Are celebrities bad bra role models?

We’ve all heard the statistic that 80% of women are wearing the wrong bra size, but no one really talks about why.

Countless times I’ve heard the phrase “but a DD is huge” or “a G-cup is glamour model size isn’t it?”, and often, these phrases come from women.

Both men and women need to be more bra-aware. How do cup sizes and band sizes relate to each other?
The most imporant thing to remember, is that a cup size means nothing without the band size. A 28DD and a 38DD are vastly different sizes. The volume of a cup from a 28DD bra is equal to the volume of a 34B. If you held those two bras side by side, they would look the same size (excluding the band).
If you wear a 34E, and you find that the band is a bit loose, the next step is NOT a 32E. Each time you decrease the band size, you must increase the cup size – so a 34E with a smaller band becomes a 32F and vice versa.

DD+ cup sizes have somehow become taboo. There are jokes made about women based on bra size, and implications that if a woman over DD does not look like Christina Hendricks in the bust area, that surely she must be wrong about her size. These jokes and ignorant assumptions are so outdated, especially when there is so much more information about bra sizing available to us. Despite this, many women still insist on wearing the wrong size.

It is precisely this sort of thinking that bothers me – as I have blogged about before, Christina Hendricks is apparently something like a 38DD or 38DDD according to the media. Now whether she has confirmed this or not, I don’t know, but I don’t see why a woman in the public eye should let us believe she is a size that is actually incorrect. Frankly, that’s just being a bad role model for all the women out there unsure of their correct size. I have heard many a woman say “but I’m not as big as Christina so I can’t be over a DD”, and this really skews our perception of women’s bodies. (I speculated at the time that she was probably a 32H/32HH).

But, Christina is not the only one, she’s just a more obvious one. There are many more celebrities who really need to do a little more research to find out their correct bra size. Here are a few that come to mind:

Beyonce:

Beyonce is the ultimate independant woman, which is why this one stresses me out so much. She’s been both slimmer and curvier through the years, but always seems to be in the wrong bra size. Her gorgeous figure looks squished in that yellow bikini, and even in her very popular ‘Best thing I never had‘ video, she is wearing a basque where the wires are pretty much lying directly on her breast tissue; it’s even more obvious when watching the video. She is probably around a 30E.

Liz Hurley:

What can I say, Liz just never looks supported in the bust area. All her bras seem far too big in the band and small in the cup. Famously an advocate of diets and being slim, she is well known for once saying “I’d kill myself if I was as fat as Marilyn Monroe”. She claimed that having seen Marilyn’s dresses, she wanted to get out a tape measure to check the vast size. I get the feeling that as her breast size has increased over the years, she has refused to accept that she’s bustier than she once was, as quite clearly the label matters more to her than what she actually looks like; some role model.
A well fitting supportive bra could do wonders for her shape, my guess is that these days she’s more like a 30FF or 30G.

Tyra Banks:

The gorgeous model claims that she is a DD, but with what looks like a back size of about 28, it’s quite clear she’s bigger than a DD. More likely a 28GG or 30G. On the left she’s squeezed herself into a very small bra, and on the right, you can see that the band of the red bra is loose and not supporting her.
Tyra has embraced her curves as they grown over the years; I really think if Bravissimo could get their hands on her to measure, that she would be very surprised with the outcome. She could be a great role model with the correct size.

Sofia Vergara:

With roles such as Gloria in ‘Modern Family’, it’s hard to know whether Sofia creates this big cleavage-y look on purpose. I get the feeling she doesn’t know her real bra size, but I’d guess quite similar in size to Christina Hendricks. In my opinion, Sofia looks to be a 30HH, but most likely if she wore her correct size, she wouldn’t have her beloved chin-high cleavage effect.

Kelly Brook:

The bra on the left has a band that is far too loose, not giving her any lift or support. On the right, it’s a cup that is far too small, cutting into her breast tissue on the side (I’m certain that minus the airbrushing on that one, it would be far more obvious). I’d put Kelly at a 28H, possibly 30GG.

Katherine Heigl:

Katherine Heigl

Gorgeous, but often wearing a bra or bikini that is a few sizes too small. I’d put her as a 30F/30FF or similar.

The fact is, whether these women know it or not, they are putting out a really distorted idea of breast sizes. It’s no wonder 80% of women don’t know their own bra size, because these are the sort of references we have.

Take a look at the following picture of D/DD sized women, with varying band sizes:

D-DD Cup Sizes

And next, a picture of G/GG sized women with varying band sizes (65 = UK 30 and 70 =UK 32).

G-GG Cup Sizes

It just goes to show that you cannot estimate a cup size without estimating the band size too. There are far more sizes out there than A-DD, and we all need to be more bra-aware.

If you think you are wearing the wrong size, try putting your measurements in Curves and Corsets bra calculator (the most accurate one I have come across) and see what you get: Bra Calculator

A great place to go and get measured professionally, is Bravissimo, I highly recommended them for both the fit and service.

Love

Sophia xxx

Christina Hendricks – Bra Size Controversy

I have so much to say about the lovely Christina Hendricks, it’s hard to know where to start.

First of all, it’s important to say that I personally think she is a stunning, elegant and very talented woman. She rocks what she’s got like no one I have ever seen. Half the world has gone Christina mad, the other half seem to dislike her purely because she flaunts her curves – not sure I understand how that can be a bad thing, but anyway.

She has always been someone I admire, especially because I can be insecure about my own curves. Far less now than I used to be, but I think it’s a difficulty that a lot of women face.

The one thing that irritates me no end however, is the topic of Christina’s bra size. There are all sorts of apparent ‘facts’ circulating about her being something like a 36DD or a 38DDD (in the UK, DDD is not a real cup size). If she really measured 38 underbust, that would makes her a UK size 16-18 – something she is most definitely not. If I was going to guess, I would say she is probably a 32H or HH – or something along those lines. I often see her practically bursting out of her outfits, and it makes me think she has a lot of difficulty finding both bras and clothes to cover her bust.

Christina Hendricks

Sometimes it becomes more obvious that a bra just doesn’t cover her assets, and she’s gone for something in the wrong size. Of course she still looks gorgeous, but it does appear she might burst out of those dresses any second.

The sides of Christina’s breasts are not being fully encased by her bra.

Even more disappointing, is how companies using her in their advertising campaigns, also cannot seem put her in the correct size. Here are a couple of shots from magazine shoots with Christina. Below on the left, the cup is clearly miles too small for her, and you can see the underwire is actually sitting on the breast tissue. On the right, the centre gore of the basque is not remotely flat, and is being pushed out because the cups are again, too small.

Christina modelling in badly fitting underwear.

It is made more difficult to guess her size because unfortunately, I have noticed, she often wears a bra that is at least a few cup sizes too small, pushing her breasts up much more than her correct bra size would. This fact was actually pointed out to me by fellow blogger Brittany from Thin and Curvy.
We have both decided to test this theory out ourselves…and show you the results!

Wearing a ‘DD’ – four/five cup sizes too small.

Above I am wearing a DD – a size which some lingerie companies (who incorrectly use the ‘plus 4′ band method) actually recommend I wear.
You can clearly see that it is miles too small for me – but I do have the ‘Christina Cleavage’ effect.

Wearing the correct bra size ‘G’

For a fair comparison, I have used a deco bra, (which is good if you want to show a little cleavage anyway). This is in my correct size, and you can see that the amount of cleavage on show is far more toned down and appropriate – I say appropriate, but in real life I would probably wear a top underneath for modesty!

Brittany wearing a ‘DD’ – five/six sizes too small

Above, Brittany who normally wears a 26HH, tried on a size 30DD – this is apparently her ‘correct’ size according to Victoria Secret’s online bra calculator. Here is what she had to say on the subject:

“I had bought this Fantasie 30DD bra because it was on sale and I thought it might fit my little sister. It occurred to me that it is the same size that I would be according to Victoria’s Secret’s method of measuring that they have on their website, so I decided to try it on just for fun to see how awful it would be. It was just as bad as I expected, but what struck me about it once I had it on, is how much my cleavage looked like Christina Hendricks!
I have often wondered how she achieves such massive cleavage, since I have pretty full, close set breasts and mine never look like hers even with the best plunge bras. Now I know how she does it. Of course, this bra looked horrible from the side and cut into my breasts painfully. I feel very sorry for her, and anyone who goes around wearing such a badly fitting bra.”

What makes the ‘too-small’ bra idea even more bizarre, is that obviously on the set of ‘Mad Men’ (which I love by the way) Ms. Hendricks has clearly been fitted into proper garments of the correct size. Now fair enough, I don’t know what sizing method they use, perhaps it’s vintage sizing which would probably render us even more confused, but you’d think she might have been given a little information about sizing.

Joan Holloway – Mad Men

There is of course, the possibly that Christina is well aware of her correct bra size, and perhaps in her own free time she wears a HH and is perfectly content – I could quite easily imagine that she might put on a smaller size for public appearances, to show off her famous assets. Either way, I wouldn’t judge her for doing that. Why not show them off; she has a truly fabulous figure. I only hope that she really does know her correct size, and spends the majority of her time wearing the right one, otherwise she will end up (if she isn’t already) very uncomfortable and probably in a lot of pain.

Something I discovered today, is that Christina Hendricks plans to bring out her own line of swimwear. Again, it is yet another article stating she is a 36DD, click here to see it. I fail to see how she can design her own range of swimwear for a larger bust, when she isn’t wearing the correct size herself.

There is actually a photograph out there of Christina in a swimming costume that does imply she has a lot difficulty finding her size – a problem a lot of us busty women face. Soon I will be compiling a list of all the best places to shop for large cup bras internationally – hopefully this will help anyone having trouble (the way Christina possibly is) find well-fitting bras too.

I really hope the world can start to understand that a DD isn’t necessarily a big cup size and definitely not the biggest, not to mention that the band measurement must be taken into account.

I measure about 31″ underbust and wear a band size 30 to 32.
Brittany measures 24″ underbust and wears a band size 26 (finding a 26 or a 24 band is a struggle in itself, you can read more about that on her blog).
In my personal opinion, Christina doesn’t look much wider than either of us, in fact she looks to be about my measurements (or smaller) underbust. Does that sound like someone who should be wearing a 36 or 38 band? I don’t think so.