Tuesday 4 June 2013

Asymmetry

What do you do when your boobs don't match?


Well, first off, stop giving yourself a hard time because most of us have "odd" boobs. They're sisters rather than twins and they're rarely identical!

If you have uneven or asymmetric breasts you may have considered or even tried padding the smaller side. But, a couple of clever tricks could save the day and make life easier....

You do not always necessarily have to pad the smaller cup to balance the bra out. Differences of a couple of cup sizes can be balanced out, but the trick is to choose styles that can disguise it well.

The hardest styles to get working tend to be soft, balconettes that slope rather than sit almost horizontally across the top of the cup. The shape of these mean that if you have uneven boobs the bra will tend to wrinkle and bag at the top where the strap joins.

To balance the smaller side, hoick the smaller breast diagonally towards the top and centre of the cup, as if trying to pull it towards a pendant on your necklace, whilst simultaneously pulling the bottom of the cup in the opposite direction. Try to push any excess fabric towards your body with your fingertips while you are holding your breast on your chin out of the way. In many cases, the material at the bottom of the cup will gather/pucker allowing the breast to sit on it when you let go, thus filling the top of the cup like the fuller side. The empty part of the cup is now at the bottom and so will not show once you are dressed.

Adjusting the straps can also give you a little more room to manoeuvre - keeping the strap on the smaller side shorter can make that cup a little smaller, and vica versa for the larger breast.
Cleo Juna and many slightly padded half cup styles are often good for such disguise. They're also great for loss of volume post weight loss/breastfeeding. Pull the smaller breast forward as before, but in a more horizontal direction away from the armpit.

T-shirt styles that work include Freya Deco, Bravissimo Purity and the Panache Porcelain. These styles are not all so good at gathering under the cup because of the foam, but look fine once dressed.

Fuller cup styles are good, particularly Panache Andorra and Melody full cup. Fantasie side support styles such as Elodie, and non padded Cleo styles such as Meg and Marcie sit particularly well if you need a deeper cup.
Newer Panache styles that are performing spectacularly are the Jasmine and Idina, as they have some stretch lace on the upper part of the cup.

Overall, aim to start off fitting the larger side as closely as possible without any overflow, then fine tune. Firmness in the band is essential to avoid slipping about within the cups - so no sizing up to try and dodge backfat!

Nearly every woman has an obvious size difference but with these tricks it is rare to actually need a filler. If you have a very noticeable difference and feel you need it then still use the tricks above so you are padding as lightly as possible which will be much more comfortable. Some companies like Ewa Michalak produce bras with removable pads designed to help even things up.