Reply #59: I'm going to behave myself

[ForrestGump]

Aren't you proud of me?

But, yeah, I have seen what you mean (not that I ever look at that part of a woman, though I did spend the last half hour scrutinizing Ms LaraMN's evidence in the interests of contributing meaningfully to this conversation) and darts would definitely do the job...I also suspect that the problem is not so much the manufacturers cutting cost corners by avoiding darts as it is designing for some ideal 'average' that's not out there all that much. We dudes can have a similar problem if we're long in the inseam but not immense around the waistline (and 'Big and Tall' shops don't help, in my limited experience, in that they're invariably more for the 'Big' and should really be called 'Pleasingly Rotund on up to Morbidly Obese' shops).

I sew darts in my Elvis jumpsuits (yes, that's right, ladies, I sew, I cook, I clean, I don't leave the toilet seat up, and I promise to use only my own mascara...) and it's simple enough that I don't know why they're not more widespread...for a man, even, it gives the piece that crisper style, accentuating the vee of his torso (if he has even an approximation of a vee), like a dress military uniform tunic. Not that most men ever wear shirts that tailored, even in formal situations (unless they're Chippendales dancers, maybe, or gay fashion models), but we also don't tend to have the problem of the line of our torso being interrupted by those bumpy things that I never notice.

I'll gladly come out there with my tape measure... O8)



EDIT: I got so carried away with visions of bumps (the disturbing thing was that they all included some dude, who looks like Fabio, ripping bodices here and there, exposing heaving bumpybits with long hair placed strategically to keep it all very much in the style of romance-novel covers) that I forgot to ask if it was possible for you to get hold of some nice, substantial shirts that fit your bust just fine but that are otherwise too drapey and big on the rest of your torso and then take them to a seamstress (or seamster, I guess) to have them sew in darts...think that might work? It'd only take a few minutes, too.