Are there dresses that will fit my girlfriend?

May 3, 2006 7:46 PM

Are there dresses that will fit my girlfriend?

My girlfriend is 5-2 and small. She wears a size 3/5 jeans, small tshirts. However, dress shopping is a problem. She has 36 DD breasts. She looks great in a tshirt, but she'd like to actually be able to dress up now and then.

Dresses that fit her everywhere else normally won't even go over her breasts. When she finds a dress that will, its so tight or small up top that her breasts seem about to jump out at anytime. Dresses that look normal on an average girl make her look like she's posing for playboy. She doesn't want the attention, she just wants to wear a dress.

Females (or males) of metafilter, other than a breast reduction, any tips? Type of dress she should look for? Particular store? I'd like to help her out. Seeing her get down on herself after a couple hours of dress shopping is not fun.

posted by anonymous to Clothing, Beauty, & Fashion (21 answers total)

The cliche is that every woman looks great in a wrap dress. They're adjustable because they tie closed, rather than zip or button, so they're a bit more forgiving of different body types. They can be weird in the bustline if you're big, but a lot of them also look great with camisoles underneath to cover any overexposed chest.

I've seen a bunch in stores lately; should be easy to find and might be worth trying.
posted by occhiblu at 7:51 PM on May 3, 2006

I've had better luck shopping for dresses designed for more mature women. Anthropologie instead of Urban Outfitters, for example, has a lot more choices that are less skimpy and more forgiving. Ann Taylor Loft can also be good for more "womanly" dresses. Also, she should consider buying a dress that fits perfectly up top and having a tailor nip in the waist and hips to fit.

Last but not least, how about a minimizing bra? Big boobs are awesome, but if it takes a minimizing bra to make my favorite dress hang right, I'll wear one. Look for these at department store lingerie departments (Victoria's Secret doesn't have them). Most minimizing bras are pretty ugly, but they're really designed to be a foundational garment to help large chests fit attractively into shirts and dresses.
posted by bonheur at 7:57 PM on May 3, 2006

Custom taylor?

Also, it was my understanding that miss's and petite sizes were strictly based on height, not on any other physical criteria. Any specialty "petite" stores/boutiques in your area?
posted by porpoise at 8:00 PM on May 3, 2006

I would suggest she buy a modest dress (no deep v-necks) a size or so up, and have it tailored. The cost she will incur will be slight, but worth it to look fantastic in a dress. I really think this would be totally worth it for her.
posted by viachicago at 8:03 PM on May 3, 2006

Dress by Design will make a custom dress for a little less than $200. She can pick out the style and fabric and enter in her personal measurements. The price isn't bad for a made to order frock.
posted by Alison at 8:04 PM on May 3, 2006

There's probably some resources over at http://www.wapsisquare.com ... it's a cartoon whose main charachter is a busty woman, and the author of the comic has found that there's a lack of resources on the web for busty women ... so the forum is a veritable treasure trove of bra and clothing links for women like your girlfriend.
posted by SpecialK at 8:32 PM on May 3, 2006

There was a woman on What Not To Wear one episode who had the same problem as your girlfirned- gigundo breasts. And they suggested what several other people have suggested- tailoring. In general, you need to buy clothes that fit your "biggest" part, and then you can have the rest tailored to fit.l

And having really good bras will help, too. I spent.... a ridiculous amount of money on bras this weekend at Intimacy, but it was worth it just to have a professional look me over and tell me what sort of bras I need to be weareing. If you're in or near NYC, e-mail me and I can give you the name of the girl who helped me, she was great. I bet a small place like that would also know the name of a great tailor.
posted by ThePinkSuperhero at 8:35 PM on May 3, 2006 [1 favorite]

Hey, slight derail ... What other good stores specialize in high quality bras? Sounds like a great gift idea for my S.O. There's an Intimacy here in Atlanta so I'm set if that's the best place.
posted by intermod at 8:53 PM on May 3, 2006

Intimacy was great, I can't recommend it highly enough. It is expensive (the plain everyday bras I bought were $60-70, and I bought one fancy one that was over $100, but I'm sort of a weird size, so maybe a smaller size would be cheaper), but totally 100% worth it. Make a reservation and you'll get a personal fitting with a professional.
posted by ThePinkSuperhero at 9:00 PM on May 3, 2006 [1 favorite]

32D - Tiny Girls, Big Boobs

(I might just have one or two friends with this problem..)
posted by SpecialK at 9:16 PM on May 3, 2006

She should be able to find a seamstress without too much difficulty. If your local dry cleaner doesn't have a bulletin board ask them for recommendations. I guarantee that they will be able to give you at least one name.

Seamstresses are surprisingly affordable and if they are good can make any dress that you see in a magazine or movie. (My mom is a seamstress (now you know why I post in so many clothing threads) she once had a client come in pop a movie in the VCR press play and say "I want that." The client had the dress two weeks later.)

The best part is the she'll never have to worry about attending an event at which someone else is wearing the same outfit.
posted by oddman at 9:36 PM on May 3, 2006

If she's not into vintage or thrift shopping, I'd suggest a few exploratory trips. You find odd trends over the years, where different body types or more or less represented/celebrated in the clothing that is produced. She might turn out to be a fantastic fit for 50s dresses or a certain style from 1975 or who-knows-what. There are some body types that are celebrated in all eras, but others come and go.

Following on occhiblu's suggestion, there may also be certain more adaptable/suitable styles that just aren't in-stores-new right now.
posted by scarabic at 10:39 PM on May 3, 2006

Does wearing a sports bra bother her a lot? I dated a woman for a while with similarly small-frame-large-chest, and she usually wore a 'sports bra' to, in her words, make her breasts "fit dresses normally"... though she also only wore darker colored dresses and said "the squishing took a bit to get used to."
posted by SpookyFish at 12:08 AM on May 4, 2006

She might also consider buying separates-skirts and tops.
posted by konolia at 4:38 AM on May 4, 2006

Figleaves.com offers a useful service for tailored shirts in curvey, super curvy, or can't remember third one, just for this type of figure.
Don't know if they do dresses but for this type of figure they're the best!
Rather annoyingly the website doesn't feature the blouses and jackets that I find in the home catalogue so I would send away for it.
On the dress front , I think you may have to have something tailored. I recommend buying something that fits beautifully on top, then altering the side seams, as the reverse causes a lot of headaches.
Alterations like this can be quite cheap, but I don't know the names of the chains in your neck of the woods.
posted by Wilder at 4:53 AM on May 4, 2006

Dresses are just hard to fit. I make clothes for other people, and I have yet to meet the woman who is the same size top and bottom. Everyone's either top or bottom heavy by at least one size. Men don't have a similar all over garment to buy.

If your girlfriend is at all good with her hands she might consider learning to sew. I make all my dresses, and by my calculations, I save money, I get a dress that's the perfect style, colour, and fit, and I break about even in terms of time.

Here's the math:

Sewing a dress = one trip to the fabric store + 5-10 hours sewing.

Buying a ready-made dress = shopping for hours/days and perhaps even then having to settle for something I don't like all that much + the time it takes to earn the extra money it will cost.

My niece is getting married at the end of this month. I'm wearing a pure silk cocktail dress I made for $40. It took me perhaps 6 hours to make it. My mother is wearing a dress she looked in about 10 stores (in several different towns) to find and for which she paid $110.
posted by orange swan at 6:16 AM on May 4, 2006

Also, I don't know where your girlfriend gains weight, but when I started exercised (specifically weight training, but cardio too) and lost a little weight (~5 pounds), my boobs got smaller and a lot more manageable.

But most of all, proper bra fitting. I was thinking about it and it doesn't make any sense to me that your girlfriend would be a size 3/5 in pants and wear a bra with a 36 band- I'm the same size and I'm a 32. Wearing a well fitting bra will help her clothes fit better.
posted by ThePinkSuperhero at 7:02 AM on May 4, 2006 [1 favorite]

I am not tiny, by any means, but my bust definitely tends to overwhelm the rest of me. I was shopping for a bridesmaid dress and was stunned to find that the halter top option was the most flattering for me. It's a style I've avoided in the past but that I will be seeking out in the future!
posted by Biblio at 9:10 AM on May 4, 2006

I've got a similar problem and I've always had great luck with the dresses from Max Studio. I also can't say enough about Ann Taylor and Ann Taylor LOFT. I am consistently able to purchase dresses from them that fit.

Look for ones made with matte jersey, as it's an incredibly forgiving fabric.
posted by cior at 10:13 AM on May 4, 2006

Shoshanna sells (pretty!) dresses and swimwear for women who are curvy on top. According to the website, they are fitted according to bra sizes and not quite so arbitrarily.

and yes, it is the same Shoshanna Lonstein that used to date Jerry Seinfeld.
posted by anjamu at 2:41 AM on May 5, 2006

Dress by Design doesn't have height measurement selections shown anywhere on their site, so I was worried they didn't do petite sizes. But I wrote to customer service, and they do!

"In the past, we have had petite women send us additional measurements in
an email following their order to ensure a more precise fit.

Another option we have is to send you a muslin top of the dress style
you are interested in. You would then pin the muslin to fit you exactly
and send it back to us. The seamstress would use the muslin to make
your actual dress. This method has also worked very well in the past."
posted by amtho at 8:38 AM on May 5, 2006