The father’s artistic talent is clearly on display here, but I’m actually really impressed with this kid’s wild imagination. Many of his drawings are both conceptually unique and coherent.
I was gonna say, this kid is showing some real talent here.
I do feel that their pasts and upbringing are very similar. The way they choose to deal with their personal history and their drama are wildly different.
Zevran was orphaned shortly after birth. He was raised in a brothel until the age of seven, until he was bought by the Crows. He didn’t join the Crows, he didn’t have a choice. If you bring Zevran with you to the Circle tower and into the Fade, you can see a taste of what his upbringing was like. An orphan, raised in a brothel, bought and sold, but Zevran wants to live as much as he wants to die so he tries to be ‘worthy’ of the Crows. Of the eighteen recruits that went through training with him, only two survived – Zevran, and Taliesen.
Fenris was born to an elven slave in Tevinter, and had a sister. By all means, he could have even had a happy childhood. That was all taken from him when he participated in a ‘tournament’ to have his mother and sister freed. (”You said you didn’t ask for this, but that’s not true. You wanted it, you competed for it.”)The reason why he fought was lost to him, and anything that came before. He effectively orphaned himself. His master became his whole world and so Fenris tried to be worthy of him. There were likely many experiments, but only Fenris survived.
Zevran throws himself at the Warden because it’s a chance to be free of the Crows. A chance to die and pretend that it’s not the outcome that he wanted. Unless you’re deep into a romance with Zevran, he never talks about what happened to him and how he feels about it. Any companion dialogue that tries to pry into his past and what he’s done is immediately shut down. With humor and jokes, because it’s easier to shift the topic and chuckle than it is to face it. He lies and laughs because he can barely process his own guilt and depression. It takes him so long to open up to the Warden.
Fenris wears what’s been done to him like armor. Besides the fact that there’s hardly anyway to hide it – it’s literally embedded in the skin. No you can tell, just from the way he is and acts and how he’ll openly admit he was a slave. It’s noticeable in his idle animations, and the way he stands and runs. He is always looking left and right, over his shoulder. Shifting from foot to foot, slightly hunched over so he can reach his sword easier. He’s afraid. He doesn’t trust his freedom, he doesn’t trust Kirkwall, he barely trusts himself. The first time you meet him, he runs into that mansion shouting, “face me! Danarius!” As if he isn’t scared to death.
Zevran doesn’t believe himself worthy of love and affection but Fenris craves it like water. Fenris risks everything to find Varania, to find his family. He probably knew, from the moment he first started thinking about finding her, about the risk of Danarius. He states it when he asks Hawke to come along – he believes it’s a trap. But he still goes. He’s spent so long running and lying to himself that he could take on Danarius by himself, but the only time he ever faces Danarius is to get to his family. This thing that he wants so badly betrays him, gives him up to the monster who tortured him, and unless Hawke talks him out of it, Fenris will kill Varania.
Taliesen was the only other recruit that survived with Zevran. They grew up together, trained together, went on missions together and were close friends. They were likely the only friends they had. Family. The two of them probably got each other through Crow training by support of each other. After a year of being free, of being with the Warden, Zevran faces his one and only friend from his horrible past. If the Warden has shown that Zevran is worth more than his guilt, than his regret, than his past, then Zevran will kill Taliesen.
Fenris fought for his freedom. Tooth and nail, he ran. Looking over his shoulder at every turn, not knowing whether or not the stranger on the street is a hunter or not. Every person is a risk, every connection a chain.
Zevran fought for his freedom. He asked for an impossible task, because death is the only freedom he could see. Keeping a knife under his pillow, not knowing whether or not the Warden might kill him. By leaving the Crows, he passed his chain to the Warden.
Hawke asks for nothing in return for Fenris’s friendship. They aren’t looking to use him as a bodyguard, a weapon, a mindless beast for their will. They ask him on every job, pay him coin, help him find the freedom he’s looking for.
The Warden asks for nothing in return for Zevran’s friendship. They never order him to kill some helpless target, they give him a purpose and sense of will he never had. They ask him to train them, give him gifts, help him find the freedom he’s looking for.
Both Zevran and Fenris initially walk away from the romance. Fenris is confronted by the fact that he isn’t whole and that the shackles of being a slave still rankle around his soul.
Zevran tries to show affection but can’t put it into words, can’t admit that he is more than a Crow anymore.They taught him not to feel but now he is, and that makes him that orphan again, makes him vulnerable.
Zevran laughs through his pain. Fenris wears it on his sleeve. Fenris is angry with what’s been done to him. Zevran is miserable with what he’s done. Fenris breaks bottles against walls, Zevran attempts to lose himself in pleasure. They both have found some sort of freedom but doesn’t know what it means or where to go from there. They want connections but fear them, want to be loved but are afraid of betrayal.
And when they’ve put distance between their past and those who held their chains? They both have dry wit, are extremely clever, flirt with ease and with charm, and are able to be themselves. Hawke and the Warden help them make peace with what’s been done to them and help them face the future.
I find it interesting that they both use the same line when in a romance with the Warden and Hawke – “I am yours.” I think it must have stunned the Warden and Hawke at first. Especially knowing their history. But – they aren’t submitting themselves back into slavery. They give their feelings willingly because they want to, because Hawke and the Warden have earned it.
They are both incredibly complex and layered characters. If they sat down and talked, I think they’d find they have a lot of common ground.
speaking as a Jew, i’m extra-super dubious of all that stuff that talks about cartoon witches being an antisemitic stereotype. I can get where the thing with the nose is coming from, but the claims about the hats are based on flimsy claims that require a lot of mental reaching. The hats that Jews were forced to wear were not a universal thing, and I’ve yet to see any evidence that they were part of the cultural consciousness by the time the image of the pointy-hatted witch became common.
The biggest points against the hat hypothesis:
Wrong time period: witch hats as we know them seem to have only started appearing in art around the 17th-18th century; in the period when the Judenhut was well-established, witches in art just wore whatever was common for women of the region.
Wrong region: the pointed witch hat originated in English art, as far as i’ve seen. Antisemitic laws in England mandated badges, not headwear.
Wrong gender: Jewish hats were mandated for men, not women—illustrations of witches with pointed hats very rarely included male witches, until fairly recently.
Wrong shape: there are many styles of mandated Jewish hat throughout history, but few of them are even a near match for the very specific look of the Witch hat.
You know what kind of hat does closely fit?
The hat in this painting (“Portrait of Mrs Salesbury with her Grandchildren Edward and Elizabeth Bagot” by J.M. Wright; circa 1675) was “a type worn by affluent women throughout Britain at this date”. Look at that hat. Any modern viewer looking at this painting might think it was supposed to be a character created by J.K. Rowling.
It’s a match in design, gender, region, and most importantly, time period: by the time that pointed witch hats started to appear in artwork in England and English colonies, this style of hat would have been associated in the cultural consciousness with elderly women, especially those who were clinging to decades-old fashions.
The easy, simple answer to where the witch hat came from: it’s exactly what a woman with all the stereotypical qualities of a witch would have worn in the first place, in the time and place the trope originated.
Old-fashioned but not by several centuries, severe and somber, and popular with a class of women that people would have spread nasty rumors about in the first place (somany accusations of witchcraft were directed specifically at women who were independently well-off, whether out of simple envy or else scheming).
Seemed like about time to bring this back up.
Another very obvious and often explicitly stated basis for the CLOTHING of the cartoon witch is Puritan costume from the 18th century… seeing as Puritans were famous for their witch trials.
The green skin, curly hair, big nose, warts etc are all definitely at least racialized things. Though big nose and warts are associated with age the combined picture is pretty much just a racial caricature.
Important input on the witchy costume debate, from a Jewish person who’s clearly done a bit of homework on the origins of pointy hats and green makeup. (And who also seems to be a pretty cool person into the bargain.)
I’ve reblogged this before, but it’s got new info, which is great
I’d also argue that, though certain aspects of the stereotypical witch align with antisemitic tropes, it’s far more likely that witches’ stereotypical looks actually emerged by being the polar opposite of what the beautiful, and therefore ideal, 17th century woman looked like. This was to emphasize that a witch was the OPPOSITE of an ideal woman, and she could thus be placed in opposition to the beautiful, ideal heroine.
Where beauty (according to 17th century standards) was young, witches were old. Where beauty had fine, delicate features, witches had exaggerated, rough features. Where beauty was relatively unmarred (a rarity in pre-vaccination days), witches had moles and other marks. Where beauty had silky blonde hair (a treasured prize in Renaissance times, to the point that women falsely lightened their hair or wore wigs), witches had rough black hair.
As I said, some of these line up with antisemitic tropes. However, I’d argue that associating Jews with these tropes was a result of already-established patriarchal beauty tropes that had been ingrained in northern Europe for centuries. The fact that the stereotypical Jewish woman happened to defy the beauty ideals of northern Europe was used as an excuse to further oppress Jewish people, not the other way around.
In other words, I’d guess that it went like this:
“Ugliness/evil looks like this” -> “Some Jewish women (who we hate) look like this” -> “here’s proof that Jewish women are ugly and evil”
Rather than:
“Jewish women look like this” -> “we hate Jewish people” -> “Ugliness and evil looks like this”
Of course, once both tropes (ugly witches, ugly Jews) were established, I imagine that they fed into one another, but I’m dubious of the claim that the source of the ugly witch was the Jewish woman, especially since northern European ideas of beauty and fears of malevolent witches seem to go back further than northern European stereotypes of the ugly Jewish woman.
Augh, and COMPLETELY forgot to talk about this, but the stereotypical witch outfit? It comes from traditional English brewsters/alewives, aka, female beer-brewers.
Who used brooms mounted above the door as a way to signal their trade to passerby:
And who made their trade making strange concoctions in cauldrons:
And who happened to wear hats just like this:
Brewsters/alewives used to have a monopoly on beer-making. They handed down brewing secrets from mother to daughter and basically controlled the alcohol market. And men weren’t terribly keen on that – they wanted in on this immensely lucrative, influential field. There were some male brewsters, but the trade was overwhelmingly female, to the point that even male brewsters were still called brewsters – a female noun.
So what do men do when they want to push women out of a trade? They demonise them.
Suddenly the broom isn’t just a business sign, it’s a tool for going to meet the devil. The cauldron isn’t just a tool, it’s a place to create evil. The hat isn’t just a trade uniform, it’s a mark of malevolent intent and arcane knowledge.
Coincidentally, many women who became brewsters/alewives became independently wealthy and quite powerful locally. They didn’t need to marry and could provide for their entire households with their trade. They could grow old without marrying, or they could stay unmarried after their first husband dies rather than remarrying. They could also pull strings and influence things in their favour, making local politics ‘mysteriously’ go their way.
And so the stereotype of the ugly spinster brewster-witch is born.
And, as I’ve said above, ugly women look a certain way: harsh, marred features, dark, tangled hair, and above all, old.
Note old Mother Louse up there. She was a well-respected brewster in her town, with plenty of influence, but here she is already being portrayed with stereotypical witch features: a big, hooked nose, and a pointy chin, hollow eyes, sharp cheekbones (not a good thing in premordern times – beauties had rounder faces, as sharp cheekbones were a sign of hunger or oldness). Mother Louse isn’t being portrayed as Jewish, but as an elderly, ugly spinster, who engages in the lucrative, powerful – but suspect – business of brewing.
Know who else this happened to? Midwives. Another female trade, passed down from woman to woman, dealing in business secrets from which men were barred – and this in regard to the most mysterious power of all: the power to bring life into the world. And midwives do pretty well for themselves, too: plenty of families are willing to pay a bundle to make sure their babies are delivered safe and sound in a world with high infant mortality. Just like male physicians, midwives knew how to create tinctures and mix herbs, but now, once again, rudimentary chemistry and herb-lore become demonised when women are the ones doing it. Now, if your baby is born sick, deformed, or dead, it’s clearly the spinster midwife’s doing, full of spite because she has no children of her own.
Anyway, there’s your witch history for the day. The hooked nose and black hair are already something of a stretch, but the claim that the typical witch hat is somehow linked to anti-semitism and not brewsters is totally ahistorical.
This might be of interest to people here considering the green taako discourse that went on during the comic’s release. Every single source that I saw referenced the fact that green skinned witches with pointy noses and big hats were derived from antisemetic charicatures, and I didn’t question it at all and in fact reblogged posts spreading that information onto this blog.
To correct that misinformation, here’s this post that seems to contradict that, and provides more dates and evidence, and though sources would still be appreciated, all the independent research I do seems to back this up as well.
This is not at all to discount the discussion that having taako as a latinx person is very important, merely to make sure that that discussion/point is based on accurate information and sources, and doesn’t rely on false arguments to push the narrative, since there are plenty of true, accurate reasons a latinx taako is important that don’t have to do with antisemeticism in witch portrayal.
Hi guys I’m obsessed with this shit lately because I don’t want anyone to have unhappy, unsupported boobs like I did. Even if you think your boobs and bras are fine, try it. It will make a big difference in comfort, support, and shape, even if you have small boobs or big boobs. A proper fitting bra can fix back, shoulder, and neck pain, along with breast soreness – and it can help you look 10lbs lighter, and your breasts a hell of a lot perkier. This guide also works for proper-sized bikinis and bathing suits (many online stores linked to below sell both- sometimes for as low as 10$!)
Don’t just like this, REBLOG IT. EVERYBODY WITH BOOBS DESERVES A PROPER FIT. Even if you don’t wear bras yourself, spread it around to tumblr or with your friends or family.
Grab a soft tape measurer (use inches) and get nekkid – don’t wear a bra or shirt please, you don’t wear a bra or shirt underneath your bra, do you? This part is fast and easy, and will help you find your ‘Starting Point’ bra size – you may not end up in this exact size, but it will get you in the right ballpark.
How to Measure:
Measure your underbust – go right underneath the root of your breasts, but make sure the tape is straight/parallel to the floor. Take a firm, snug measurement – if you have chub, take it tighter.
Measure your bust bent over – bend forward so your back is parallel to the floor and your boobs are hanging so you have access to all that beautiful breast tissue that is now brought forward. Measure very loosely around the nipples, keeping tape straight/horizontal/perpendicular to the floor.
If your breasts are kind of empty and/or have a lot of sag, this method may overestimate your cup size. Instead, take your bust measurement bent over, standing, and lying flat on your back, and take an average of those three measurements and use that for your calculations.
How to Use These Measurements to find your ‘Starting Size’:
Round up your underbust measurement to the nearest even number. If you are only half an inch or less away from being a lower size, use that instead (unless you have a bony ribcage). This is automatically your band size. No BS. There is no adding imaginary inches here.
CUP SIZES ARE NOT STANDARD, UNLIKE COMMONLY THOUGHT (AND TOLD TO US BY ASSHOLES LIKE VS). They are TOTALLY relative to band size. The cup on a 30D has 4 inches less volume than the cup on a 34D. A 30D is actually the same cup size as a 34B!
No one has their shit together on the lettering for each cup size, so here’s a handy dandy chart. Remember to go with UK measurement as they somewhat have their shit together (and because American companies do not make much above DD, so there’s literally no point in knowing it, but the European sizing may come in handy)
I DON’T CARE IF YOU LIVE IN THE USA, DO NOT USE THE AMERICAN MEASUREMENTS, FFS. YOU’LL ONLY MAKE THINGS HARDER AND MORE CONFUSING FOR YOURSELF. ANY BOUTIQUE IN NORTH AMERICA WORTH GOING TO, AND 99% OF ONLINE STORES, IS GOING TO SELL PRIMARILY BRITISH OR EUROPEAN BRANDS AND WILL GO BY THEIR SIZING. THERE IS LITERALLY NO POINT IN KNOWING AMERICAN SIZING
DO NOT USE AMERICAN SIZING
DO NOT USE AMERICAN FUCKING SIZING
EVEN IF YOU ARE AMERICAN
AND LIVE IN THE US
USE THE BRITISH SIZING
For example, I have a 29.5 inch underbust and a 38 inch bust when bent over. So, I should take a 30 band and then there’s an 8 inch difference. So I am a 30FF in UK sizing. This is just my starting point when looking for bras, and I may not always end up with this exact size
Do not pull the ‘omg no I’m not a G cup my boobs aren’t that big you’re more stupid that the idea of vegetable bread’ shit with me ok? You drank the Kool-Aid and now you need to piss it out. CUP SIZES ARE NOT STANDARD. A 34D IS BIGGER IN THE CUPS THAN A 30E. Here, take a look at a chart of cup volumes and see what I mean.
Also… not all ‘big cup’ bras are ugly and granny-like. Just check out brands like Freya or Gossard or Gorteks or Panache or Cleo! They are gorgeous!
Trying it on: What a proper fit is like
ALWAYS SCOOP AND SWOOP BEFORE ASSESSING WHETHER IT FITS OR NOT. What does this mean? This means bend over, hike up your bra so that it sits right under the root of your breasts. Then, start smooshing all your back fat and armpit rolls or any loose tissue thats underneath or to the side of the cup, INTO the cup. All that stuff is breast tissue that got pushed around from your shitty bras, no I am not bullshitting – after a few months of wearing better bras, many people end up having to get a bigger cup and sometimes even a smaller band too, as all the smooshed breast tissue migrates back to the boob, where it should be. Not kidding. So get everything in there and make sure the wire is positioned perfectly under your boobs. Then stand up and assess the fit. If it seemed to fit before scooping, it won’t fit now.
THIS IS JUST A STARTING POINT. Try on your starting size and work from there. You may need to go up or down a band size, or up or down many cup sizes. Not all brands or even models in that brand are made the same way, and the shape of your boobs also helps determine the size and fit, so don’t try on JUST the size you calculated, say “it doesn’t fit”, and then give up and go back to your 36Cs. You aren’t doing yourself any favours. If you don’t feel comfortable in your ‘starting point size’, go ahead and try a size up or down in bands and/or a size or two or even three up or down in cups as needed.
ALWAYS start on the loosest hook. If you need to start on the tightest hook, go down a band size. The point of hooks is simple – as your bra gets used, it gradually loses its elasticity and gets loose. So, you use your hooks to bring it in, and when you reach the last hook, well, be prepared to get rid of your bra in a few months (unless you invest in a band tightener like the Rixie Clip)
A proper fit means the bra band is straight and parallel to the floor. If it isn’t, and seems to be getting pulled up, its too big and isn’t supporting you. Get a smaller band. You shouldn’t be able to stretch it more than a couple inches off your back. It may feel tight at first, but bras do need ‘breaking in’ and you are used to wearing things that do not fit correctly, so give it a chance. Of course, it should not hurt either!
A proper fit means your bra straps are not digging in.
A proper fit means the gore (the little centerpiece of the bra where the wires sort of meet) MUST tack/sit firmly against your chest. If it doesn’t, then the wires are not truly fully underneath your boobs and so are not giving you the proper support.
A proper fit means your boobs must fit smoothly into the entire cup (after scooping and swooping). The wire should totally encase all your breast tissue (this includes armpit fat and stuff). There should be no empty space at the bottom or top of the cup. Your boobs should not be overflowing from the top of the cup. If there’s overflowing or uncontained tissue after scooping, or of it feels tight, get a bigger cup.
A proper fit means you should be able to lift your arms over your head and jump around without the band or underwire budging or exposing underboob.
Size Tweaks/Troubleshooting (make sure you scoop and swoop first):
The band feels tight: Is the gore tacking or not? If not, go up a cup size or two (or maybe even three or four). Even if the gore is tacking, try this first. The band may be tight because the cups are too small, so your boobs are stretching the band out too much to overcompensate for lack of cup depth, making it feel tighter. If after trying larger cups, it still feels uncomfortably tight, go up a band size (and down a cup size if the first size fit well in the cups – remember, cup is relative to band, a 32DD is the same in the cups as a 34D). Remember though that it takes a few days to break a bra in, so it may feel tight or perfect at first, and then comfortable or too loose later.
The band feels loose/band is riding up and not remaining parallel to the floor: Go down a band size (and up a cup size or two because blablah relativity).
The gore is not tacking, but band is not tight: Band size is too big, or maybe fits just right – but the cups are too small. You know what to do.
Boobs spilling over: Go up a cup size. Check first though that the bottom of the cup is not empty, and hike it up if it is!
Empty space at bottom of cup: Hike that shit up so it gets right to the roots of your breasts. This may fix bulging/spillage. If you can’t get it higher, then you need a smaller cup or this make of bra is just not suited to your shape.
Empty space at top of cup: You need a smaller cup, or this shape of bra just does not suit you your breasts, especially if your breasts are not very full on top. Or you need to scoop and swoop!
Straps digging in: Loosen them. If your boobs suddenly sag, then the band is not supportive enough, and you need a tighter band.
Armpit rolls: Bigger cup and/or scoop and swoop that shit. The cut of bra may also just not be for you (for now anyway – your armpit rolls may migrate back into the boobs and disappear eventually!)
They don’t even make my size!!: If you’re in a 28-48 D-KK (UK sizing) cup, you will find your size online easily enough. however, if you have a smaller band than that or need smaller cups, they are hard to find – message me and I’ll try to help you with a solution!
So, for example, my starting size may be 30FF, but I may end up wearing a 28G or H if the band of that model is too loose and the gore not tacking. Or the band may be fine and I may need a bigger cup so I’ll get a 30G. Or The band may be good but the cups too big, so I’ll get a 30F or E. Or the band may be too small to be comfortable and I’ll wear a 32F or E (same cupsize-ish as 30FF!).
What Not to Do:
NEVER PUT YOUR BRA IN THE DRYER. AND PREFERABLY, WASH IT BY HAND. The heat and twisting ruins the elasticity of the bra and reduces its life! This is the best way to ruin bras, don’t do it.
Do not add 3 or 4 or 5 inches or whatever to your band measurement. That is BS that American companies use so that they don’t have to manufacture a larger range of sizes – they use it to fit you into their stock, not their stock onto you. The band will be too big and unsupportive. Those 4 inches they add to the band are 4 inches that should be in the cup size, so no wonder people think anything over DD should be huge.
Do not measure your ‘overbust’ cause really what the fuck does that have to do with how large you are underneath your boobs, come on
Do not do the above because 80% of the support comes from the band, which needs to be firm against you and not be sliding or moving around.Would you wear underwear 4 inches bigger than your hips? No, so why would you wear a bra band 4 inches bigger than your ribcage that gets pulled up and stuff and would fall off if not for the straps, while expecting it to support the boobies at the same time?
Do not go down a band size and then forget to go up a cup size or two. Again, cup sizes are not static. A 30FF is the same cup volume as a 32F or E. If you don’t do this, no shit the bra will fit badly or feel tight.
Do not go straight to Victoria’s Secret or La Senza or whatever, even if you are lucky enough to fit in their small range of sizes – they don’t seem to follow sizing very well. Still, try, by all means, but be aware that their bras may be odd compared to others.
"But where do I get these Bras? I’ve never even seen these sizes!“
Luckily, the internet makes this shit really easy. Buying bras online is nearly always way cheaper, even with shipping, and even if coming from somewhere in Europe! But of course, its best to try on stuff first, to avoid the hassle of return shipping (even though its still not that expensive – just annoying). So what I advise is to find a store near you, try stuff on there, note down the Brand, Model, and Size, and then buy it online for up to a quarter of of the in-store price.
If you can’t find a store near you, online ordering is still extremely cheap, even with return shipping. Instead of getting a whole bunch of bras in only 1 size each, pick out a few models and order a few sizes of each. Ex: one with a bigger or smaller band if your measurements are close to needing a bigger or smaller band size, and then some up or down a couple cup sizes so you can compare the fit. When you have the perfect fit in one bra, it will be easier to go on Bratabase or r/ABraThatFits and have them suggest bras that give similar shape or suggest a different size to you as a model you’re interested in may run large or small.
So, Where to Find:
Note: You can find proper-sized bras as low as 10$ US online (particularly from ebay or brastop.com) and most average 30-45$.
If in Canada, look for a Change Lingerie near you to try on bras. Note that they only carry their own brand.
If in the USA, look for a Nordstrom or Nordstrom Rack near you to try on bras. They carry all sorts of brands and have an online store as well (and also ship to Canada!)
Use a store locator from the webpage of a bra brand company to find non-chain, privately owned stores – if they have one of these brands, they’ll have others. Here’s the locator for Freya,Curvy Kate, Fantasie, Chantelle, Panache, and Affinitas. There are more than just these of course.
If you are small in the band AND in the cup (under a D cup) look at the Little Bra Company.
WARNING: There are many chain stores (Nordstrom, Lane Bryant, Mark and Spencer, Change etc) that do bra fittings and have a good reputation. However, each store is different – some measure correctly, and some use the stupid VS method. Every store has a different team of employees and knowledge. DO NOT GO IN WITHOUT HAVING MEASURED YOURSELF FIRST, JUST IN CASE THEY ARE ONE OF THE BAD STORES. DO NOT TRUST ALL BRA FITTERS, EVEN IF SOMEONE RECOMMENDED THEM TO YOU. If your fitter gives you a measurement different from this one, be mentally prepared to have a difficult time getting them to help you find the right bra.
I had the fitter at Change help me, and when I mentioned that the gore did not tack, she said “Oh, the gore never touches the chest with these bras”. I was like HAHA NOPE BRING ME A LARGER CUP WOMAN. And lo and behold, 2 extra cup sizes later, the gore tacked (and my boobs stopped spilling out). She was very nice otherwise but if I hadn’t known better that could have been bad.
Resources:
r/ABraThatFits: forum for bras, they will help you with sizing, fitting, and finding the right model for your breast shape – they have links to a lot of resources, such as online stores, used bra listings, etc.
Busty Resources Wiki: Great resource for fitting tips, diagrams, explanations, styles.
Bra Band Project: an online gallery of what various sizes look like! Dump your disbelief!
List of Online Retailers: Online is MUCH cheaper and shipping is usually cheap too, even from Europe. Try bras in a store near you , pick out what you like, and order them online instead.
Bratabase: Database of bras, with user inputted measurements of each bra model in its size – bras may be marked the same size, but with this you can see which may have bigger or smaller bands or cups, or what style may suit what shape of breast, all of which helps find the perfect fit for you!
Great Youtube Video on Bra Fitting: This is one of the few people on Youtube who knows their shit about bras. Great for the visuals to help you understand what a bad fit and proper fit look like.
Venusian Glow is a great bra blog – SO MUCH INFO. Suggests bras based on your boob shape amongst other things.
Reblogging to pass this information on.
I have seen many patients with back pain that could have been helped with properly fitting bras.
I actually took the time to go for a bra fitting after some encouragement from my boyfriend. We went to Nordstrom and the woman followed the instructions above to determine my bra size. Btw, I did do this at home first to see if I was close to accurate. I was sized at Victoria’s Secret a few years ago as a 36DD, had perpetual boob spillage and my back hurt almost constantly while my straps dug into my shoulders. The verdict from Nordstrom? I’d been incorrectly fitted and was actually a 36H/34I.
If it wasn’t for this post, I would’ve been threatening a breast reduction and eventually followed through. Also, my boobs don’t feel anywhere near as large or in the way as the improper bras made them feel.
It’s also worth noting that – especially for the really small hand hard-to-find band sizes – you CAN have your bra band taken in a couple of inches to help with better fit or to prolong the life of a stretched-out band.
I was super impressed that Torrid had a chart of cup-size equivalents posted in their bra section, so that even though I only found one 38 F I managed to easily find two more sale bras that I could easily tailor down to my proper size.
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