Closer to normal than you might think. A large majority of women think they are an A – D cup, even if they clearly aren’t. It’s been drummed in to us over the years through magazines, TV and general advertising that a DD and anything above is a large cup size. Nip back to the 60’s and you’d be right but women’s body shapes have been expanding in many ways over the decades. High street shops simply try to get you to by what they want you to buy. Supply and demand. If A – D is the cup size the fashion buyers believe most women to be, that’s what’s stocked, aside from the cost of holding slower moving larger sizes.
If there’s no demand for larger bras they won’t stock them, even if there is or clearly should be a need. The same goes for band sizes. The secret is to get fitted properly. Until we all get fitted properly (remember that 80% of British women are wearing the wrong bra size) a wider range of sizes will remain difficult to find in many stores. Specialist boutiques offer great fitting services and on-line stores publish many DIY bra fitting guides to point savvy consumers in the right direction. Boutiques and online lingerie retailers are also going to be the obvious choice for a wider selection of alternative sizes.
We’ve been taught to believe that a ‘Double D (DD)’ and anything above it is ‘massive’. Frankly its rubbish! Because cup size is relative to band, the DD of a woman with a 32 or 34 band is nothing more than what could be described as a ‘good handful’. The cups don’t look huge, they just look big-ish. It’s proportional. A 32DD is the equivalent of a 34D and going up another band size a 34D is equivalent to a 36C. Larger stores also look at aesthetics. On a hanger small cup lingerie tends to look more appealing and delicate, leaving larger sizes relegated to the back of the rail or the stock room.
The guide to cup size is as follows A-C (small), D-DD (average), E-FF (full) and G+ (voluptuous).
I’ll be honest with you I am a 34F. I have varied in size quite considerably over the years and like most women I’ve probably worn the wrong size bra on more than one occasion. Sometimes I look at an F cup on the hanger and it just gives me absolutely no idea of how good it is actually going to look on. My husband was the first to comment that big bras just don’t have the same appeal when displayed on the hanger, which is why some department and specialist stores don’t really display a lot of their stock, preferring to bring suggested lingerie into the fitting room or order in specific stock on demand.
For me and many others there is nothing worse than visiting a store and finding nothing in my size. It’s one of the reasons why I was keen to become a lingerie retailer as it has opened my eyes to a whole new world of lingerie that I would probably have never found before.
Don’t be scared of finding out your true size and there is no such thing as normal when it comes to our breast size. It’s normal to be all the things you think are not in most cases. And don’t be fooled by a lot of the high street stores who let you believe that all desirable and comfortable designer lingerie stops at a DD!!!
p.s Just as an example DD really has little meaning without the back size. (Thanks to Boob or Bust for the image).