Of Big Bras and 'Doubling Up'

 

 

Big Bras

 

One should never mock the well-endowed woman. Breasts might fascinate the male, but beyond C-cup, they are heavy, sweaty and basically, a nuisance. Take this from somebody who wears a 42E brassiere. Their sheer weight causes both neck and back problems. My husband relates a conversation with a 'front-heavy' lady who wore a neck brace for the best part of a year after undergoing less than pleasant cervical traction. As an engineer (not a diplomat), he commented that the weight of her breasts and the poor design of the vertical human was at fault. Fortunately, the lady knew my husband as a straight-talking Scottish engineer; a fact that probably saved him from serious injury! Why is it that the larger bras are mounted on the lower, and thus less popular shelves in shops. If one didn't already have a bad back (as I do), the stooping and peering at indecipherable labels will certainly give you one.

 

Of the 100 odd brassieres in our collection, we have acquired a 50F, a 50DD and a 48K cup. Besides a rather tiny 32B cup they appear gargantuan, yet humans come in many shapes and forms, especially women, who's complex three-dimensional structure is a challenge to even the most experienced corsetiere. Examples of big brassieres are shown on this page.

 

A famous celebrity, who was spokeswoman for a made-to-measure corsetry concern, went into hospital for a breast reduction operation. Before the procedure could begin, her husband burst into the surgeon's office and threatened all sorts of unpleasant litigation if he dared touch his wife's breasts - other than to make them bigger! That is a typically male attitude; they don't have to carry them around.

 

   

 

 

 

Multiple Foundations and 'Doubling Up'

 

The Independent newspaper reported a candid comment from the actress Gwyneth Paltrow who admitted to 'doubling up' on her 'magic knickers' (panty-girdles). This was not an infrequent practice in the past and it's a technique that I have used on the occasions when wearing my trusty Spirella 305's have been inappropriate. I have related where women wore two pairs of stockings; some brands of support stocking even advertised that they could be worn under a more fashionable pair. I knew a lady that wore a corselette over her corset, partly to support this second pair of stockings but also to disguise the engineering of her surgical support (It didn't - Ivy).

 

There was a famous case where an American servicewoman passed out on parade. She was found to be wearing no less than four panty-girdles to maintain a sleek line underneath her uniform skirt. A Dutch airline stewardess who I have known since university related that since the recent re-emergence of the shaper as a lower foundation, several of her colleagues 'doubled up'. She remembers in the 1970's that on flights to and from Italy, some stewardesses either doubled up or wore especially heavy-duty girdles to avoid the painful pinching that Italian males think ladies find irresistible. She never needed this tactic since firstly, she had (and still has) a stunning figure and secondly, her laser-like stare was up to any strength of Italian digits.

 

The dictionaries will tell us that to double up is to bend double with laughter; unlikely in the cases mentioned above!

 

Where did the garters go?

I have always found this advertisement somewhat odd. Certainly the wind lifting the skirt has been used many times by the foundation garment marketers (Marilyn Monroe even indulged) but where are her garters? (I have used the word garter since this is an American advertisement. In Britain we would say suspenders and in France, jaratelles that sounds altogether more feminine!)

A woman of her class in the 1950's would certainly wear a girdle, and the Sarong was, indeed a favourite of many, but equally certainly, she would not be seen dead without stockings. Look at the fur coats, this is a very cold day.

I suspect the vagaries of the censor are at work here. Bizarrely, it is fine to depict a women embarrassed by the unexpected revelation of her underwear, but to depict the same women in the same girdle with stockings and garters was far too risqué.

Sadly, without the stockings as a lower anchor, that Sarong girdle is going to ride up despite the promises of the advertisement!