Bras are actually the kind of thing I get asked about quite a lot because I work with women who weren’t dragged to Macy’s by mom the first time she noticed they had visible nipples, like I was. (Believe me, some things trans women should be thankful for.) I really like this queer guide to bras: great for butches, ladies with smaller breasts, and there are some useful lists, like this one on the kinds of bras it’s good to have in your possession:
1) A racerback (or convertible, which is good ’cause it also goes strapless in case tube tops come back)
2) For under white shirts, a bra that matches your skin tone
3) Regular black bra for everyday use
4) Sports bra for sports and/or gender panic
A blog post about bras that actually uses the term “gender panic”: excellent.
Similarly, she explains the differences between types of bra cups: Demi-Cup, Balconette, Contour Cup, Soft Cup, Padded, Push-Up, Minimizer, Molded Cups, Plunge. I’m partial to demis and Balconettes, myself. She mentions that they’re good for skinny girls, which is not exactly accurate: my feeling is that they’re better for certain kinds of breasts, but you’ll only know once you wear them. I find they’re sexy and create enough cleavage but not too much: I don’t wear pushups unless I need somewhere to rest my chin.
Trans women often complain about being more nipple than breast in their first year or so on hormones, and padded bras or molded cups should work well for them (as well as for women who are ardently against nipple visibility), although molded cups – as she mentions – “(like most “t-shirt” bras) are expecting to handle a much larger chunk of flesh than I have”. That said, padded bras and molded cups can help women with smaller breasts “top off” to a size that helps shirts fit better (not because breasts are required, but because many types of women’s shirts are made with darts).
Those of you with implants may find you need less support than women who grew their own who are the same size as you.
But DO go get professionally fitted, and DO get re-fitted if you (1) gain or lose weight or (2) start changing your body with a new workout. Bras have to fit your breasts, yes, but also your back and shoulders, which also change with strength training and weight loss or gain. A couple of years ago I lost 20+ pounds in six months and that summer I was getting an awful lot of attention; it turned out I’d gone up a cup and down a band size, which meant the bras I was wearing were giving me almost no support (which breast-loving passersby seemed to notice, let’s just say). I had heard women losing weight complain about losing some of their breasts first, so it never occurred to me that weight loss could result in larger boobs. Also, (3) bra manufacturers – like clothing manufacturers – do change their fit models sometimes, which means even a brand/type that always fits you may not because they’ve tweaked the design. Not all bras from the same manufacturer will fit the same, either.
She’s got choices in different types of bras, although she seems to focus on mid-market types, & not the really good bras that make me happy — I should own stock in Wacoal. I still miss the days I could go without, and the days I could wear less expensive bras, and I miss not needing a Ph.D. in bra design when trying to wear all the cool variations in tank tops, halters, and translucent shirts that come with summer. Alas, those days are long gone.
Still, lots of useful info, no heteronormativity assumed.
Here are some other useful links about bras:
Bitch PhD’s Ultimate Bra Post
lifescript’s quiz to help you figure out if you’re wearing the wrong size
Lady Grace has hard to find sizes