Wednesday, March 20, 2013
How to Tell If a Vintage Garment Will Fit
The basic measurements given for a vintage womenswear garment are across the chest/bust, waist, and hips. For menswear, standard measurements for shirts are neck and sleeve lengths; for pants, waist and inseam. In my listings, I include a great deal more measurements than these because every body is a unique shape and size, standardized sizing changes across time, and very often vintage garments were not made to conform to a standardized size but custom-made for a particular person. When vintage shopping online, there is nothing more frustrating than buying an incredible one-of-a-kind garment online only to receive it in the mail, tear open the package, and find that it does not fit in some unexpected place. By all means, if there is a measurement that I have not included but that you would be interested to know, ask me and I will take it for you.
~~~~~~~~~~~MAJOR WORK IN PROGRESS~~~~~~~~~~~
How To Achieve the Proper Shape When Wearing Vintage Garments
This page will address foundation garments and the weird idiosyncrasies of vintage pleats, ruffles, bows, buttons, hooks-and-eyes, and so on.
How To Store Your Vintage
Tips on storing vintage garments and accessories to increase their longevity.
Whoops, I Tore A Seam!
Seams--often sewn with natural fiber-based threads in vintage garments, more delicate than the synthetic threads more common today--are particularly susceptible to the perils of time. If you ripped a seam and have never sewn anything in your life, fear not! Here's a quick guide to fixing it.
How To Find a Bra That Fits
This isn't strictly about vintage, but I'm including it anyway, because I found wearing the right bra to be transformative.
I got my first training bra when I was 8, got my period at 13, and began to wear a 34A that year as well. This is the size I bought until this year--that's 11 full years later. Sometimes, if there was a petty bra in a 34B, I'd buy it and deal with the weird fit issues. I think I even bought a few 36B's in my early teenage years.
Then I measured myself on a whim last summer and realized that all the problems I'd had with bras--poking underwire, gaping cups, slipping shoulder straps, back straps that rode up, and just a general inability to look like I had a bust--were the result of gross mis-sizing. In reality, I was a 30D or 32C, depending on individual brands' sizing. Me, tiny-tittied me, a D-cup?! I had a hard time swallowing it. My friends, too. Laughed and nearly dismissed me till I began my evangelizing shpiel and won them over. As it turns out, A LOT of smaller-chested ladies fall into the trap of thinking they're 34A, because that's the default 'small' size. If you're small, you're a 34A, end of story. But, no, not actually.
Like most things in our 21st century, globalized world driven by the interests of capitalism, department stores and other places that sell bras tend to be interested in reducing costs by standardizing and genericizing. This means relatively few bra sizes will be stocked at your local Macy's'; certainly nowhere near the range necessary to accommodate most Americans who wear bras. Sub-32 band sizes and over-D cups are considered 'special' sizes, when really, they are extraordinarily common--if you measure correctly. Are you wearing the wrong bra size? If you're anything like me--convinced that you must wear one of the 8 standard sizes offered in stores because of the way your bare chest looks to your own eyes--the answer is probably yes. (And, side comment: almost EVERY bra on EVERY retail website does not fit its model. No, your boobs are NOT supposed to look like that in your bra. If that model wore that bra all day, it'd hurt like crazy and damage her tissue over time. I swear).
Does your bra cause you any sort of pain? Do you regularly look or feel like you're about to flop out/regularly have interior wardrobe malfunctions? Do you feel unsupported by your current bra? Do you experience pinching or squeezing, or straps that never stay in place? Yeah, you're wearing the wrong size bra. But fear not, because you can fix this problem. You can feel transformed, too. You will be amazed at how you look in a properly-fitted bra. I never though I'd have real cleavage, never thought I'd look curvy and lovely. But I do. My boobs were always there, I just wasn't wearing the right size or style bra for them. But how could I have known? In our world of fast fashion, manufacturers don't want you to know that you might need a size outside of the 6-8 standards.
Here are the basics for measuring and fitting, with special emphasis on the fitting of those who unite with me in tiny-tittied solidarity.
First things first: Band Sizes and Cup Sizes
You know how you sometimes see a swimsuit, bandeau bra, dress, or even an underwire bra that says it's made for "D cups" or "is not suitable for over a C cup", without mentioning a band size anywhere? Well, that's rubbish. Without a band size, a cup size is meaningless. A cup size increases proportionally to your band size. A top that nicely fits a 30D is almost certainly going to be comically small on a 38D. Their overall bust sizes have a difference of 8"!
I got my first training bra when I was 8, got my period at 13, and began to wear a 34A that year as well. This is the size I bought until this year--that's 11 full years later. Sometimes, if there was a petty bra in a 34B, I'd buy it and deal with the weird fit issues. I think I even bought a few 36B's in my early teenage years.
Then I measured myself on a whim last summer and realized that all the problems I'd had with bras--poking underwire, gaping cups, slipping shoulder straps, back straps that rode up, and just a general inability to look like I had a bust--were the result of gross mis-sizing. In reality, I was a 30D or 32C, depending on individual brands' sizing. Me, tiny-tittied me, a D-cup?! I had a hard time swallowing it. My friends, too. Laughed and nearly dismissed me till I began my evangelizing shpiel and won them over. As it turns out, A LOT of smaller-chested ladies fall into the trap of thinking they're 34A, because that's the default 'small' size. If you're small, you're a 34A, end of story. But, no, not actually.
Like most things in our 21st century, globalized world driven by the interests of capitalism, department stores and other places that sell bras tend to be interested in reducing costs by standardizing and genericizing. This means relatively few bra sizes will be stocked at your local Macy's'; certainly nowhere near the range necessary to accommodate most Americans who wear bras. Sub-32 band sizes and over-D cups are considered 'special' sizes, when really, they are extraordinarily common--if you measure correctly. Are you wearing the wrong bra size? If you're anything like me--convinced that you must wear one of the 8 standard sizes offered in stores because of the way your bare chest looks to your own eyes--the answer is probably yes. (And, side comment: almost EVERY bra on EVERY retail website does not fit its model. No, your boobs are NOT supposed to look like that in your bra. If that model wore that bra all day, it'd hurt like crazy and damage her tissue over time. I swear).
Does your bra cause you any sort of pain? Do you regularly look or feel like you're about to flop out/regularly have interior wardrobe malfunctions? Do you feel unsupported by your current bra? Do you experience pinching or squeezing, or straps that never stay in place? Yeah, you're wearing the wrong size bra. But fear not, because you can fix this problem. You can feel transformed, too. You will be amazed at how you look in a properly-fitted bra. I never though I'd have real cleavage, never thought I'd look curvy and lovely. But I do. My boobs were always there, I just wasn't wearing the right size or style bra for them. But how could I have known? In our world of fast fashion, manufacturers don't want you to know that you might need a size outside of the 6-8 standards.
Here are the basics for measuring and fitting, with special emphasis on the fitting of those who unite with me in tiny-tittied solidarity.
First things first: Band Sizes and Cup Sizes
You know how you sometimes see a swimsuit, bandeau bra, dress, or even an underwire bra that says it's made for "D cups" or "is not suitable for over a C cup", without mentioning a band size anywhere? Well, that's rubbish. Without a band size, a cup size is meaningless. A cup size increases proportionally to your band size. A top that nicely fits a 30D is almost certainly going to be comically small on a 38D. Their overall bust sizes have a difference of 8"!
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