I’m sure many of you have read this blog post before, since it’s been around for a while. This is something that I’ve been thinking of for the past few days, prompted by me ordering a new Ewa Michalak PL bra in a 28K. I try not to have letterphobia, and just buy what fits, and according to my experience with the PL Lilia, a 28K should either fit, or be slightly too large. Either way it shouldn’t be far off the mark. But every time I go up a cup size, I worry, am I falling victim to reversed letterphobia?
In case you were too lazy to click the link above to the fantastic blog post by Drueber und Drunter, reversed letterphobia is when women, frightened of wearing too large a band and not getting proper support, begin to wear bands that are too tight with cups that are too large.
This phenomenon was first pointed out to me by a comment on my early review for the Curvy Kate Emily. The woman pointed out that the wires were being bent too far back and being distorted, which was causing my problems with the shape in the front. I’d noticed this before too, as I’d tried on a 30H Romance in Breakout Bras whose cup shape I was much happier with, but the band was much too large. Even on the tightest hook, it rode up in the back and had to be adjusted after just a few minutes.
So today what I’m thinking about is this: How many women wearing small bands are actually falling victim to reversed letterphobia, and how many are just suffering from bras with wide wires? Are there women out there who are having problems with cup distortion even in brands with narrow wires? Because I have never seen such a case!
Writing out this short post while constantly adjusting the band on this 30H bra has calmed my mind, at least when it comes to wondering if I’m falling victim to reversed letterphobia.
But now I really have to wonder, how many women wear a 28 or 30 band and fit well into the wires of, say, the Panache Tango II balconette bra? From Bratabase, a 30JJ Tango II has wires that are 8.5″ wide, and a band that stretches to 30″. This means that, if these wires fit well, the root of this woman’s breasts take up over half of her torso, assuming she measures 30″ around. I know that there are women who need wide wires, but how many? I feel like I see almost all women struggling to find narrower wires! Women love Ewa Michalak for this reason! Looking at the reviews for this bra on Bratabase, the only time people complained about the wires on the Tango II being too narrow was when the cup was too small all around.
I guess what I’m trying to say, in this long winded post, is why is it that wide wires are the norm, and not the exception? I know that it’s hard to find wires narrow enough, but do any of my readers struggle with finding wires that are wide enough for their shape?
Oh, and one more thing, that I’ll probably address more in a future post, but this is where using the same underwire for sister sizes doesn’t make sense to me. Why in the world would a 28J woman need the same width of wires as a 40F woman? Can anyone enlighten me? Am I just filled with bra naivety?
Obsessed With Breasts 