Sizing Up

According to expert bra fitter Susan Nethero, 85 percent of women are wearing the wrong bra size. “Most women wear their bras too big; they think ‘comfortable’ means ‘loose.’ What they actually need is a firmer band to keep the bra level across the front and back,” she said.

Your bust size will change as you go through different stages in life—weight fluctuations, pregnancy, and even aging. According to Avon Intimate Apparels, the average woman will wear six different bra sizes throughout her life.

How can you tell if you’re wearing the wrong bra size? Do you:

• Constantly adjust your bra on the front, back, or sides?
• Feel like your bust is overflowing or spilling out of your cups?
• Feel the underwire pinching your skin?

If you said yes to one or more of these questions, then YES, you are wearing the wrong bra size. It’s time to improve your posture and figure by sizing up. Avon shows us how.

1. While wearing your existing bra, stand straight and breathe normally. Measure yourself around the rib cage, right below your bust line.

2. If the measurement is an even number, add four inches. If the measurement is an odd number, add five inches. The resulting number is your BODY SIZE. (ex. If you measure 34”, add 4”, thus getting a body size of 38. If you measure 31”, add 5”, thus getting a body size of 36.)

3. Place the tape measure over the fullest part of your bust (usually where the nipple is). Get the difference between this measurement and your body size. The resulting number is your BUST SIZE.

4. Determine your CUP SIZE by referring to the chart below:

5. Your body size plus your cup size equals your BRA SIZE. For example, if your body size is 34 and your bust size is 33, your bust measures one inch smaller than your body size. Hence, your bra size is 34A for adults and 34B for teens.

Bra Size Chart (Adults)

Bra Size Chart (Teens)

Fashion Emergency Kit

Remember that time you were wearing the perfect dress and it suddenly ripped? Do you have a favorite crisp blouse that lost a button right before your presentation? Ever had a Cinderella moment where your shoe slipped off your foot at a party?

Fashion mishaps can happen to anyone, even to the hottest supermodels and celebrities. Like Hollywood’s top stylists, the secret to staying fashionably poise is keeping the right fashion emergency tools.

1. Sewing Kit
The most basic fashion necessity of all, the sewing kit is every fashionista’s best friend. Fabric tears, disastrous moth-eaten fabrics, and other clothing emergencies will be easy to remedy. Just make sure you still remember those sewing lessons you had in your 5th grade home economics class.

Where to get it: Available in almost all department stores, drug stores, groceries, and beauty stores nationwide.

2. Lint Remover
Who wants to see unsightly pet fur, falling hair, laundry lint, and gasp, even dandruff on your fabulous dark dress? Just roll it on the messy area and the unwanted lint will cling to the lint remover. If you don’t have a lint roller, get a long piece of masking tape and use it to take the lint out of your clothes. It can be messy, so you’re better off with a lint roller.

Where to get it: Try Rustan’s, Landmark, Robinson’s, Watson’s and SM Department Stores.

3. Stain Remover
You never know if that spaghetti sauce will splatter on your white shirt in the middle of your dinner date. Have a stain remover handy in your purse or car. Stain removers usually work well with food stains, although they aren’t widely available in the Philippines. If you can’t order them online, try a pack of baby wipes.

Where to get it: Handy stain removers such as Tide To Go is available only in countries such as the U.S., so have a relative buy one for you. Wipes, on the other hand, are available in all groceries, drug stores, and department stores.

4. Party Feet
Dr. Scholl’s latest product line has women all over the world grinning. Party Feet takes care of common shoe problems such as killer blisters, slippery shoes, and sore spots. Choose from Party Feet’s array of medically tested foot products for women who can’t get enough of stilettos.

Where to get it: Dr. Scholl’s Party feet is available at PCX and leading department stores.

5. Foot Petals
Some shoes may look fabulous on the outside, but excruciatingly painful once you put them on. Tame your shoes from hell with Foot Petals, a line of pain-relieving products that aid slippery soles, painful ankles, and uncomfortable shoe straps.

Where to get it: Foot Petals is available at Beauty Bar, Rustans Essences, Schu, Charles & Keith, Selected Watsons Outlets, and PCX.

6. Hollywood Fashion Tape
Ever wondered why celebrities’ outfits look flawless? It’s thanks to these double-sided strips. Place them in the gaps of your blouse to prevent peek-a-boos or use them to keep spaghetti straps from slipping off your shoulders. You may also use the tapes to secure revealing necklines, fix hems, hold up strapless tops, hide bra straps, and secure shoe straps. Cheap, double-adhesive tapes may do the same job, but they’re not as hypoallergenic and fabric friendly as Hollywood Fashion Tape.

Where to get it: Hollywood Fashion Tape is available at Beauty Bar, Rustans Essences, PCX Power Plant, Velvet Rose, and Chocolate Clothing Company.

7. Tag Tamers
If those uncomfortable or itchy labels at the back of your shirt or top are starting to get on your nerves, cover them with these hypoallergenic and fabric-friendly tag covers. You may also use them to prevent those annoying shirt tags from popping out of your back.

Where to get it: Hollywood Tag Tamers is available at Beauty Bar, Rustans Essences, PCX Power Plant, Velvet Rose, and Chocolate Clothing Company.

8. Safety Pins
You basic sewing kit may have a few small safety pins already, but you need more! Purchase safety pins in different sizes because you never know how big or small your fashion emergency is.

Where to get it: sari-sari stores, drug stores, department stores, etc.