Shouldn’t be that hard, right?

  • Treczoks@lemmy.world
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    1 year ago

    Well, every body is different. It’s just like other clothing, too, but involves more detail, but basically a piece that fits person A will not fit person B.

    One way to solve this is to go to a real specialist shop instead of the normal retail shops or online sources. My wife did this after surgery, as her sizes changed, and they measured her up and found the right “layout” for her. She said it is a difference like day and night.

    • Huschke@programming.dev
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      1 year ago

      My wife did the same and while they cost 4 times as much as regular ones, she also said that the difference is unbelievable.

      • flickKnot@lemmy.world
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        1 year ago

        Wouldn’t it make sense to have some kind of machine that scans your chest area to find the right fit and a line of custom fit premium solutions? Such as what we do for shoe insoles.

        • AppaYipYip@lemmy.world
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          1 year ago

          I think a normal measuring tape could work. I went to a place and they measured my chest above/below my breasts and then across the center and lower part of my breasts. The issue is the cost for premium bras are often out of the price range for most people.

  • j4k3@lemmy.world
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    1 year ago

    I can’t say much about bras, but as a former Buyer for a chain of high end bicycle shops, y’all are hard. We were focused on road bikes where everything down to the clothing fit is critical. I tried really hard to keep a good selection on hand, but even in the limited mostly ultra fit demographic, the size, cut, and fit range for women’s clothing is almost impossible to cover.

    Women’s was a small segment for us. Most shops won’t carry much of anything. Indeed, we ran at a minimized loss margin to carry stuff. This is ultra niche specific and completely tangential, but it might help show a bit of behind the scenes retail. Carrying a large range of sizes, cuts, and styles of any clothing type is an overburden inventory nightmare. The issues are always the oddball extras that everyone gets stuck with and can’t offload anywhere near cost. All the time and labor of managing it is also an issue. The way women’s sections are always left in terrible shape is also a major contributing cost factor in overall stock costs. Having experienced life as a Buyer, the bra sections of most department stores look like break even inventory at best IMO.

    • Bizarroland@kbin.social
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      1 year ago

      Basically what you’re saying is we can’t have nice things because capitalism.

      I mean I’m not in the bra buying demographic but I can still understand that it’s an issue and it sucks for women.

      • Falmarri@lemmy.world
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        1 year ago

        Yeah, if there’s anything that history and economics tells us, is that capitalism leads to less choice, whereas communism leads to many choices tailored to everyone individually

            • PostmodernPythia@lemmy.world
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              1 year ago

              If you see an Englishman in a kilt, it’s ok to say he’s no true Scotsman. See, “no true Scotsman” is only a problem if person/movement A IS actually fulfulling the functions of role B. And if you can read Marx and find a government that consistently tried to follow his writings, I’ll be very impressed and concede the point. (Though then we can talk about the difference between Marxism and other forms of socialism.)

        • angrystego@lemmy.world
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          1 year ago

          Yeah, communism leads to empty shelves in stores, so people are pleasantly surprised by any goods at all.

      • DoomBot5@lemmy.world
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        1 year ago

        See, logistics and capitalism don’t have to be tied together. A business at the end of the day needs money to stay in business. If people were willing to pay a bunch of extra money to have stuff that fits them right, it wouldn’t be so hard to keep it all in stock. It’s when you combine cheap prices, dozens of combinations of sizes and styles, customers that expect an employee will clean up their mess, and the need for immediate availability that things start to crumble.

      • Tristan@lemmy.ca
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        1 year ago

        I think it would still be an inventory nightmare to manage under socialism or communism.

      • agamemnonymous@sh.itjust.works
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        1 year ago

        It’s more that the wide variety of body shapes makes cheaply available, well-fitting clothes difficult. You can certainly have nice things in capitalism, you just have to have them custom made. The difficulties in making and widely distributing clothes that comfortably conform to the complex female firm are present in any economic model. The best comfortable solution is custom-made items, but that requires a great deal of time, labor, and resources.

  • cooopsspace@infosec.pub
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    1 year ago

    Because you can’t mass produce cheap crap and have a perfect fit customised to your exact shape.

  • linearchaos@lemmy.world
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    1 year ago

    I’d say that it’s probably doable if you had someone to measure and hand to make it for you.

    It would be a grand step forward if they just redesigned underwires not to stick out of the f****** things. Literally just capping the wires with a piece of plastic that costs 10th of a penny would be a significant improvement.

  • NumbersCanBeFun@kbin.social
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    1 year ago

    I told my wife I’ve invented a patented home made supportive breast service that is available for her use anytime. I offer this to her free of charge with an acceptance rate of 0% and a sarcastic “har har” each time I offer it.

    On a serious note she only buys bras from her home country. She says American bras never fit her right. The ones she gets are hideous in my opinion but whatever makes her comfortable is fine by me 😅

  • Mothra@mander.xyz
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    1 year ago

    Sorry but this depends a lot on each person’s body. I am a B/C cup depending on brands, and most bras fit me comfortably for daily use.

    • kent_eh@lemmy.ca
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      1 year ago

      B/C cup depending on brands,

      That’s indicative of the problem. No 2 brands can even agree on sizing, let alone shape or any of the other factors needed for proper fit and support.

  • thegiddystitcher@lemm.ee
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    1 year ago

    Boobs are all different, is the issue. We may have the same bra size but if Im full on top and you’re full on bottom we’d need a completely different cup shape. And of course that’s just one variable. Maybe we also need a totally different length underwire, maybe I’m projected and you’re shallow, etc etc.

    The trick is to order a load of bras at once from various brands and in various styles, do a marathon try-on session recording each one against the various fit criteria, and take note of the exact measurements and features of the best fitting ones. Then if none of them were perfect, send them all back and repeat the process.

    Eventually you end up knowing which brand(s) and style(s) work for your very specific body shape as well as what measurements of everything you actually need. Which is a separate thing to your “bra size” although even then it’s best to do regular re-measuring to make sure your basic size hasn’t changed.

    It’s a faff but it’s worth it. The perfect bra is out there!

  • Ada@lemmy.blahaj.zone
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    1 year ago

    Honestly, I think the answer is because keeping breasts pointed forward, against the forces of gravity requires extra support, and as a species, we haven’t been wearing bras long enough adapt to that.

    That and the fact that average breast size has increased significantly in the last few decades

      • Ada@lemmy.blahaj.zone
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        1 year ago

        In the long term, no one is quite sure what it is that causes humans to have permanent breasts, given that no other primates do. There are theories around fertility signalling, evolutionary selection via mate preference, extra insulation given the lack of body hair in humans, extra fat deposits to get breast feeding folk through feeding a new born in times of scarcity etc, but no one can say for sure…

        But none of that has anything to do with why breast size has increased so significantly in the last several decades. Circumstantial evidence links that to increasing body weight, as the most significant increases are in countries with the biggest average increase in body weight.

  • confused_code_monkey@lemm.ee
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    1 year ago

    My wife has tried several bra brands. She landed on Branwyn merino wool bralettes, which she loves. Very comfy and great airflow. I’ll mention, she is smaller and prefers bralettes over more supportive bras, so your mileage might vary.

  • Astroturfed@lemmy.world
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    1 year ago

    Logistics. It’s all about fit and between dimensions of shoulders, chest width and breast size it’s a profit maximizing logistics nightmare.

  • Skyrmir@lemmy.world
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    1 year ago

    Because they’re an unnatural device created by a need for puritan modesty and ‘fashion’. They’re also detrimental to your posture, and your tits. Think about always riding in a wheel chair, what kind of shape are your legs going to be in? Breast may not have muscle in them, the supporting tissues do.

    • Ghostalmedia@lemmy.world
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      1 year ago

      Greek and Roman woman wore primitive bands during athletics. It wasn’t about modesty, it was about support and not having your tits bounce around. It was a tool. Ditto for guys and briefs, but tits can weigh a hell of a lot more.

      Modesty is part of contemporary usage, but it ain’t all about modesty. Undergarments are functional tools as well. Humans make all sorts of tools to make their bodies get around more efficiently.

      • flicker@kbin.social
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        1 year ago

        I appreciate this distinction.

        I have massive tits and I am physically active. I also have a physically demanding job. I think people (mostly men but also women with smaller breasts) don’t realize how much they just straight up get in the way!

        And I’m nearing 40. And have had a child! They get pendulous real quick and I have a feeling by the time I retire I’ll be able to tuck them into my waistband! I am a liberated woman! I come from hippies! I even went a couple years completely without a bra! Strapping these fuckers out of the way has nothing to do with a fear they are sinful or might be seen and everything to do with not having the time to bat them out of the way every thirty seconds.

        I also hate the pivot from “we need better boob operator equipment” to “Well akshyually if you didn’t wear bras at all it wouldn’t be a problem.” Okay fucko you think you have all the answers about why breasts are saggy, how about addressing the problem?

        • HipPriest@kbin.social
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          1 year ago

          Yeah I’m a man but I have a wife and quite a few friends with medium to large chest extensions and I do not envy them - the inconvenience looks like a right pain in the hole. I find running for a bus bad enough in the morning without having to worry about things getting out of control up there. Unless you’re planning on being stationary a lot (basically not doing day to day activities) you’re going to need support for those things.

          My wife keeps trying to arrange a free bra fitting at M&S but it seems like that’s a high demand service…

          • TisI@reddthat.com
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            1 year ago

            She can try measuring herself first using this calculator, then she can try a couple of different styles to see which ones fit her better.

    • Mouselemming@sh.itjust.works
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      1 year ago

      The need for support varies a LOT with size. I never wear a bra in my own home, and I rip the underwires out of the ones I wear outside. My breasts sag, but that’s normal at 60+. But I’m a C cup, so they’re only protruding about 3 inches even when supported. And I only do low-impact workouts for other reasons. I wear bras to put my boobs in the parts of my clothes that are designed to have boobs in them, rather than falling out the armholes or something.

      A large-breasted woman with three or four times the pounds of flesh hanging off her ribcage is not going to be comfortable slinging them around braless all day, especially when they get out of sync, as boobs are wont to do when you’re moving around. Especially if she’s running or jumping. Her bra has to work hard, and requires more engineering than mine. She and I have the same underlying muscles, tendons and bones, but her whole balance is under much more stress.

      Meanwhile for an A cup woman a bra is probably mostly for fashion. She could have completely flabby musculature underneath and they’d still be perky.

      If men had balls the size of boobs they would understand better how they can get in the way. And go 2 different ways! And it would probably be difficult to design comfortable underwear for them.

      Bras were invented by women, for themselves, for their own comfort. Yes, SOME bras are unnatural and fashion-driven, and even those serve an occasional purpose. If you’re a woman who doesn’t ever wear a bra, great! Enjoy! Nobody should ever force anyone to wear a bra against their will. But if you choose to go braless, remember it’s not necessary to disparage the women who make a different choice for their own reasons.

    • calabast@lemm.ee
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      1 year ago

      You’re alluding to leg atrophy from wheel chair use, but could you go ahead and explain how you believe not wearing a bra would be less detrimental to your tits?

      (I don’t disagree where you say it’s bad for your posture, and I’m not even sure I disagree with you saying it’s bad for your tits, which is why I’m asking for a clearer explanation. Maybe I just don’t understand what you mean by “detrimental”)

      • Jamie@jamie.moe
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        1 year ago

        Basically, since the bra is holding up the breasts, the body isn’t putting as much into the ligaments and such that would normally do the job. Resulting in saggier breasts than would result if you didn’t wear one as often.

        I don’t know how much formal research has been done on it, but that’s the usual line of thought.

        • paysrenttobirds@sh.itjust.works
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          1 year ago

          Do they not have National Geographic anymore? I mean there are whole cultures who never wear bras and as a rule they’re not “perky”