Keeping Your Breasts Front and Center – Not East/West
November 23, 2010
Large breasted women (D cup and larger) have written reviews over the years complaining about their breasts pointing east/west rather than front and center in their bras. And they don’t like it for good reason – this causes breast tissue to move under the arms, which gets in the way and is not an attractive silhouette. Well, take heart if you are a fellow sufferer. This condition can be easily corrected by paying attention to the way your bra is made.
I am a big fan of "Bra Wizard" Beverly Johnson. I consider her our ‘Joan of Arc’ in leading the charge for better fitting bras. Beverly runs a bra-making school where she actually teaches a woman to make her own bras, www.bramakerssupply.com , and has written a book explaining in very technical detail how to fix fit problems. Beverly has several comments on how to get your girls back into the ‘headlight’ position.
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The key is to understand nipple placement as breasts get larger. All of us pretty much have the same proportioned skeleton So, regardless of weight and breast size, the location of say a 5′ 4" woman’s nipples is the same as for other women her size. The skeleton does not grow as we add weight or grow bigger breasts. The nipple distance between your two breasts (once you pull them up and put them where you want them) is pretty much a constant – between 7" and 8". So, grab a ruler and measure this distance on you. As I write this wearing my 36C bra, mine are 7 1/2" apart.
Are yours a lot farther apart while wearing a bra? If yes, you are not in the right style of bra to maximize your figure. Getting your breasts together will make you look slimmer and more youthful. So, what do you need to look for?
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You should be able to look at a bra and tell before trying it on where your nipples are going to end up. Breast tissue is very malleable. Therefore, it can be moved into the proper position with a great structured bra. Hands down, the ‘cut-and-sew’ or bras (like the upper photo) with seams in the cups will give you the best look. This is because the more seams a bra-maker uses in the cups, the more control there is over the shape of your breast tissue.You can tell by looking down on the seamed cup bra that your nipples are going to be front and center when you get it on.
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Contour bras also have a pretty good record for putting the nipples in the right location on your chest. The thin layer of foam lining in the cups helps to stabilize the molded cups and keep breasts front and center. Seamless bras (like the lower photo) don’t offer enough structure to help with placement.
Great bras that make you look great come at a price. Spend the money! There is no other piece of apparel that you wear more. You deserve the best.
Find seamed and contour bras at HerRoom in these departments:
Bras
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Posted by Tomima at 11:19am
2 Comments »
How a Seamed Bra Can Look Seamless Under Clothing
February 03, 2010
I’ve been watching some old movies lately – mostly ones with Doris Day and Rock Hudson. It is amazing how, no matter how much things change, they really stay the same. Specifically, the fashions. Tight sweaters, pencil skirts, fabulous pumps. Many of the fashions back then could be worn today. And guess what? In those old movies, I’m not seeing any bra seams.
A quick bra history lesson. The common t-shirt bra of today was first introduced by Josie Natori less than 20 years ago. The timeframe for these movies is late 1950′s and early 1960′s– before bra cups were molded as they are today. Older bras were actually "cut and sew," meaning there were seams in the cups to give them shape. Granted the shape was more cone-like, but even creating a round shape back then required seams in the cups.
So, how did women back then pull off a seamless look in those tight sweaters? The answer is they wore additional undergarments that most of us have forgotten about.
Adding a slip, chemise, or undershirt was a natural step for most women before putting on a blouse. Surely some of us may still have a full slip in the back of the lingerie drawer. This additional layer of fabric eliminated, or at least minimized, the seams in the cups of a woman’s bra.
It is still true today that a seamed-cup bra or cut & sew bra (as some call it) will give a woman the best breast support and will last longer than seamless bras. They also tend to be much prettier because they can incorporate lace and beautiful trims. But their popularity has waned because of the seams showing through t-shirts and form-fitting clothes. We seem to have forgotten that simply wearing an additional layer can solve the problem.
Women who are a D cup and larger, don’t shy away from a seamed bra the next time you go shopping. Instead, find a great underpinning such as a camisole or full slip, and enjoy the feminine feeling it gives you along with the seamless appearance.
Find seamed bras at HerRoom in these departments:
Bras
Follow HerRoom on Twitter for daily tips.
Posted by Tomima at 11:03am
2 Comments »
What Bra Style Prevents Nipple Show-through?
October 08, 2008
One of the most common issues fielded by my fabulous customer service department is inquires about nipples showing through a bra and how to prevent this. It’s actually kind of fun reading how women try to pose this inquiry. It can be as subtle as "I’m looking for a bra that provides modesty" to "I need to turn off my headlghts" to "I want a bullet proof bra" to "I’m trying to hide my huge erect nipples!"
I have heard various lingerie experts claim that nipple show-through can be handled many ways. For example, some feel a lined bra will do the trick. Others have said that placing the nipple on a bra seam in the cups will mask the look. And, of course, there are those contour bras where the cups have a thin layer of foam or padding fused inside the bra cups.
Being skeptical of some of these claims, I decided to bring in a model of ours who has constantly erect nipples (For the uneducated, one side-effect of breast augmentation can be permanent nipple erection). I had her try on a standard molded bra, a lined bra, a seamed bra and a contour bra. I then had her put a t-shirt on over each of the bras. Let’s see what worked.
| Molded | Lined |
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| Seamed | Contour |
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As expected, the molded bra did nothing to conceal the situation. The lined bra seemed to have little or no impact as well. I found this a little surprising given that so many women and manufacturers swear by this solution. But, if you look at the t-shirt shots, the molded and lined bras look virtually identical.
The seamed bra did a pretty good job of reducing the "headlights." However, you have the two-edged sword of having the seam show through the t-shirt. So, basically, you sacrifice "bullets" for seams.
The contour bra option, also known as the t-shirt bra was the best performer. A thin layer of padding or foam can turn your headlights right off. But, the downside to this style of bra is for women with larger breast size who don’t want to add volume. Even that small amount of foam can make their breasts look larger.
Though I only showed these 4 bra styles, I want to also let you the reader know that there are other solutions to this problem. For example, an earlier blog post of mine discusses the Bali Concealer bras currently on the market. They too are contour, but have a very rigid flower shaped decal on the inside of the cup to keep a woman smooth across her breasts. Other options are to put one of the nipple concealer products directly over your breasts. This will smooth over your nipples and allow you to wear your existing bras. Some of the more popular products include Dimr’s, Smooth’m nipple concealers, No Peek Pads, Sassybax Nips and FashionForms Breast Petals.
For a link to all these options, go to:
Nipple concealers
Posted by Tomima at 1:12pm
9 Comments »
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