Sorry it took me a while to answer, I was travelling. I worked for Wacoal and their bras for larger busted women are great. Lane Bryant does not come close in quality. Their fabric stretches too easily and within a very short time the bra you bought will be ill fitting, which causes discomfort, even if you started in the right size when you bought it.
A bra loose around the back is what I most often saw when it came to people wearing the wrong size or having discomfort. When it is loose around the back the bra slips up and the wires dig into your breast, they should stay squarely against your chest. Women with large breasts also tend to go up in the back size to get a cup that fits, because the bra might only go to D, and they need double D, so they buy a 38D when they need a 36DD. That won’t work. It might work for one night in desperation, but it will be like buying shoes that hurt your feet. Of course, some women wear their bras too tight, and that too causes discomfort.
When you buy a bra the ideal is if it fits well one the middle or loosest hook. If you buy it fitting on the tightest hook then as the bra ages you will have to throw it out sooner, because as the fabric loses its elasticity you won’t be able to tighten it up by switching hooks.
Wacoal has “fit” events at places like Bloomingdale’s and Nordtroms. Nordstoms the sales people at the store usually are trained on how to fit people, but people who work for Wacoal are accustomed to getting in the dressing room with you (if you are comfortable with that) and helping you get into the bra. We can tell by how much tug we need to do to close the bra if it is fitting well. Measuring is not a perfect science, there is a small portion of the population that measures differently than what actually fits. I saw it rarely, but it happens. Also, if you have specialty bra stores around you they should be able to fit you well, but no guarantee. Look for a shop that has a decent selction for large cup sizes. Other department stores where the person working at the store usually has decent fit knowledge are Saks and Neiman Marcus. People who work in the industry often can size someone just by looking at them, but the measuring tape tells the real story, and like I said the tug when hooking the bra.
You can measure yourself at home. Just take a tape meaure around your back, stand up straight, and see what the measure is with the tape foat aganst your chest, but not squeezing. Use your finger to mark the spot on the tape and then you can take it off your chest and read it easily. Then add 4. Wacoal and other better bras measure an additional 4 usually. With Wacoal if you actually measure 38 around your back, you wear a 42, many of the less expensive brands add 5 inches to the measure. The most important measure is the back fitting correctly, the cup is easy to judge just by looking at the bra once it is on. You want the breast well contained in the cup, but don’t want the fabrics of the cup loose or puckering. However, we do recommend you fit the larger breast well. I know I sound like a walking commercial for Wacoal, I have been told Chantelle is also a very good bra, I am not sure what size they go up to, we considered them a direct competitor. Lane Bryant, Victoria Secret, Warner’s all were considered inferior. The biggest thing was that they did not last long, and that the money spent on the better bra gave you more years of perfect fit and comfort. I hate my Victoria Secret bras, they all slip around, many fit too big for their size. Lane Bruant quality might be better now, I am not working in the industry now and I am a 36C so I am not familiar with their bras anymore. It’s possible your biggest problem is the size you wear and not the actual brand.
Cup size labelling varies by brand in larger cup sizes. Some brands go D, DD, DDD. Some go D, DD, E. Some do other sequences. so, again, I emphasize that the back fitting is the key, and then you just go up or down in cup until the bra fits. If you tend to wear minimizers the cup can be off a size when we measure it.
Look for full coverage, and remember the ugliest bras make the prettiest t-shirts and lightweight sweaters. Smooth, seemless bras, made from quality fabric should give you more comfort and your casual clothes will look better. I wasn’t a big minimized fan, but many women liked them. It changes the shape of the breast, it doesn’t really squeeze the breast in like a girdle squeezes us in. Bras with seems might give you more support in less expensive brands, but you can’t wear them under everything. Lace and seems can be great under structured suits. Lace also might give you better support, because it is stiffer, but when it is cheap it can dig into you, and also you usually won’t get a nice smooth look under a t-shirt fabric.
When you go bra shopping wear a shirt that is similar to what you commonly wear so you can see how the bra looks with your clothing.
Under white clothing skin tone bras will dissappear, a white bra will show up. Skin tone is your skin tone, whatever it is. Many bra lines have two shades of beige and a brown also.
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