I’ve been impatiently waiting for this reading roundup to share these amazing Sue Bryce links with you.  Thanks to a link from Geralin Thomas’s Wardrobe Wisdom Pinterest board, I discovered this Australian portrait photographer who has a passion for helping other photographers bring out the best in women with curves–without photoshop. These before and after images  are found here, along with another mesmerizing set of shots. (Yes, it’s probably cheating to do everything in black clothing, but the poses still make a difference. And yes, I suspect her model could do with a better bra.)

I’ve been experimenting with my own photos after reading these tips:

  1. Posting Tip: Weight on the Back Foot
  2. Girls with Curves No.3 The Hourglass (I love Sue Bryce’s attitude: “Curvy girls want their curves in all the right places. Great boobs, small waist and hip ratio. SO it’s the same goal for everybody. Accentuate the HOURGLASS of a woman’s body regardless of the size.”)

Sue Bryce has created an $85 downloadable book and video that I haven’t purchased yet (does anyone want to go in on this with me?), but I have gleaned as many curve-relevant posts from her blog as I could find (at least through page 26!). If you have time, however, just enjoy browsing her blog pages instead of visiting just the links below. You will be inspired. (Yes, she tends to equate curvy with full-figured, but her advice and attitude more than make up for this.)

  1. A Girl with Curves
  2. Girls with Curves
  3. More Gorgeous Curves
  4. Posing Tip
  5. Vogue Celebrates Plus Size Having Another Rang
  6. Recline, Sit Back, Fill the Frame
  7. More Girls with Curves
  8. You Wanted More Girls with Curves
  9. Pose Fest

Here’s another big-bust-affirming piece I’ve been holding onto.  The writer wears a 40N, but you won’t hear her asking for a reduction:

Aside from the possible side effects of the surgery death (a risk of any surgery utilizing anesthesia), inability to breastfeed, and loss of breast and nipple sensation ”I won’t undergo a breast reduction for the same reason I won’t get a face lift: I am who I am, and for the most part, I’m happy with myself. I’m lucky. I may be a 40N, but my breasts don’t hurt me”and pain, as far as I’m concerned, is one of the only valid reasons to undergo surgery. My upper back doesn’t ache, nor do my shoulders have angry red indentations from a lifetime of tight bra straps.

Of course we all agree that she gets this one wrong, unless her definition of “extra-large bosoms” is different from a simple D+:

Very few extremely slender women have extra-large bosoms; they’d topple over.

And I got a kick out of this anecdote:

I’m used to being the most well-endowed woman in the room. I was once at a party when cult film star Kitten Natividad (38HH) sashayed in. We eyed each other warily. It was actually funny how competitive we were.

Finally, here’s a roundup of other great thinking that has caught my attention from the full bust blogging community:

1. If you have any residue of body judgment left after the above posts, you MUST check out  Sophia Jenner’s piece about how Perfection is Overrated. I recently talked to a bra fitter who doesn’t believe there was such a thing as a perfect fit. The more we talked, however, the clearer it became that she was really talking about a perfect body. It goes back to the old bra fitter’s joke: “I’m a fitter, not a plastic surgeon.” Accepting that there’s no such thing as perfection removes our unrealistic expectations of what a bra can do.

2. Bras I Hate has been giving herself a little more leeway with bra bands. Although she doesn’t think we should do it simply to increase our style options, I’m perfectly fine going this route if the sister size truly fits. Lately, I’ve been experimenting with 36G’s when I can’t find 34H’s.  Since the 36G’s fit, I’m not compromising, but this is a new experiment for me, so I may blog more about this after I see how the 36G’s do over time. I’m really pleased with Bras I Hate’s point about being flexible in practice instead of rigidly adhering to what should work in theory.

3. Les Gros Bonnets rants about a style that everyone prescribes for the full bust: the empire waist. It’s another one of those styles that should work in theory but in practice makes a lot of us look top heavy and pregnant. Thank you for writing this, Les Gros Bonnets! I was beginning to think I was the only one who didn’t like empire waists.

4. Last but not least, I’m enjoying browsing this new addition to the full-busted blogosphere: Quest for the Perfect Bra.