WhyNot you may be onto something. Although I do not have implants I think my boobs are wider than average.
Sonia that bra does look like it would have great support. I wonder if they are sold in any stores where it would be possible to try one on.
Thanks everyone at least I know I’m not the only one who has bra troubles.
I have been trying for 2 years to get my wife to get fitted for a brassiere. She refuses.
She’s worried that if she goes somewhere that has fititng, they’ll try to talk her into a $60 bra. She hates spending money on clothes that don’t really get seen. I may have to take part of our tax return and just surprise her with the whole idea.
And while we’re on the subject, anyone know of a good place to buy lingerie for the more… ample… ladies in our lives?
I feel it necessary to repeat this every time a bra-fitting thread comes up:
A couple of years ago, when one of these threads was active, I searched for and found five different websites with bra size calculators. All five of them asked for the measurement around the chest, and the measurement around the bust. I entered the same numbers into all five.
None of them agreed. I am anything from an A cup to a D cup, and should be wearing a band size anywhere from 32 to 40.
So screw the undergarment industry. There is NO rhyme or reason to it all.
I have excellent luck with Lane Bryant lingerie, particularly the bras. It’s the only place I’ve found to buy a 44 DDD off the rack without going into severe debt. I wear their basic cotton bras every day, but I have bought some of the fancier ones for…special occasions. 
I was measured once by a woman who did breast prosthesis fittings. I worked for a company which sold the prostheses, and happened to mention that I had a terrible time finding bras that fit. She measured me, and told me I was an F, but these DDD from Lane Bryant fit the way she told me the bra should fit, and I’ve been buying them for probably 7 years now.
I have only found one of those bra-fitting sites that mentioned this, but the “add 4”/5" rule" does not work for the larger band sizes. It’s fine if you’re 27" around - then you are indeed a 32 band. But a 38 band fits if you are about 37" around.
I was just coming in to post that my ribcage measurement +5" = too damned big. I’ve got a 36" ribcage measurement, and a 36 band fits me just fine.
Getting a professionally fitted bra is incredibly uplifting, and not just physically. A properly fitting bra, like a pair of properly fitting shoes, can really make one feel much more confident. To the OP, I would say to avoid minimizer bras at all costs. Minimizers work partially by squishing the girls out to the side…which is exactly what you DON’T want.
I had a lot of trouble with sports bras until recently - I tried one of the Lane Bryant Cacique bras - this one wasn’t marketed as a sports bra, but it’s an all cotton bra (no underwire) and it has incredible support. There is a little but of smoosh and uni-boob going on, but not painful, and I’ll accept that when I’m working out.
I’m another DD, so I know the horror that bra shopping can be.
If you’re looking for lacy, romantic lingerie, not just the basic cotton/wear under t-shirts stuff, I’ve found Frederick’s of Hollywood to have the extreme sizes (I’m an A-cup, while my sister’s a DD and we can both walk in to the store and always find something in our size.) A place like Victoria’s Secret tends to stock lots of B and C cups, but nothing else.
Mom and myself are also “spread to the side” (DD and C) and I swear by that brand. Pretty much every other non-sport brand sold in Spain seems to make only wired-cup, which hurt my babies just from looking at them.
I would suggest the Playtex Zen Garden bra, but, alas, it has been discontinued and I have snapped up as many of them in 36DD as I could find on remainder websites. If you have trouble with “pitboobs”, you may very well be wearing the wrong size. I have had good results with several models from Playtex, though I would avoid the old 18 Hour versions. www.OneHanesPlace.com is a great place to buy, once you have found a model that works for you. I go to Nordstroms or some similar high service department store once every 18-24 months, get measured, buy one bra I like at full retail, then find the same model online cheaper and stock up. If washed in cold water with Woolite in a lingerie bag on the gentle setting and hung dry, I find that bras can last 2-3 years, if I keep five or six in the rotation. I tend to buy more black bras than any other color because I wear a lot of dark colors and the black ones don’t get dingy-looking as quickly. It’s also easy to match them to undies, if you like that coordinated look. I’ve also found that shortening the straps helps a lot with getting “good” cleavage and just generally achieving that “eyes to the front of the class” effect. For whatever reason, bras with large cups tend to be set up with the same proportions as smaller cup bras…as if DD boobs take up proportionally as much chest space as B boobs, while in reality they dominate the entire “stage” I find that the shoulder straps on DD (and thereabouts) bras need, for me, to be tightened as far as the sliders will allow (and sometimes more – for this I do a little sewing and surgically remove a section of strap from the bra), then I sew the sliders into place.
I would avoid sports bras like the plague, except for actual sporty activities and then I tend toward the “double-bagging” plan, layering two different styles of sports bra to achieve some semblance of, however unattractive, control and support. Some of the underwire sports bras work okay on their own.
I have occasionally had good luck at Ross or T.J. Maxx, just trying on a few of their random selection of bras. That’s how I first found the late, lamented Zen Garden.
Yes I find this to be true also. Although I do not sew them just keep pulling the sliders back.
I don’t think that the wrong size is necessarily my problem. Although seeing that Lane Bryant has 38DDD on their site I am going to give it a try. It seems that the DD may be a little small. I think that my main problem is that my boobs are set wider on my chest than normal. So it seem kind of like a defect to me. 
When I get a bra that fits somewhat right, pull the sliders as tight as they go, manhandle everything into place I look great. But as soon as I breathe or move they try to migrate off to the sides again. So it seems like if I could find a bra with extra strong support on the sides to keep everything pushed out in front my problem would be solved.
I’m another wide-boobs type,but am very happy – I recently got some bras from Soma, the lingerie arm of Chico’s, and absolutely love them. I’m a 38DD, and their bras are very supportive and incredibly comfortable while keeping the girls front and center like they’re supposed to be. They’re not all that expensive – about $45, but they have lots of good sales – and are made out of lovely fabrics and seem to be very durable indeed. Plus at least the manager in our local store really knows how to fit you properly.
But wherever you go, I highly recommend going somewhere with good fitters. It can make all the difference in the world. After a proper fitting, I went up two cup sizes and down two band sizes, and voila! No more ride-up, bulging, wide boobs, etc. It’s amazing how much a well-fitting bra improves your mood, isn’t it?
Um, yeah. And I have a difference of 10 inches. (!!!) In straight alphabet counting, that puts me in a J cup. Could also be known as EEE or anything else that strikes the industry’s fancy. Whatever it’s called, such a specimen is not easily acquired by a girl who lives in a very rural area without a specialty bra shop.
Preach it, sister!
Fourthing (?) Nordstroms. I don’t like shopping there for clothes as a rule - too hard to find anything basic. But I was at a mall one day for other things, and my bras were all ridiculous (hadn’t been resized since my pregnancy/lactation days) and I went to Nordstroms and got fitted by a professional.
Underwire bras - if they’re the correct size - can actually FEEL GOOD. I had always refused to buy underwires because they dug into my ribcage. Well, if they’re the right size, they don’t do that! And there are non-underwire bras that work for my boobage also! I bought 3 of those 60-dollar bras (in various types) and they have been worth Every Single Penny.
I wear the equivalent line in the bigger size from KMart (44D); $15 and they are comfortable cotton with underwire.
You might also want to try a couple of front-closing bras. The cups tend to be spaced further apart then the back closing ones. I have a Playtex Body Language style 4342 that is supportive and wide-set.
The board must be improving. There’d normally be five guys asking for photographic evidence by now.
I lied; I have the cotton $15 Playtex, which hang near the KMart Pink K selection. 
And as far as bra sizing, what bugs me is that two bras which purport to be the same size fit very differently. I believe the idea that women are wearing the wrong size and should get measured, but then you still can’t confidently pick a bra.
But that’s true of all clothes, gigi
Mom used to get a mail-order catalog that included a “how to figure out which one of our sizes you are”. Most mail-order businesses and webpages don’t, tough. I’ve had S tees that didn’t get past my arms without ripping off the sleeves (thick upper arms, to go with the thick thighs and wide hips) and others that were about two sizes too large.