(no subject)

[rivka]

Damn it, a D-cup is just not that large.

Wait, let me back up. See, I've been wearing the same bathing suit for... gosh, probably six or seven years. It's a nice navy blue-and-turquoise tank from Land's End, with a batik fish on the front. I like it, it's comfortable, it fits.

It's lost.

I searched the house a couple of times, and finally decided to buy a new suit. I wanted to stick with Land's End, because their suits are high quality and because they're careful enough about keeping sizes the same that it's reasonable to order online. But it turns out that they offer precisely four suits in a D-cup, including two hideous flowered monstrosities and one which shows no cleavage whatsoever. (My cleavage is supposed to be my strong point, so that hardly works.) Fortunately, they also list this, which is downright fetching. Nice pattern, flattering halter top, perfect choice.

On backorder, due in July 25. Damn.

Look, a D-cup is a very common size. Scads of American women wear D-cup bras, and surely some of them want to go swimming. Right? Right? What's with the tiny selection, damn it? It makes me feel like Dolly Parton or something. "Oooh, she's a special challenge to fit."

I told Michael that I'd rather not go swimming all summer than go to a department store to try on bathing suits. Especially not now that I'm feeling like my perfectly reasonably-sized tits are freakishly and abnormally large. Damn it.

Comments

[cheshyre]

Are there any Sears in your area? Sears now carries Lands End merchandise, so might have the swimsuit there (and you might be able to see whether it fits)

[eeyorerin]

Clearly it must be a popular size if it's backordered to that extent, no? Bah. It is no fun to feel that way.

[rivka.livejournal.com]

So why only offer four styles?!

The nice woman at Land's End online customer service chat - and how cool is it that they have live chat customer service? - is also a D-cup. She sympathized with me and said she would pass on my complaint to the swimwear buyers. Maybe next year they'll offer a better range.

[eeyorerin]

Exactly! If they're selling so well, clearly they should carry more styles (and more stock), but it's like they have to pretend that it's a special service to carry above a C-cup, which makes no sense to me.

I'm glad that the customer service people were at least sympathetic.

[mittelbar.livejournal.com]

Clearly it is a special service, because the second I went above a C, all of a sudden my single bra option in common shoppy places became "full-coverage bandaid-colored granny bra". Pleh.

[mittelbar.livejournal.com]

Which is to say, R, that I more understand the gripes about larger sizing, and it seems ridiculous that it's so difficult to find nice stuff in very normal sizies.

[geekchick]

If you feel like braving Sears, they carry Land's End stuff now and they might possibly have it in stock.

[klwalton.livejournal.com]

I am a classic "hourglass* figure, which is hard-to-fit no matter what I'm buying. I bought a Land's End tank a few of years ago, tried it on, and immediately ordered three more in different colors, because the bathing suit *fit*. It **fit**. Ohmygod, it ***fit***. :):)

I also wear a D-cup, by the way. Your tits are *not* freakishly and abnormally large. Damn it :).

My two cents...

[grillghod.livejournal.com]

Having been happily married for many a year to a women with this same issue I will, for the record, state that there is nothing abnormal about your perfectly reasonably-sized tits. Anyone who might imply otherwise should be taken out and beaten soundly with a newspaper, with or without a tire iron inside as occasion demands.


GG

[jonquil.livejournal.com]

Nothing makes me hate my body like shopping for swimsuits or bras.

You might try this one and send it back if it doesn't fit. It does good things for my (waistless) figure and makes the most of my C-cups. It has a "soft bra" as opposed to a "shelf bra".

[kazoogrrl.livejournal.com]

I have had the same J Crew bathing suit for, um, 6 years now. Simple, plain, doesn't ride up or creep down (a black t-back one piece). When I'm feeling extra special I wear my leopard print tankini.

[ckd]

And don't forget the insult-to-injury of charging an extra $2 for the D-cup version of that swimsuit. What, it's that much more fabric? They don't charge any extra for the men's XXL swim trunks over the mediums!

Grr!

[lerryn.livejournal.com]

But they do charge an extra $5 or so for mens 36w36l jeans for an extra 2" of length. Men do get it too sometimes.

[filkerdave.livejournal.com]

A D-cup isn't, so far as I know, abormally large (caveat: I have NOT made any more of a study of women's breasts than most heterosexual American men have).

But I've never shopped for women's swimsuits. Men have it easy.

[rmjwell.livejournal.com]

Anything I add here about the scientific method and rigorous investgation of what constitutes freakishly large tits would probably be out of line, I'm guessing.

[filkerdave.livejournal.com]

That's primarily why I didn't say it ;)

Although it shouldn't be a difficult study, as we've already determined that the subject isn't all that large. Still, it can't hurt to use a well-rounded data set...

[womzilla.livejournal.com]

A quick google on 'american "breast size" statistics' lead me to a page which indicates that 10% of American women are D-cup. That doesn't strike me as an outrageously small minority which must be ignored.

[phantom_wolfboy]

It is possible, I assert with no intent of offending, to swim without a bathing suit. Many people do this. Whether they have D-cups I cannot say.

[rivka.livejournal.com]

I find that there are places one can swim without a bathing suit, and places where one can't. The water aerobics class at my gym is probably a place where one can't.

[jinian.livejournal.com]

I wear a 36DD these days. I'm making my own swimsuit. Buying the stuff for it cost just about as much as buying a suit, but (barring doom in the sewing department) it will be so much less trouble.

[claire.livejournal.com]

Word and a half even. And if you're even larger than that, forget it. You may just as well wear the ugliest most ill fitting bathing suit ever, and then a tshirt over the top, and then possibly a bag over your head as you are obviously too hideous to ever want to wear a bathing suit (to actually swim in anyway).

[/rant] - this topic may be one of my hot buttons

Weredonut, who is an E or an F cup depending on sizing.

Re: Seeebling!!

[guruwench.livejournal.com]

Oh, how I hear you on this one (and Rivka, I wholeheartedly agree that a D-cup is not freakishly large). I'm in the neighbourhood of a G or H these days and trust me, they don't make many that big.

Glad your suit was found, Rivka!

[jmhm.livejournal.com]

speaking as someone with the similarly reasonably-sized tits, may I suggest you check the Eddie Bauer site?

[aiglet.livejournal.com]

I feel your pain. I've been wearing the same LE bathing suit for the last ten years because they seem to have discontinued *all* of the styles that have larger tops and high-cut legs.

Although I still think their sizing is weird -- I've been a consistent 12 with them while being everything from a 4 to a 14 other places.

[wiredferret.livejournal.com]

Yup. I have taken to forcing my husband to make my swimsuits. I think it's about time for another one. But then we can adjust things so that my freakishly large breasts do not reduce me to tears in dressing rooms.

And I have just accepted that I have to pay $60 for a bra, and never get to wear combination foundation garments. Or anything strapless. Sulk.

I'm glad the invaluable Misha found your suit, though.

[hobbitbabe.livejournal.com]

I know what you mean about the cleavage. I want to find a swimsuit (preferably two-piece) for which the bottom is full-coverage and the top is a flattering skimpy top with shape possibly with underwires. But nobody seems to sell that in a size 18. Most of the tops I see (either in the large-women stores or in the tiny/mainstream catalogues such as VS) seem to be designed to minimize the dramatic impact of the bosom inside.

I guess I want to swim in my underwear only in prettier patterns. Or to find my purple bathing suit that I lost.

[rivka.livejournal.com]

I want to find a swimsuit (preferably two-piece) for which the bottom is full-coverage and the top is a flattering skimpy top with shape possibly with underwires.

That's exactly what I want! Exactly! (And, um, I wouldn't mind seeing you in it either.)

I don't understand why most cleavage-revealing clothes are designed for women with small breasts. I mean, I'm a big fan of small breast cleavage, don't get me wrong - but I would love to wear more revealing-and-yet-supportive tops, and it shouldn't be hard for me to find them in size 12/38D.

[ailbhe]

Nothing I ever did made my B-cups look like they had cleavage. My postpartum C-cups do it all on their own.

Also, when a B-cup, I had great difficulty finding non-underwired swimsuits. WTF is up with that?

And the two days I spent as a 38DD were really painful.

[trinker.livejournal.com]

Women's clothing manufacturers are evil. So I believe. There may be small exceptions, but most of them don't cater to my aesthetic. Hrmph.

--Trinker
back to being betwixt between in size categories again, and hoping that the prep for this summer's brush with insanity will shove her back down to a findable size.

(Oh, and no, I have trouble believing that there's anything freakish about your breasts.)

Re: Rant of Sympathy

[beckyzoole.livejournal.com]

Yes!! I have always had largish breasts, even when I was in college and wore a size 10. Now that I am fat and fortyish, I wear a size 22 and my bra size is 44F. The only clothes I look really good in are Ren-Fair-type outfits that push my breasts up to a low neckline.

I figure that when I take advantage of the large breasts by presenting lots of cleavage, then nobody notices how big my butt is!

So WHY don't clothing manufacturers understand this? Why are all the bras in my size designed to minimize my breasts, do away with my cleavage, and swath my body in two yards of tough ugly granny-lace material?

And try to find a size 22 swimming suit without one of those stupid swim skirts! What's up with those? Do clothing designers really think that women are so stupid as to believe that 3 inches of skirt will hide the fact that they have potbellies and thunder thighs? All a skirted suit does for me is trap water and so make it more difficult to swim, when it isn't flapping up and entangling my arms.

[fourgates.livejournal.com]

I sympathize with your frustration over not having much selection in your size. Seen this shop (http://www.amplebosom.com/acatalog/Anita_Swim.html)?

[marykaykare.livejournal.com]

Boy do I hear you. Recently I attempted to find a swimsuit in Salt Lake City. (I had forgotten to bring my own along.) Most places had nothing larger than a 16. Nordstroms did have a few 18s and 20s. They were all maximal coverage tanks in black or navy blue. The navy blue ones had pink stripes around the neckline and shoulders. You know the kind: designed to frame your face and draw attention away from those 'less attractive' areas. Gack. I like bright colors and I'm not going to forego them because somebody thinks I ought to try to look 'smaller'. Buy bras is another frustration. I do not understand why if they can make lovely colors, fabrics, and designs available for 36D than cannot do the same for 40D. It's absolutely crazy making to walk past rows and rows of beautiful colorful bras to the racks of white, beige, and black. Then there's my shoe problem. Oh, wait. This isn't my LJ is it? Um, sorry.

MKK