Doesn't this photo of my 8S fit model make you smile? She's wearing a sample in the fabric that we'll use in the next production run.

I used the television to distract myself at the gym the other day, occasionally checking to see what Angelina Jolie was up to in Lara Croft Tomb Raider: The Cradle of Life.  Once her costume switched to this classic white shirt and riding pants, the movie held my undivided attention.  Of course I added it to my Netflix queue right away.

This scene unfolds exactly as I had hoped. Lara returns from target practice (all bull's eyes from atop her galloping horse) to find two MI6 agents waiting for her at the mansion.  England needs her help.  She agrees to track down their villain, but only on her terms. 

Why do I love this scene so much?

There are two points in the Campbell & Kate shirt fitting experience that I love:

1. when a woman begins to button the shirt over her large bust and realizes that she can do so without straining the fabric; and
2. when she looks in the mirror and sees her waist.

Cheryl Warner captured this delight in her review on her fabulous blog Invest in Your Chest.  When I read it, I felt like I'd won the prize for Best Shirtmaker for Women with Large Breasts.  If you look at the pictures in her review, you'll understand why.  A woman  with a full bust who feels and looks like a winner in a Campbell & Kate shirt means that I win, too.

Whenever I introduce the company to someone, they inevitably ask, "Who is Kate?"

If you've visited the Campbell & Kate Facebook page, then you've already seen my link to this article by Maggie Alderson in The Brisbane Times.  Since reading it, I've been mulling over her statement that 

[t]here is also a uniform connotation to the plain white shirt, which can be dodgily sexy in a Britney Spears way on a young woman but the opposite on an older one. She was 18 when she made that ghastly video [Baby One More Time]. Add 20 years and that shirt would make her look like a parking attendant.

Some women do look like parking attendants in plain white shirts.  For example, this woman that I photographed on the subway yesterday:

I really enjoyed Captain America last Saturday night, and there's been a lot of press about Chris Evans' chest.  It transforms from "scrawny to brawny" in a matter of seconds.

However, I was more interested in the chest of his co-worker, Hayley Atwell.  In one scene, she looks stunningly voluptuous in a red dress by costume designer Anna Sheppard (see below).  So when she showed up in this white shirt in the next scene, I had two questions: (1) what is Atwell's bra size, and (2) how is her shirt not gaping?

The answer to question 2 is clear from this photo.  Sheppard put gathers along each shoulder to supply enough volume for Atwell's bust, and she cinched it at the waist with darts.  The answer to question 1 is less clear.

A couple of days ago, I wrote on Hourglassy about my Affinitas Parfait cami discovery.  Since I have always loved the corset look, this lingerie-as-outerwear option in 30D-H through 40D-H had me super excited. 

A Twitter conversation with one of my readers followed.  She asked,  "But would you actually wear it as outerwear? It still looks too much like a bra to me."

My answer:  "Under a jacket def. I'd have to see it on to know if I'd wear alone w/ a skirt."

Her response:  "Hmmm. It's the seaming in the cups that holds me back."

Me:  "Perhaps also the obvious underwires . . . ."

Her:  "Maybe no other way to get support in satin, but I haven't seen B cups wearing something like this."

Which of course got me thinking:  Can a large busted woman expect to be able to wear everything that a smaller busted woman wears?

A lot of women tell me, "I've given up on button downs.  I just can't get them to work."  I understand because that used to be me.  At one point, I thought I'd found the perfect solution in knit shells from a certain manufacturer, so I populated my wardrobe with every color they offered.