June 14, 2013 11:14 AM BST
This is a sort of follow up to my 2 separate articles - one on bras and the other on panties. Its inspired by 2 recent articles in the Guardian.
Part 1 - Bras
The bra one starts with the headline
"Approximately 80% of women wear ill-fitting bras – and now the US underwear firm Jockey wants us to measure ourselves and deal with a whole new sizing system"
It talks about a boobular contaiment system .......
"Right – the good news! US underwear supremos Jockey International claim they are on the verge of revolutionising the bra industry by introducing an entirely new way of measuring for fittings. After eight years investigating the sizes and shapes of real ladies' baps, they have created a sizing system that takes account not just of ribcage size (that's the 32/34/36 etc inches bit) and cup size (that's your actual boobular containment area) but of breast shape too.
To that end, brave researchers scanned the entireties of around 800 women's torsos, collecting measurements from all points, and then followed the women around, watching how they dressed, chose bras, finding out their complaints about the products and the process of acquiring them.
At the end of this meticulous mammarian survey, Jockey determined that 10 cup sizes were needed to account for most variations in size and shape. To fit customers properly, it has made the term literal and requires women to manoeuvre their boobs into a range of plastic cups to see what works best. That, plus your ribcage size, will give you a new measurement of anywhere between 1 and 30 and 10 and you'vegottobekiddingme " says Lucy.
What is fascinating about Lucy Mangan's piece is not so much the idea of putting your boobs into a plastic cup but the comments about how hard it is to find bras that fit, or shops that have fitters who know what they are doing. For more details see the link -
http://www.guardian.co.uk/fashion/shortcuts/2013/jun/09/secret-to-perfect-fitting-bra
Part 2 - Panties
This article by Paula Cocozza bemoans the demise of M&S as Britain's first choice for knickers (panties) that fit. Again its not so much the article as readers comments...have a look.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/fashion/shortcuts/2013/apr/17/marks-and-spencer-britain-knicker-shop
Why you may ask have I posted links to these articles in the Guardian. Well bear with me as they are a good starting point for some questions you may (or may not) want to answer.
Given that few of us have real breasts and thus the cup is filled with silicone or bird seed or whatever...
Q1, How do you decide what bra size to buy - both band size and cup size.
Q2. How many bras do you have?
Given that none of us have real hips how do you go about buying knickers or panties....
Q1. Do you go for the same size as your skirt size? Or figure out your size another way?
Q2. What is your favorite type - bikini, see through, big panties, etc
Q3. How many pairs of panties do you have?
And one last overall Q - do you wear a bra and panties on a regular basis....and feel free to talk about where you buy your lingerie, and if you shop for your favorite frillies in drab.
Have fun girls....
hugs
Pauline xxx