MORE than 70 per cent of women are wearing the wrong bra size, a statistic that the bra fitters at M&S are trying to change one bust at a time, as BECKY CARR finds out.

EVERY woman will remember timidly following their mum into Marks and Spencer to get fitted for their first ever bra.

Your cheeks are bright red and your palms are sweaty and you’re taken into a fitting room to be faced with a woman armed with a tape measure.

Within seconds it’s over, nobody laughed at your flat chest, and you’re walking out of the store with a new found confidence and two ‘training bras’ in your bag. No longer a child, you’re officially a woman.

I felt similarly nervous as I went along to the M&S lingerie department in Spytty Retail Park to learn how to be ‘the lady with the tape measure’ but there was nothing to be worried about, I was in safe hands.

Manager Nicky Moulton and expert bra fitter Evelyn Vizard, who has measured thousands of women over the course of a decade, were on hand to give me their top tips in bra fitting.

To see what I already knew, I was given a few statements and asked if they were fact or fiction. Some were obvious facts such as ‘breast’s change shape throughout a woman’s life’ and ‘all M&S bras are machine washable’ but another, ‘an ill-fitting bra can cause headaches’, which is true, came as a surprise.

Manager Nicky explained that it’s due to the straps pushing on the nerves in your shoulders.

Evelyn also explained the damage that wires can do, particularly to teenagers who aren’t yet fully grown.

She said it’s why M&S have flexi-wires in bras for teenagers, but they still would not recommend them until a girl had been wearing a bra for a couple of years.

Speaking about that scary first visit, Evelyn said: “Mums always want to bring their daughters. Some girls are coming in at the age of 10 but you do need support as soon as there’s something there.

“You’ve got to get their confidence up, their mum has to come in with them and sometimes they have a strop. They try and choose a bra that won’t fit them.

“It’s getting them to understand they’re not to wear wires. They often say ‘oh but my friend does’ but you can damage the side of the breast if you have wires too young. It’s just going to do damage.”

Angel is M&S’ teenage range, which manager Nicky said has a range of bras that are a “lot prettier than they used to be”.

Evelyn gave me a quick run down of the other brands the store stocks including the brightly-coloured Fun and Flirty, Rosie by Autograph, the new collection launched in August by model Rosie Huntington-Whiteley, the M&S Collection and Adored, which, as Evelyn politely puts it, is for “older ladies”.

Next up came the numbers game with Evelyn demonstrating on a mannequin before a kind customer let me sit in on her fitting.

Evelyn showed me how to measure where the underband would sit and that if the number of inches was odd, you add five and even, you add four.

This means if you measure 30 inches, you will be a 34 and 31 inches, a 36.

The second measurement taken around the bust is to find the correct cup size. If the number of inches matches the new underband measurement, it’s an A, one inch bigger and it’s a B, two inches a C and so on.

Evelyn measured the customer over her t-shirt before going to choose her some suitable bras in a couple of different fits. The three main shapes stocked at M&S are full, plunge and balcony, with different styles suiting different women.

After trying on one of Evelyn’s suggestions, five tests are carried out which are to check that there is room for two fingers underneath the underband, check the bridge of the bra sits flat against the chest, check the straps are not too tight, ensure the wires are not digging into the side of the breast and check the cup size.

Some women are adamant that they do not want to go up a bra size even if Evelyn thinks that it is best.

She added: “I always try the smaller size on her and compare them. Usually they’re happy enough when they see the bigger one fits better but there are some that say ‘no I’m not wearing a bigger bra’. They’ve got four boobs and they’re trying to tuck them in.

“Most customers go out happy, it’s only if we haven’t got their size in that they don’t but you can order. We’ve got a nice age range since we’ve come over to the retail park.”

Evelyn’s top tip was “always fit the bigger boob”, which particularly applies to post-surgery customers. M&S stocks specialist post-surgery bras for women who may have had a mastectomy, where the cups have pockets for women to add in the prosthetic.

M&S, who sell more than one bra every minute, recommend that women should be re-fitted every six to 12 months in a bid to make sure they are getting the best fit and most comfort.

Nicky added: “It’s surprising even now how many customers come in having never had a bra fitting.”

History of the bra

1913- Socialist Sarah Phelps Jacobs was struggling to find the right support for her new daring flapper dress. She came up with a handkerchief and ribbon combination which was the start of the bra as we know it today.

1917- Corsets started to go out of fashion after a metal shortage in the First World War meant wires could not be spared for lingerie.Bandeau-style bras were introduced to give women the boyish flapper figure.

1922- Enid Bissett with the help of Ida and William Rosenthal and their New York dress-making business, created a two-cup contraption, separated by elastic to show off a woman's figure.

1939 - In association with the Government, M&S developed the utility range of clothing to help with the war effort.

1964- Canadian lingerie company Canadelle created the Wonderbra, which took off in the 1990s with a memorable advertising campaign.

1997 - M&S launched the t-shirt bra.

2001 - M&S initiated a relationship with Breakthrough, raising money for breast cancer.

2002 - The Angel range, specially designed for teenagers was launched. It has been endorsed by kidscape and the NSPCC.

2008 - J cup bras introduced at M&S.