Custom undergarments

[cjsmith]

OK, Bay Area folks, I've got guests coming in to town. One of them has heard of a place (Berkeley area, maybe?) that specializes in bras for nonstandard women. Er, let me rephrase: women with a nonstandard ribcage-to-boobage ratio.

This would normally be only an amusing sidenote (oh, those crazy Californians!) but for two things. 1) I could sure use a visit to a place like that myself. 2) It's my fault she's heard of it -- apparently, long ago, I'm the one who told her!

What was it? A store that does custom work? A store with a much wider variety than usual of premade stuff? I'm sure it wasn't just the Title Nine store, but I'll take her there too.

Comments

[aleeceh.livejournal.com]

I've ordered quite a bit of stuff from http://www.figleaves.com/ in the UK. They have an excellent selection, excellent size-search tool, and easy returns. Their stuff tends to be high-end and expensive. I've returned almost everything I've ordered, however. The UK bras seem to have very bullet shaped cups, i.e. made for breasts with a smaller diameter base on the chest wall and greater depth from chest to nipple for equivalent breast volume. That shape just doesn't work for me.

I order sports bras from http://www.roadrunnersports.com/. They have their own brands of many types of activewear that are cheaper than the major name brands and very high quality. They have a basic X-back stretchy sports bra designed for D/DD cups that I have several of.

I've ordered a lot of stuff from http://www.barenecessities.com/. They make it easy to search for specific sizes and carry most of the major brands. My favorite bra of all time is the Vanity Fair "My Satin Fantasy." It comes in a wide variety of sizes and has been on the market for many, many years, but it's always a crapshoot whether Mervyn's or Macy's will have my size in stock, and I got frustrated with wasted trips. If you are like me and have already zeroed in on the make, model and size you like, Bare Necessities is great way to go.

If you do find this local place that does a good job with fitting and possibly does custom work, I'll be interested to hear about it. My girlfriend's breasts are mismatched in size (by a full cup size) and chest placement due to childhood surgeries, in addition to her being extremely petite. She has yet to find a comfortable bra, though going to a 30B (not available in local stores) rather than a 32A after doing the measurement thing was a big improvement.

I've had no luck with fit at Victoria's secret, which was suggested by many people on one of the sites someone else linked.

http://www.plussizebras.org/ has good advice, fitting/measurement instructions, and size reference charts. They don't sell anything.

[cjsmith.livejournal.com]

Wow, that last link is very informative. I could have about sixteen different cup sizes depending on the manufacturer's whim. :)

Sadly, Road Runner bottoms out at a 32" ribcage and Bare Necessities stops at 30. I'm solidly 28. My mother, on the other hand, might be able to do well with some of these links. We're opposites. She got all the ribs and I got all the boobage! :)