Before you think I’ve gone off the deep end, let me just say that I believe there is such a thing as perfect fit and the standards to determine it.  But I’ve made two realizations recently:

1.  All my RELATIVES are wearing the wrong size.  Last month, Lingerie Addict‘s and Bra Stop‘s blogs got me thinking about the commonly quoted statistic that “85% of women are wearing the wrong bra size”.  If my relatives and acquaintances had been the survey sample, the statistic would have been 100%.  Especially sad, some of these are women who should know better, including:

  • my niece, who I took for her first professional bra fitting when she was 16 (she’s now 20, and her underbust is 28″, but she was wearing a 36D to our fitting last month); and  
  • my sister, who took me for my first professional bra fitting when I was 16.

    When I first heard the 85% statistic, I thought it was just a matter of time before that number dwindled down to zero.  Once women saw and felt the difference of a proper fit, they would never again subject themselves to constant strap adjustments or quadraboobs.

    However, it’s been a few years now, and that number doesn’t seem to have budged.  Lingerie Addict validly questions the number’s legitimacy, and the cited press release itself only gives reasons that women don’t get fitted rather than discusses how (or if) Debenhams arrived at the number in the title.  But like the Bra Stop blog author, my own anecdotal evidence supports this number.  What percentage of your female relatives and acquaintances do you think is wearing the wrong bra?

    [Just a note–my mother and niece are no longer wearing the wrong size after our trip to Unique Lingerie in Ocala, but I’m afraid it’s only a matter of a year or so before they return to their bad habits.  More on that in my bonus 3rd realization below.]

    2.  Sometimes fit really is in the eye of the beholder–if the beholder is a guy.  I have a feeling guys love it when a 32F woman wears a 36D bra because it makes her breasts (a) look enormous and (b) bounce more.  Guys also like quadraboobs.  Just last week Mr. Campbell asked if I had a bra that would give me extra jiggle on top like a woman he saw crossing the street.  I do have such a bra, I told him, but only because it’s too small.  Then I explained the concept of quadraboob to him.  To him, that’s a perfect fit. 

    3.  I am a bra nerd.
    This has nothing to do with fit being relative, but it’s another recent revelation for me.  I discovered this when I took my mom and niece for their fitting last month.  Just parking in front of the store made me feel that all was right with the world.  Then I realized that for my mother and niece, this was just another shopping trip.  And it dawned on me that proper fit just isn’t that important to a vast population of women . . . perhaps even 85% of the population doesn’t really care whether or not they’re wearing a perfectly fitting bra.

    For me, a breast encased in a perfectly fitting bra is a thing of beauty–both the bra and the breast complement each other.  Pragmatically, the right size bra gives its wearer both physical and psychological support.  I want everyone to experience this.  But I’m learning that not even the experience of perfect fit is enough to make it a consistent priority in some women’s lives.  Everyone has their own priorities and passions.  Since well-fitting and beautiful bras are one of mine, I’ve become a bra nerd.