No Stupid Questions

Maurice Moss almost managed it, but unfortunately he had an overheating problem

Well, every body is different. It's just like other clothing, too, but involves more detail, but basically a piece that fits person A will not fit person B.

One way to solve this is to go to a real specialist shop instead of the normal retail shops or online sources. My wife did this after surgery, as her sizes changed, and they measured her up and found the right "layout" for her. She said it is a difference like day and night.

I can't say much about bras, but as a former Buyer for a chain of high end bicycle shops, y'all are hard. We were focused on road bikes where everything down to the clothing fit is critical. I tried really hard to keep a good selection on hand, but even in the limited mostly ultra fit demographic, the size, cut, and fit range for women's clothing is almost impossible to cover.

Women's was a small segment for us. Most shops won't carry much of anything. Indeed, we ran at a minimized loss margin to carry stuff. This is ultra niche specific and completely tangential, but it might help show a bit of behind the scenes retail. Carrying a large range of sizes, cuts, and styles of any clothing type is an overburden inventory nightmare. The issues are always the oddball extras that everyone gets stuck with and can't offload anywhere near cost. All the time and labor of managing it is also an issue. The way women's sections are always left in terrible shape is also a major contributing cost factor in overall stock costs. Having experienced life as a Buyer, the bra sections of most department stores look like break even inventory at best IMO.

Because you can't mass produce cheap crap and have a perfect fit customised to your exact shape.

I'd say that it's probably doable if you had someone to measure and hand to make it for you.

It would be a grand step forward if they just redesigned underwires not to stick out of the f****** things. Literally just capping the wires with a piece of plastic that costs 10th of a penny would be a significant improvement.

Just expensive and nobody takes the time to get fitted for them.

I like this bra from Hanes. I find it comfortable and painless. It says "hand wash only" I wash it in the washing machine and buy a new one once or twice a year. I hope you find a bra that is right for you.

Boobs are all different, is the issue. We may have the same bra size but if Im full on top and you're full on bottom we'd need a completely different cup shape. And of course that's just one variable. Maybe we also need a totally different length underwire, maybe I'm projected and you're shallow, etc etc.

The trick is to order a load of bras at once from various brands and in various styles, do a marathon try-on session recording each one against the various fit criteria, and take note of the exact measurements and features of the best fitting ones. Then if none of them were perfect, send them all back and repeat the process.

Eventually you end up knowing which brand(s) and style(s) work for your very specific body shape as well as what measurements of everything you actually need. Which is a separate thing to your "bra size" although even then it's best to do regular re-measuring to make sure your basic size hasn't changed.

It's a faff but it's worth it. The perfect bra is out there!

Sports bras all the way.

Sorry but this depends a lot on each person's body. I am a B/C cup depending on brands, and most bras fit me comfortably for daily use.

My wife has tried several bra brands. She landed on Branwyn merino wool bralettes, which she loves. Very comfy and great airflow. I'll mention, she is smaller and prefers bralettes over more supportive bras, so your mileage might vary.

Honestly, I think the answer is because keeping breasts pointed forward, against the forces of gravity requires extra support, and as a species, we haven't been wearing bras long enough adapt to that.

That and the fact that average breast size has increased significantly in the last few decades

Well, there probably is one for you but it will be a different one from what's good for me or someone else. I don't even wear a bra most of the time and that's comfortable for me, and a soft stretchy bralette thing with minimal padding for work. Because I don't need support, so no bra is more comfortable than any bra.

It's like shoes more than anything else. More than two measurements would be better, we need length, width and depth measurements on them.

I think they could get much closer on fit with one more dimension in the sizing, for depth or volume separate from wire size. Right now anything with a wire that fits me has too much volume in the cups because I'm small busted - shallow shape, not small around . The ones with the correct volume have a wire shape too small - shot glass when I need champagne glass, basically.

Because they would have to be tailor-made.

Logistics. It's all about fit and between dimensions of shoulders, chest width and breast size it's a profit maximizing logistics nightmare.