Why write about bras?

I love bras. I really, really do.

I didn't always love bras. Back when I was in high school and didn't know about proper sizing, I hated bras. Bras to me were unbearable torture devices meant to be yanked off the second I got home. They were constantly slipping, sliding, and riding up, but never supporting. My shoulders hurt. I wanted a reduction as soon as I could get one.

I was wearing a 34DD. I should have been a 28G.

34DDs were actually a big improvement over the 36B I tried when I was a little younger, and definitely better than the 34C that a Victoria's Secret employee told me I was when she measured over an ill-fitting bra and a really tight shirt. Nevertheless, they simply did not fit.

I went to Nordstrom before starting college, hoping their fitter would put me in a better size. It was a little better, at a 32E, but the band was still too big and I had a lot of the same problems with slipping out of the cups. I didn't know that most fitters at Nordstrom still use the method of adding 4 inches to the underbust measurement to size bras, and my fitter didn't tell me about scooping and swooping all the tissue into the cups.

The last straw for me was breastfeeding. I was simply too uncomfortable to keep squeezing myself into bras that didn't fit, and so began my search for something better. I found the subreddit ABraThatFits, measured myself according to the fitting guide after I was reasonably certain that my breasts had settled on the size they were going to be for a while, and discovered that I should wear either a 28GG or a 30G.

My first reaction to finding out my new size was, "Oh, crap. Where am I going to buy bras now?" I had a hard enough time finding the ill-fitting bras I was wearing pre-pregnancy. But browsing the threads on ABraThatFits, as well as some Googling, led me to quite a few retailers that sell bras in my size.

And guess what. They're pretty.

They are not the great beige monstrosities I wore before. They are not old-woman lace and matronly coverage. They are cute.

But even better- they are comfortable.

If your bra truly fits in every way, you will not notice it throughout the day. It will bother you as little as your softest t-shirt. You might not even want to take it off at the end of the day.

So I have made this blog hoping that detailing my fitting journey helps other women to find their proper size. I'm no expert on fitting by any means, though I am pretty well-versed in the right bras for women who wear similar sizes to me. And I'm writing about bras because the right bra is a great thing. Truly.