Sunday, November 04, 2012

Sometimes it sucks to be a girl

Went to Sears today to shop for bras.

Back story: several years ago, I found the perfect bra. Cotton, comfortable, fit great, underwire that matched my contours... and $8. After testing it, I went back to the store to buy a week's worth, and discovered the dang things had been discontinued. I bought as many in my size as I could find: six total. (Together with some other bras I had, that gave me enough for just over a week.) Given how much I liked them, and how much I disliked bra shopping, I kept them long past when I really should have. I even patched them, to make them last longer. Then the underwire broke in one bra. (It hurts when it happens while you're wearing it... at least, it does until you figure out why there's something sharp scratching you.) Yesterday an underwire in another bra expired. (Came out in the wash, poked itself out of a hole in the drum, and got quite mangled plus an end broke off.) No longer having enough for a week, plus one for wash day, I had to bite the bullet and go shopping. I chose Sears because I had recently discovered their bra prices were better than Zellers, plus they aren't going out of business any time soon as far as I know.

Bonus: Sears had a sale going on, and nearly all of their bras were marked down.

I found two bras I thought might work. One was *not* on sale plus was at the upper end of their price range (figures), the other was on clearance... but that means that I'll never find more if I decide I like it. *sigh*

I *hate* bra shopping.

3 comments:

Unknown said...

I decided around the time I got married that "cheap" was not the way to go when bra shopping. That was the first time I'd ever had a proper fitting, and I found out I was a rather uncommon size (one that most department stores don't carry, or don't carry much of). After I had Corwin, I got even more uncommon (32DD). So now I hit the specialty stores and just suck it up when it comes to the expense.

Scunge said...

Do you have JCPenneys in Canada? Down here in the states they will measure you for free and get you the right bra. I don't know about their prices as I buy mine at Target and Kmart.

noricum said...

No JCPenneys here, but I did get properly fitted once at a fancy local bra shop. I agree that "cheap" isn't normally the way to go with bras, but when you do find a cheap one that is perfect, it doesn't make sense to say no.

Part of my problem is my sensitive skin... I can't handle lace or other scratchy stuff, and prefer cotton if at all possible. (The bras I bought yesterday aren't cotton, sadly, but don't have any scratchy bits that I noticed while trying them on.) Part of my problem with the fancy bra shop is that they didn't think cotton was an appropriate material for bras (I at least have a small hope at department stores), and also had very little with no lace.

At the bra shop I did discover that I prefer an underwire if it is asymmetrical (not as rounded on the armpit sides), but the combination of underwires and cotton is virtually non-existent. (One of the things that was so remarkable about the $8 bra.)