Replacing bra shelf foam with horsehair?

From what are the slings suspended?

Yeah, she's tried 'em on and finds the breast shape unsatisfactory. Over the past 20 years I've encouraged her to go ahead and wear one but to no avail. It just means I have to use my head (and my alt.sewing friends) to solve this project. I ordered size 58 and 60 wires last night. Turns out I was wrong and they do make them. Yay!

Pora

The sides of the bra are longer (6-8 hooks in the back) and the slings are suspended from the body of the bra. Honest, it works wonderfully. I can run in mine and don't bounce a bit, and I wear the largest cup size they make. And it supports their weight perfectly. No more red lines on my shoulders for the past 20 years!

Is this the Coalesce (?) bra that someone (maybe you) mentioned?

Yup.

I don't see anywhere to buy them....

What state do you live in? I know of a place in San Jose called Bras, Etc. and another place in Fremont or Newark adjacent to Washington Hospital. There's a place in the midwest somewhere with a creative name

-- The Bust Stop. I can probably find you some other places as well.

The Colesce bra is the Custom Fit Brantly/Cameo/LeFemme/Confidante bra, also marketed as Norvell, Suzanne, and Jane Ette (same structure, different fabrics). The major player company is Jeunique, which owns Pennyrich, Sculptress and Jeunique as well as Brantly. Their website is

Their distribution model is through "certified fitters" who sell from their homes or small foundationwear shops. The Jeunique site can put you in touch with a distributor near you, or on line also retails them.

Pora

Ah ha...... thank you Pora. :) I can't recall if you said you tried this bra or not.

i had a quick look at the second....very very...umm...'functional'. lol

EEEWWWWW, be careful if you contact her. I ordered from her once and she seemed more interested in selling me something from every product line she sells (soaps, etc.) than in selling me the bra itself, and I thought I would never hear the end of it.

I have worn them for the past 20 years, and they are great.

I took a look at the site but it gave no sizes.

Yes, the Brantly was my savior back in 1989 when I discovered my 32DD bras were 5 cup sizes too small. The lift is truly incomparable and frequently called Industrial Strength. The super wide and mostly non-stretch back wings give stability new meaning -- and often improve your posture. The cups have a nursing-type frame surrounding each breast and an over cup that pulls over and hooks. The support comes from a heavy cotton banderin under the breast that transfers the cantilevered load to the back band, which sits much lower across the back than other bras. These types of bras usually use your rib cage measurement as the band size and some other system to designate cup size. From memory I think their range is 28AA to 56MM (called ZZ by some makers) or something like that. That may reach a 19-20" difference between rib cage and full bust measurement, I think. The cups, which are non-stretch also, encapsulate so well that many wearers use them for sports too. Devotees love the support and would never wear anything else.

Some of the possible complaints: the breast shape is pointy by modern standards; the lace is itchy compared with modern fabrics like microfibre and simplex; the banderin feels sweaty in warmer climates; the $70 and up price tag is hard to manage; it's so "much" bra that it's like wearing body armor; their fitter-only distribution model is inconvenient; and finally, it's anything but alluring when seen by itself. (The Confidante version, with satiny cups and prettier trim, may be a response to some of these issues. They make a seamless tricot version, the Smoothie, which has a limited size range.)

I don't offer any opinion on them particularly. I don't wear them right now since I'm in a "girlie" bra phase, but I could get more at any time. They are certainly the only ones serving certain sizes and the difference in support is no joke.

Does this help?

Pora

Absolutely! It helps very much, thank you :) I'm definitely going to check them out. I have always preferred my bras to be lower across the back. It's vastly more comfortable for me and that's probably why I like corsets too.

Phae

Oh, that's funny -- I also went up 5 cup sizes when I went to theirs -- not because they are sized differently but because I didn't know there were larger cup sizes and was using the largest size I could find.

The ZZ was the Plus Size Bras site's uniform cup size comparison chart indication that was trying to compare different brands uniformly.

The lace also shreds easily. I reinforced the lower cup pieces with broadcloth, which also reduces the itch factor.

Which is probably why underwire bras are so popular.

You can say that again.

If you're going to try them out, you can also consider the Jeunique bra. The banderin in one of their newer versions is made from a softer fabric (neoprene?) than the cotton one. If I had gotten along better with my local salesperson a few years ago I would have bought one. The Pennyrich and Sculptress bras don't have anything special to recommend them over the Brantly/Cameo/Colesce etc.

Pora

NEOPRENE? *shuddering, thinking what that would feel like in this heat*

That is, unless you have a distributor for them locally but not for the other brands. And I think that Pennyrich was the first industrial-strength bra made for the modern age -- I remember reading the story, and I think Penny Rich was the name of the inventor, who fashioned the support after a cantilevered bridge.