Carmen Perez’s eyes sweep your chest with a careful glance. It’s wrong, all wrong.
Your bra, that is.
Perez is a professional bra fitter ready to liberate women gouged by straps, engulfed in elastic and wounded by wires. This month, she’s hopscotching through Macy’s stores where a team of professionals is offering complimentary fittings to benefit Susan G. Komen for the Cure, a non-profit organization that raises money to fight breast cancer.
Other stores, including Nordstrom and Bloomingdale’s, also are participating in the benefit. In addition, many stores have trained bra fitters who fit customers year-round.
Here’s the problem. Women can’t get it right. An oft-quoted statistic says that anywhere from 70 percent to 80 percent of women are strapped into the wrong bra. And if that’s not convincing, who’d doubt the daunting Veronica Webb, the fashionista who pokes through undies drawers of hapless victims on Tim Gunn’s Bravo show “Guide to Style” and proclaims the garments an ill-fitting mess?
We’re squeezing into bras with too-small cups. We’re sagging in bras with bands too big. Though the subject of getting a bra just right sounds titillating, it’s serious business.
“Your bra tells you when something is wrong,” Perez says.
So listen, ladies. When your bra rises up in the back and the underwire digs your flesh, it’s time to toss it.
TIPS FOR A BETTER BRA FIT
* Your bra size changes as you age, after babies and with weight loss or gain. While wearing a bra, check your size with a tape measure pulled snugly straight across your back and under your breasts.
If it’s 34 inches or less, add 4 if the number is even, 5 if it’s odd.
For 35 to 38 inches, add 2 for even, 3 for odd. For 39 inches or more, add nothing for even, 1 for odd. For instance, if you measure 31 inches, your band size is 36. (31 plus 5).
Now measure around the fullest part of the bust, about 2 inches under the underarm. Each inch over the band size is a cup size — starting with A, B, C, etc. In this example, if the final band measurement is 39 inches, you’re a C. (36 plus 3.)
* If straps dig into your shoulders, you’re wearing the wrong size. Support should come from the back and underwire, not the straps.
* To eliminate “back fat” — the flesh bulging out around the band — go with a wider-back bra.
* A new bra should be most comfortable on the middle hook. This gives you leeway to loosen or tighten your bra with bodily changes, such as water retention.
* If your cup runneth over — unintentionally — the cup size is too small.
* The center seam should be flat against your breastbone. If it isn’t, the cup size is too small. [SOUTH FLORIDA SUN-SENTINEL]
Free fitting
Receive a complimentary bra fitting Friday from Wacoal or Bloomingdale’s experts during the Wacoal Fit for the Cure event at Bloomingdale’s, 900 N. Michigan Ave. DKNY bra and Wacoal will donate $2 per fitting to the Susan G. Komen Breast Cancer Foundation. The brands will make an additional $2 donation with each purchase. For info, call 312-440-4581.
