My Friend's Fitting Experience

Recently I had my first experience of actually fitting someone into a better bra size. It might surprise you to know that I’ve never done that before! Instead, I’ve referred people to the shop near where I live that does fittings, and I’ve helped many people online.

It can be hard to fit someone in person because most of us don’t have a ton of bras in random sizes lying around. I happened to have an old 32E Deco that was once my sister’s before her size changed, and I suspected that it might be around the range of my friend's size. I think it helps a lot to have at least one bra in the general area of what you think your friend might need. Otherwise, a fitting would be best accomplished in stages—first do a preliminary measurement and chat, then try ordering a few potential sizes from a website that offers free shipping. Depending on your friend’s size range, you might also be able to find bras for her to try in a store like Victoria’s Secret, Marshall’s, etc.

My friend came in wearing a 34C. She told me she often wears bras in B, C, or D cups and just buys them without trying them on, so she was getting a lot of inconsistency in her fit and was uncomfortable. One major complaint was the sensation of her band moving around throughout the day. Her underbust measured 33’’, but because of her complaint about the 34 band feeling loose, I figured she would be happier in a 32 band, so that’s what I suggested.

We also experimented with measuring for cup size and entering the measurements into good online bra size calculators, like the one at Sophisticated Pair or Curves and Corsets. These calculators did suggest similar sizes to what my friend ended up in, but it can be really hard to tell how a size will fit someone from a straight cup size measurement. That's why it's still important to do a fitting in stages, ultimately providing options to try something on. If you don't have any bras for your friend to try, using one of these calculators is a good first step. Then you or your friend can order bras in several sizes--the suggested cup size, one size smaller, one size bigger, etc. 

My friend reads my blog and said her boobs have lower fullness. Because of that, I knew the Deco might not be the perfect shape, but I had her try it on anyway. At first she thought it was way too big in the cups, but then I taught her to “swoop and scoop”, which she’s never done before. After doing that, the cups changed from looking way too big, to looking like a near-perfect fit with just a tiny bit of gapping!

My conclusion is that she will probably want to wear a 32E in bras that don’t run big. (Deco runs one cup size large, so the 32E that was slightly too big is the equivalent of a 32F in many other bras.) After an initial fitting, especially with someone who hasn’t swooped and scooped before, there will likely be some tissue migration—breast tissue that has been squashed into the armpits by wearing poorly fitted bras will gradually become part of the breast again. So once this has occurred, a 32F may be the perfect size for her.

The real takeaway for me is the importance of emphasizing the “swoop and scoop” method. I’d never realized how much it needs to be emphasized, as it always seemed intuitive to me and I always did it even when I was wearing a 34DD. But now I realize that lots of people wouldn’t think to do it, and it can make a really huge difference in the size you need. If you don’t lift your boobs up into the bra and pull in all the tissue, you can damage your boobs over time—being pressed down like that day after day will eventually lead to loss of elasticity (commonly known as sagging). If the bottom of your breast touches your torso at all INSIDE the bra, that’s a sure sign you need to lift it up so that it is fully supported by the bra. Once you’ve done that, the cups of the bra may seem smaller—a sign that you need bigger cups!

Panache "Harmony" Review

I realize that awhile back, I promised a commenter that I would do a review of the Panache Harmony, and then I forgot—sorry! I know I’ve mentioned the Harmony a lot in this blog, and it’s one of the most widely available bras in sales and on eBay, so it makes sense that I should say a few words about it. It’s also the bra that I’ve worn the most often and know the best. I don’t wear the Harmony anymore but it served a crucial purpose for me for over a year of my life.

I actually bought the Harmony the first time I ever got fitted, but I didn’t wear it much because it really minimized my boobs, plus it tended to start cutting in throughout the day. But remember my late-onset boob-hatred that I mentioned in my last post? As soon as that struck, I went running into the arms of the Harmony. The reason it had cut in wasn’t that it was too small, but because it is designed for wider-set boobs than mine, which are quite close together, so it pulled to the sides over the course of a day. Once I learned how to alter the center gore, I made the Harmony mine.

When I reunited with my best friend after my switch from Freya to the Panache Harmony, she said in surprise “What are you wearing that makes your boobs look so small?” I think most of what I was “wearing” was a terribly hunched-over posture, but the Harmony soothed me enough to keep me in my body for those months when all I wanted to do was escape out of it and run away from my boobs.

This brings me to the primary function of the Harmony. It really helps if you hate feeling huge and just want to look more average. I know a lot of people never want to make their boobs look smaller, but if you do, please try this bra. The construction of it really makes your boobs very compact and in my experience, makes them look smaller than anything else will, and that’s what I would recommend this bra for.

To explain what I mean about the construction, think about the “apex” of a bra, the point furthest away from your chest. When people say that cups have more “depth”, they are saying that the apex is further away, so you will get more projection. In contrast, the Harmony has an apex that is a lot closer to the chest, so your boobs get much less projection than you’d get in, say, a Freya balconette. The tissue is even distributed as close to your body as possible without any constriction (of the type you might get in a compression sports bra—not too healthy for long periods). Because of the distribution and lack of depth, the underwires on the Harmony, as with any bra without much depth, have to be wider so there is somewhere for the tissue to go. Wide underwires aren’t everyone’s cup of tea, but they shouldn’t hurt if you bend them to your shape.

This bra is fairly high under the armpits, which is good if you are trying to deal with tissue migration, but not so super if you are petite and have problems with bras rubbing your armpits.

For my full-on-top boobs, the Harmony is a great fit once I’ve altered the center gore, because it is so low-cut and so open on top. The rose-patterned lace that forms the upper section might even gape on people with boobs that are full on the bottom, so if you often have problems with gaping, this might be a good bra to try in a size down. Personally, I need a 28J in bras that have a larger or tighter upper section, but I can wear a 28HH in the Harmony, just like I can in the Confetti.

I also really like the way it looks. It’s the furthest thing away from a “sad bra for massive boobs” (phrase cribbed from a review of a different bra on Bravissimo’s website). It’s low-cut and relatively pretty. It used to be available in more colors than you can find it in now, but even in the black, white and nude I think it is a really flattering basic.

It doesn’t give as round a shape as similarly-fitting bras like the Sienna, Brooke, Frances, and Confetti, which is why I don’t really wear the Harmony much anymore. The shape isn’t pointy at all, rather the opposite, it’s just kind of… bra-shaped rather than orb-shaped. (Very difficult to explain.) But I still think of it as one of the best bras that exists. It really got me through a tough couple of years and in the future if I’m looking for a work bra or something plain and nude, that’s where I’ll turn.

I’m sorry that I don’t have good pictures of myself in the Harmony—all my Harmony bras are in the States, so when I get back in June, I’ll add photos to this review. In the meantime, here are three photos I snapped in my dirty mirror last year. Despite the horrible quality, I think you can see what I mean about how small it makes my boobs look in comparison to how they look in a lot of other bras—I’m the same size in these photos as I am now.

This is a 30 band, hence why it's riding up.

I also want to note that the Harmony balconette I’m reviewing here is different from the Harmony full-cup, which looks like this:

The Harmony full-cup is actually pretty good for a full-cup bra, but it’s very different from the balconette, and I personally wouldn’t recommend it as highly (or at all, but then again I hold a grudge against full-cup bras. I know some people like them).

I also want to mention that the Panache Melody is supposedly “based on” the Harmony but actually isn’t really similar at all other than the fact that it, too, gives a fairly minimized shape. The fit is pretty different, though. Check out my review for more information.