BOOB SCHOOL Part deux

A properly fitted bra can literally help you drop a dress size, not to mention improving your posture and making you feel supported at the same time. So how did I get on with my bra fitting? Well, I was pretty confident I was wearing the correct bra size but once I was in the fitting room with my top whipped off I felt …well…vulnerable. Was I wearing the wrong size? The wrong cup? My mind was a heady mix of bra confusion as I tried to remember the date of my last fitting. Surely in the past year? This was the Boob School examination – was I going to pass the test?

I was running through the 7 classic bra faux pas pretty sure I wasn’t guilty of the Side Boob, the High Rider, the Big Stand Off and the Ledge but since I stopped training as much after my marathon I have put on a tiny bit of weight on my boobs. Oh dear lord! Was I guilty of the dreaded Quadraboob? Or worst still the Super-drooper?

Now this is what’s great about Bravissimo – everybody I met at Boob School was immeasurably passionate about their products. Due to the location of the store – heart of Oxford Circus – naturally the demand from customers is high. So when it came to my turn to be fitted Bravissimo’s Head of Stores did mine. You wouldn't get many senior figures in companies taking such an active role! She took one look at my bra and immediately clocked the too small a cup size. Measuring just by sight and without the use of a tape measure the Freya bra which was brought in fitted fabulously. With straps adjusted and my girls now fully encased in their cups I popped my top back on and left a very happy lady indeed.

I came to Boob School a 30E and left a 30F. Graduating with flying colours and no sign of a Quadraboob in sight! Thanks Bravissimo!

For more info head over to the Bravissimo Facebook page (here), check out their website here or head into stores and have yourself a fitting!

BOOB SCHOOL

I have already professed my love for Bravissimo so when I was invited to their Boob School I was beyond excited. I loved school – folders, fountain pens and coursework – so settling down to learn about boobs for a morning was something I eagerly anticipated. Off I toddled to the Bravissimo flagship near Oxford Circus, London.

Boob School was hosted by a number of Bravissimo’s head honchos and boy do they know their stuff. Bravissimo surveyed 1000 women and came up with some staggering statistics:  

Only 1 in 5 women are extremely confident they are wearing the correct bra size yet 24% of women have never had a bra fitting and 21% of women haven’t been for a fitting for at least 4 years.

Time to look after your girls, ladies! 

I was chatting to Holly from Pepperberry (previously of Bravissimo) and she made a really good point – the fit of the bra depends on the make, the shape, the type. Much like I am a size 8 in M&S and a size 12 in Miss Selfridge, the size of your bra will fit differently depending on which brand you have purchased it from, much like clothes do when purchased from different retailers.

It’s funny how often we refresh our wardrobes and yet neglect what’s going on under our clothes.  Many women are on the holy grail of that last 7lbs and swear they will go for a fitting once the weight is off. The simply magical thing about a correctly fitting bra is that it can drop a dress size for you. I know! How awesome! Forget slaving away at the gym and counting calories – get a bra which fits and let that properly fitted back strap and seamless cups do all the hard work!

To spur you into action here are some pictures of some little known celebs who clearly should have enrolled in Boob School. Or just should’ve stayed indoors.

Meeting Betty Pamper (check her blog out here) and Elena of The Frivolous Mrs D fame (check her blog out here) was also a high point of the day! Those girls rock old school vintage glamour like never before.

Check back for another post about my bra fitting experience with Bravissimo and the fab bra I took home.

I love Bravissimo (but not as much as H&M. Those guys are still no.1)

When I was a teenager I went from a 32B to a 32D virtually overnight. It was a Lara Croft-esque nightmare when, just weeks later, I went to 32DD. Working at WHSmiths, I had to have a size 14 top to cover my chest area without the fabric straining. This was back in 1994: I was the first girl in my year to grow such noticeably gargantuan breasts, I realised roll necks were not my friend and my mum had to take me to a specialist lingerie retailer which basically stocked bras for Grannies in order to get a bra which “fitted”. That was the choice - a pretty bra which didn’t fit from M&S or a granny bra which did. My sister, who had previously been “Titless Tina”, took great pleasure in calling me “Big Breasted Brenda”.

When Bravissimo came on the scene in 1995 it was as if my prayers had been answered: I could finally get bras that were pretty, they fitted and the staff were sympathetic. (I had an incident in M&S where a bra fitter, marvelling at my teenage buds, called in her colleague to get a look at the enormous additions to my petite 5’3” frame.) They even did swimwear. Which fitted! Prayers. Answered. The testimonials on their website and in their catalogue are genuine, from real women, which just shows they are getting something right and meeting a very real need.

Since then I have always appreciated their amazingly friendly staff and great stock package. Any Wardrobe Angel clients who are blessed in the chest area and are experiencing ill-fitting bras, a general malaise with other high street bra sellers but have a lack of time to shop, I send them to Bravissimo online. And the success is evident,

" Today, Bravissimo customers are able to ask themselves 'which bra do I like' rather than 'what comes in my size'. Over half a million women have contacted us since we began, turning the sitting-room business into a multi-million pound award-winning company, retailing by mail order, our website and through our 21 high street stores.”

Awesome.