Sorry, we don't make that in YOUR size

Victoria's Secret is a good place to shop if you fit the average breast size mold. Granted, the majority of women in the world are a b cup, and there are even special bra salons for those women whose breasts are so bounteous that they require the 12 hook special, but there is no place to go for the less endowed woman. At 5'5", 125 lbs, I am a fairly fit girl. I have 38" hips, and booty - however genetics has seen fit to grant me with perky little double A's.

I have always been somewhat wary of the place, too much foofiness and pink, not enough basic reality. But some people get to a point where they say, "Hey. I'm pretty okay with my body, it's fit, and I want to see what it looks like dressed up like Naomi Campbell's." I did... so I go into Victoria's Secret. I find a really cute contraption that reminds me of Easter and Marilyn Monroe at the same time. I take the bustier/corset/bedroom floor decoration to one of the sharp little women in a black blazer and a pink measuring tape around her neck.

"Do you make this in a 34 A, or anything smaller as far as cup size?"

strange look from saleswoman

"We don't make that in YOUR size. We don't make ANYTHING below an A."

She whisked away my Easter Seven Year Itch, and I turned good and red. Who are these people who decide what bra size is acceptable?

We "big" girls have a problem when underwear shopping, too...

You go into a lingerie shop, lured by the beautiful pink and blue lacy numbers in the window, or the black g-string and matching bra set.

You find the stand that holds the underwear of your dreams- if I wore that, you think, I'd be invincible; I'd have power over guys, who would sense my sassiness and gather around me buying me drinks... I'd buy clothes to go with the underwear because my old clothes just wouldn't do justice to such a wonder of underwire and shimmery material...

You look through the stand, once, twice, and with a sinking feeling, get the shop assistant's attention.

"No, that only goes to a 12C. We have the white or black in that size..."

Enter the huge, parachute shaped 12-hooked wonders that look as though they've been designed to hang off the clothesline and be a nest for lazy pelicans.

If you're not the "perfect" size, you're non-existent in the heady world of fashion.

To gahachino I align my support, as far as Victoria's Secret goes in not having polite, helpful, or kind employees as well as inadequate sizes. Even if my addition here is from the opposite pole of boobness, I thought it appropriate to add it here.

A friend of mine had asked me to send some sexy underwear to a friend of his (who doesn't know me) as a gag. What better place to go for a one item purchase like that than Vickie's? Even if I didn't have such a prescribed itinerary as this prior to entering the candy striped shrine, I always had something specific that I wanted to buy. I never browse around Vickie's, because they never really let you do it without hounding you, and it's not like you can hide behind a clothesrack of see through panties on hangers.

I made a beeline to the rack of panties I knew would work for my assignment, which was all the way at the back of the store. This form of attack purchase must be unusual for Vickie's employees because poor Monique almost had to corral me like some wayward calf at a rodeo. She was carrying this big poofty red lace bra.

"I'd like to show you one of our new items." Monique begins her presentation by squeezing the cup of the bra to illustrate that it was filled with water and saline, a step beyond in Wonderbras. Feel how comfortable that would be, she coos.

Now I thought that employees at Victoria's Secret were trained to determine your cup size the moment you crossed the threshold. If little Monique had been better trained she would realize that I am a 36C and in Vickie's ware, which is closest to a D in their sizes, so what the FUCK would I want a padded bra for??

Ever since I started really wearing bras (not when I was supposed to) I've had to fit into something rather large. My first bra was a B cup, and a year later I was wearing a C cup. Some time early on in middle school my breast stop growing at a 38D cup size. At first this didn't bother I didn't see the problem, I just had large breasts. But later on in High School when Fashion became a part of fitting in, my breasts got into the way. I couldn't find tops that fight right...forget that sexy Prom Dress, if it fit it was perfect in the waist it was to tight on the top, and if it was right on the top it was incredibly baggy on the waist.

This wasn’t the only reason I hated being large breasted. I found out early that guys wanted to be with me because, to quote a few “Look at the tits on that b****!” It hurt knowing that the only way I was going to get a date was through my breasts.

The other major problem that I found was finding a bra that was sexy and cute to wear. I guess manufacture don’t think that women with large breasts like to think of themselves as sexy so they make us these ugly plan white bras that no one like, but wear because that’s all we have. Also if you don’t like under wire in your bra’s then just give up, you completely out of luck every large sized bra comes complete with under wire.

Now finding a bra didn’t become too much of a problem until after I hit that finally growth spurt. I went from a decent cup size of D to a horrible cup size of DDD! I used to be able to walk into a Wal*Mart and find the right size bra, it took awhile but I could find something. Now even the people at Wal*Mart tell me, “Sorry we don’t sell bras that size!” It’s made me feel so self aware of my breasts I hate it. If I want a bra that’s going to fit now I have to go to some place like Lyane Bryant and spend a fortune. Or settle for bras that are too small and give you the Quadra boob look. It just makes me SICK.

It's unfortunate that some people have difficulty finding clothing in their size, but I feel that there's an undue amount of whining on the subject. I especially think that "fashion" is getting a bum rap in this case.

Fashion might determine what size and shape runway models are, and who and what you'll see while flipping through your favorite trashy fashion mag, but it definitely does not determine what sizes are available in department stores and Victoria's Secret. Stores like this are not so devoted to their god Fashion that they would take a loss by not selling their wares to certain sized people. Plain and simple, they sell the sizes that will be most likely to sell, and those are the sizes which are most common. If you're unusually large or small, you're going to have a hard time finding things in your size. You might even have to pay more for a "special order" item, because you're so "special".

Who are these people that determine what bra size is acceptable?
It's not an international conspiracy against self-esteem, they're called "consumers" and "market forces".

The problem here doesn't seem to necessarily be fashion trends or outlandish expectations of a woman's size, as dictated by runway models or purchasing trends. If that were the case, why the hell can I never find a pair of jeans in my size (26)? It's not the most common size on the market by any stretch, and yet it takes me hours and several stores to spend the $25 for something attractive to cover my legs, that for once fits.

The problem is that the fashion world caters to a size 8-10. Every size of clothing is graduated up and down from that oh-so-ideal 36-24-36 figure that the fashion industry has deemed proportional. Therefore, if you wear a size 26, your measurements should be 54-42-54. Ouch.

My chest is nowhere near that big, nor are my hips. But because my waist is that size, I am a 26. My clothing is either too tight or too loose; my underwear is too long in the torso or too tight in the legs; my bras are impossible to buy, at a 42B. It seems as though once you top a 38 band size, your breasts are automatically D-cups or more.

But because my waist is that size, I am a 26.

The point here is that unless you're a cookie-cutter body, which is rare and I salute you if you can achieve one, there are going to be clothes out there that don't fit you. Which is why I shop as little as possible.