Cecil once wrote about Maximum Bra Size Comercially available ( http://www.straightdope.com/classics/a1_087.html )
If he was correct then, he needs to update the answer now. I wear a 48 H. It is off the rack and not the largest size that was available at the shop–it was a 52I IIRC. The last Sears catalog I saw had a 52 G and I once bought a 46 II from them. When I first bought bras the largest I could find was an F cup, but that was back when I was a 36 F so I did not mind.
There was also a discussion of this topic a few months earlier–the text is at: What’s the largest commercially available bra size?
That discussion came up with the same conclusion that 52 seems to be the largest generally available size, with 52II the largest reported at that time.
You realize, of course, lee, that you’ve just made yourself very popular among a certain segment of the Teeming Millions… Not, of course, that I’m in that segment (size really doesn’t matter, trust me), you understand.
It’s not posted online yet, but Lee’s comments in the OP are the basis for this week’s Straight Dope column.
Yes, just 31 days after the OP was made by Lee, Cecil responded with a column. This should give you an idea about the kind of topics that get Cecil’s immediate attention. But congratulations to Lee–you have entered the exalted world of persons who have been immortalized in a Straight Dope column.
Also, a big welcome to Doug-the-Intern, who, according to the column, did most of the legwork, so to speak. (The largest noncustom size he was able to track down was 54LL.)
Last post was not meant to be mean-spirited. Mine is large enough to for adult males to use as a parachute.
Ah, but the bra on my car is much bigger. Cecil did not even consider those.
I do not understand the add five inches rule. It doesn’t work for me. If I followed that rule, I might as well not even wear a bra–they’d just fall out the bottom! I use the actual band measurement and it fits just fine… anyone else do this?
I think Cecil got a little confused…the band size is the actual measurement. The +5 is for the cup size…it’s the difference of the across the nipple measurement from the band size+5.
At least that’s how I do it, and all my bras fit. Finally. Not real easy to find a 44F cup.
You are actually “supposed” to add 5 to your band measurement in inches to get your band size, according to most manufacturers. I’ve found that if I do that, the band is generally too loose. I add 3 and that works a lot better. There is a lot of information at http://www.plussizebras.org about bras and bra sizing, especially for the large sized ones, and they also recommend adding 2 or 3 instead of 5. They also have come up with a “U.S. standard” for cup sizes that makes a heck of a lot more sense than anything any manufacturer uses.
I remember when my wife was pregnant… We went to a maternity clothes shop, and they had size J and K bras.
It’s funny, I had heard about adding 2, not 5. I wondered where Cecil got his info, but then it’s not something I’m generally dealing with.
Stupid guy question - why do the sizes require adding any number to the band size? If the band size is the chest measurement, then why is it that you add any for the chest measurement?
In the column in question, Cecil sez:
“When we speak of the largest size, are we strictly concerned, as Aquinas says, with “the measurement across the fullest part of the bust”?”
Is this a satiric reference, or did St. Thomas ever actually refer to bra size in his writings?
I don’t have anything to add (so to speak). I just came here to read the responses to the column. Jeez, I really like this place.
Men seem to think that all measurements in a Bra size are important. The first number refers to your size around your rib cage. The larger it is, the larger your overall body, generally. It becomes easier to get big cup sizes, the letter designation, as you become a bigger woman overall. The challenge is when you are a relatively samll woman with disproportionately large breasts. In other words a 56E would be a lot easier to come by, this would be a woman of size, than a 36 EE made for an average size woman with large breasts. I know this intimately, you might say. I could never find a cup size bigger than that, unless custom made. Even finding that size proved a major challenge. No department stores handle that size, and even in specialty stores there are extremely limited options.
I’m thinkin’ that justaredhead is more than justaredhead.
I inadvertently erred. The bra size to which I refered was a 36FF not 36EE. Sorry for any potential confusion.
I reiterate!