Fashions and trends in lingerie retailing are not just about changing tastes and style. Here in the UK , womens breasts have jumped a cup size in just five years requiring lingerie retailers and underwear wholesalers to reflect on their product ranges.
In these times of boom and bust there really is only one statistic that looks certain to keep on growing. As new figures revealed this week show, British women are now boasting bigger breasts than ever.
In the past five years alone the average bra size in the UK has increased by an entire cup size, following a global trend for increasingly ample cleavage.
The average bra size in Fifties Britain was a modest 30B. But factors such as better diet, cleverer cup measuring and even, it has been claimed by some, the increase in female hormone oestrogen in our water supplies, have all contributed to a massive increase in the size of British womens busts.
A mere five years ago the average woman sported a bra size of 34C. But now shes had to increase the size of her underwear to a 36D.
Of course, it isn't just around the chest that women are expanding they are also slightly taller today at an average of 5ft 4in and even weigh more, too, at an average of 9st 6lb.
Modern women also have larger waists, now 34 inches, and bigger hips, measuring 40 inches. Its a trend being echoed throughout the world, too, as shown by our statistics of the average woman aged between 20 and 40.
But in this global economy of ours, are the British ladies alone?
In China in the Eighties, the average bra size was 34A but in the past two decades this has increased by two cup sizes to 34C, just like actress Bai Ling. Canadian women too have proved that breasts are getting bigger, moving up from an average B cup to a C cup.
But busts are not heaving voluptuously throughout the world. Actress Milla Jovovich is a typical svelte Russian and her waif-like figure reflects the trend among her countrywomen. They are on average 5ft 6in tall and have smaller chests.
At 5ft 7in Milla herself may be taller than most of her female friends at home in Russia but her fashionable washboard chest at 32B is similar to that of the average Russian woman, although considering that Milla works mainly in America she would often be surrounded by women with much more ample bosoms.
American ladies are known for being that little bit rounder thanks to their more calorie-laden diets. Curvaceous Mariah Carey, for example, has an ample 36C bust, as does former Cheers star Kirstie Alley.
John Hicks of a UK on-line lingerie retailer says that the larger cup sizes it sells, in sizes from D and above, now represent 40 per cent of sales and that, increasingly, hits to its website are for their plus size ranges.
But John says that women often go up several cup sizes when they are properly fitted for a brassiere. UK television shows such as BBC1s What Not To Wear and ITVs How To Look Good Naked are encouraging customers to ensure they have correctly sized bras.
So, Sunset Lingeries Plus Size model, Laura Leigh West, whose 36D chest will feature in a new range to be launched in 2009 will be normal whereas she would have been exceptional just a few years ago. John added.
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