is just one more reason to consider buying underwear on the Internet.  I can proudly state that all the garments we sell are pristine and new.  Our returns are very closely scrutinized and run through biological testing.  Those garments not passing the tests are not put back into inventory.

Hats off to my return team for their outstanding efforts to maintain the highest standard of quality and safety for our customers.

You can see the video on HerRoom’s page on Facebook.

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Posted by Tomima at 8:59am
Tags: bra shopping, lingerie
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The average bra size used to be a 34B in America.  In fact, when I need a sample of a new bra style, what size arrives?  Yes, a 34B.  Everyone in the bra industry still uses this size as the norm. But over the last 10 years, the average bra size has been climbing. 

Ten years ago, when I started in this business, I was informed that the new average bra size was a 36C.  Well, it is now being reported that today’s median bra size in the US is 36DD – that’s an increase of 2 cup sizes.

I’m happy to say that the bra industry has seen this trend coming.  I’ve noticed that many traditional manufacturers, like Wacoal for example, have increased their cup size range.  You can now purchase many of their bras in a G cup (which is the same as a DDDD cup).  The brand Olga actually revamped their entire bra size range two years ago.  Their products now start with a C cup and go up – no more B and A cup sizes.

As the need for larger cup sizes grows, I really do wish we could standardize how these cup sizes are named.  You may not know this, but many manufacturers could be calling your cup size by other letters.  For instance, some manufacturers refer to a DD as an E cup, a DDD as an F cup and so on.

For those of you needing help deciphering all the variations for your cup size,  I’ve tried to make it easy by creating our size conversion chart.  Simply find your column, and you now have your cup size in every bra brand available.

Find all cup sizes at HerRoom in these departments:
Bras

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Posted by Tomima at 1:45pm
Tags: Bra Fitting, bra sizes, cup size
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