Hard to Find Sizes - like 32DD

I received this email from a BraWise reader:

I am very frustrated that most bra manufacturers decided that woman who wear 32DD do not need to have bras. I cannot find 32DD minimizers anymore, they are few and far between! I used to be able to find Bali, Lillyette and Olga bras. Now they only start at 34. Do you know why this is happening? I started seeing this happen about 8 years ago and as the years go by less and less are being produced. I write to the manufacturers, but they do not respond. There must be a good amount of woman who are having the same problem. I would love to have a blog [about] women who wear this size to hear what they are doing about this problem.

Let me begin by saying: Meryl Streep is a 32DD. So, you are in good company.

When it comes to retailers, they go where the bulk of the sales are. They do this to maximize the turn-over of their stock on the shelves. As a result, they cater to the “norm”. When you are a size that is outside of the most common sizes, you can have troubles.

The other thing is that the trend in sizes is going up. According to a recent issue of Woman’s World, the average bra size for an American woman has increased from a 34B to a 36C. The overall gain in the average woman’s weight is mostly to blame for this change, although plastic surgeons have reported a big increase in breast augmentation. So, this could pose a problem for a slim woman who is looking for a bra in a larger cup size.

Having said that, you can overcome any difficulties with your local retailer by heading online to shop! While Bali, Lilyette and Olga do seem to have moved away from this particular size, there are many other quality brands who are still catering to the 32DD crowd.

Natori is another brand that still has a wide variety of styles for the 32DD woman. Wacoal also caters to women with curves. You can find both Natori and Wacoal through Bare Necessities, our retail partner. Just click on the “Shop Now” icon.

One other tip: I highly recommend doing a search on Bare Necessities by size. It will give you a great idea of what’s available out there.