Archive for the ‘bra sizes’ Category

The Report from the Front Line at Bastien’s

June 10th, 2010 by Carissa Rose

Bastien’s Foundations Grand Opening event was a huge success.

The Wall Art at Bastien's

I felt like such a celebrity.  Bastien’s gave me the red carpet treatment, but I heard women say things like, “your name is written down by my computer”, “I saw you on TV”, “I came here to see you”.  And they were all walking out with shopping bags in their hands.

Aussie, 30E, in our Glenna Camisole

The manager, assistant manager and fitters are excellent. Bastien’s embraces all women above a D cup, in fact they carry up to an N cup. The store inventory caters to both full bust and plus size.  Bastien’s carries the entire Carissa Rose line, the shirts, dresses and silks. And just like Carissa Rose, Bastien’s mission is to empower women, the hard to fit women, with comfort and confidence to live each day to the fullest.

The variety of sizes represented

The highlight of the day for me, as always is fitting women – in both bras and clothing – was seeing the broad smile spread across a woman’s face as she put on Irina in white.  It was a wonderful thing to observe, she felt that she had “arrived”.  Her comment was, “I’ve always wanted to take a picture of myself in a straw fedora and white shirt with french cuffs”, as she posed in front of the mirror.  That is a great memory for me.  As a side note, she is a DC policewoman who came into the store wearing a 42DDD, left wearing a 38LL.  I personally was gassed that 38LL fit into Carissa Rose XLW!

Bastien’s Foundations is in Gaithersburg, MD (the DC area) in Lakeforest Mall.

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Bastien’s Foundations Grand Opening

May 26th, 2010 by Carissa Rose

This is such a pretty picture. Its really eye catching. I know all you readers look just as good when you lie down in your beautiful bras.

But, if you don’t yet have a bra as beautiful and well fitting as the one in the picture, and you’re in the DC area, then this weekend head to the Lakeforest Mall for the Bastien’s Foundations Grand Opening. I’ll be there fitting women in Carissa Rose.

We are sure to have a great time, we usually do at such events, and would love to meet you. Our entire line will be represented, so if there’s a piece you’ve been wanting to try on in person, this is the opportunity for you.

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Its that time of year again – Swimwear

April 7th, 2010 by Carissa Rose

I’m sorry for the delayed timing of this blog post. The posts used to be always on Sunday/Monday, then it was Monday/Tuesday, now I’m lucky to get it out by Wednesday. Things are getting really busy over here, can you tell?

Kudos to MSN for featuring our local NBC video this weekend. That lead to lots of inquiries, and we received several email from women looking for swimwear. It is April after all, we should have already covered 2010 swimwear.

Freya Plunge Bikini

Freya Plunge Bikini

First up is Lion’s Lair Designs. Kimberly Berger is the owner and has done a fine job growing her business by providing excellent customer service and wonderful products. Even Nordstrom sends their full bust lingerie clients who are looking for swimwear to Lion’s Lair.

Freya Tankini

Locally I’ve fit clients at Loretta’s Intimates for swimwear. If you’re in Dallas I encourage you to visit them.

Fantasie One Piece

We list bra specialty stores here, call one close to you and ask if they carry swimwear. The best small band-big cup bra manufacturers also do swimwear. Panache, Fantasie, Freya, Anita, etc.

Do it for yourself, get an uplifting swimsuit this season.

Related posts:
Jump in the Water
One Piece Sport Swimsuits
Loretta’s Intimates

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Is there life outside of 34 and 36 inch back bands?

February 1st, 2010 by Carissa Rose

I hope you answer resoundingly YES.

Decades ago, when bras were in mainstream use but the sizing depth hadn’t developed, the back band would increase to accommodate cup size.  Jayne Mansfield is noted as small as 34D and as big as 40DDD.  We know she probably never had a rib cage even close to 40 inches around.

We receive calls and visit with clients that still hold on to this sizing system – nothing beyond a D cup and instead they erroneously purchase a bra with a wider and wider back band to make room for  the volume of the breast.

In the myriad of women we have fit in bras (we don’t sell bras but we used to have a personal bra shopping service), none of them were fit in a bra over 38 inches in the band.  Although they would come in wearing a 40+ band.  Most women we fit are size 32-34, with G cup being the most common.  And they wear our W size range, well-endowed, the smaller bust proportion.

30HH is the smallest back/largest cup combination I personally have fit.  I myself have always been a 34.  Thirty pounds lighter and now.  When I’m lifting weights and my back muscles become more prominent, sometimes I am 36 back band.  Rib cage measurement isn’t necessarily ‘in-line’ size wise with your body.  Our 30HH client has a medium frame, her shoulders and hips are size 8-10.

What about you?  What is the back band size of your bra?  Other than having your epiphany (hopefully you’ve had one) that you felt better and had greater uplift in a more snug back band, does that band size fluctuate?

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Do your “Girls” make you “Busty”?

January 25th, 2010 by Carissa Rose

Some women take offense at the adjective busty, especially when its used on oneself. They prefer the lingerie industry term “full bust”, the safer adjective “chesty” or simply being identified as “large breasted”. I suppose women who are large of hip take offense being labeled “hippy”, that would upset me also.

Busty

Likewise some women are offended by the term boob. They call them the ever popular slang “girls”, the clinical “breasts”, etc. Lucky for me I am not easily offended, and actually use the term boob to refer to breasts quite frequently. I do not call them girls, maybe because I have two daughters and they are my girls. Nor do I prefer to call them breasts, because men and chickens also have breasts.

Not Busty

Really I want to hear from you. What do you call your body type? Are you self described buxom? And how do you refer to your bust? I say bust and bustline most often now that I’m more aware of the sensitive and tricky nomenclature issue surrounding the mammaries.

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Posted in Uncategorized, bra sizes, full busted women | 15 Comments »
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