What Are Shallow Breasts?

You may have read the term 'shallow breasts' but be unsure what it means or if you have them. Lots of women with shallow breasts will look like they have smaller breasts than they actually do which can make finding your size quite tricky. Here are some of the features of shallow breasts:

1) Your breast tissue starts high on your chest (at your collarbone in some cases).

2) Even though your breast tissue extends over a long and/or wide area of your chest it isn't very full so doesn't protrude very far forward.

3) You find that you can't fill the horizontal depth of lots of cups but at the same time the top of the cup cuts into you and gives you quadraboob.

If these three things describe your breasts then you probably have shallow breasts. This means that your breast tissue volume is spread out over a larger area but doesn't have a lot of horizontal depth which makes it hard to fill out a lot of bra cup shapes.

Shallow breasts come in the following combinations:
* Evenly spaced shallow breasts with a narrow root (so you need narrow wires with a shallow friendly cup and medium to wide gore)

* Wide spaced shallow breasts with a narrow root (so you need narrow wires with a shallow friendly cup and wide gore) 

* Close set shallow breasts with a narrow root (so you need narrow wires with a shallow friendly cup and narrow gore - you may need to add inches to your band size) 

* Evenly spaced shallow breasts with a wide root (so you need wide wires with a shallow friendly cup and medium to wide gore) 

* Wide spaced shallow breasts with a wide root (so you need wide wires with a shallow friendly cup and wide gore)

* Close set shallow breasts with a wide root (so you need wide wires with a shallow friendly cup and narrow gore)

This gallery of shallow breasts from Venusian Glow is really useful for illustrating what shallow breasts look like. (Warning: Some images are not safe for work).

Style Features for Shallow Breasts
Shallow breasts often need the height of a larger cup without the forward projection and roundness of lots of styles. The cups shape is everything for women with shallow breasts to find their best size and fit.

Shallow breasts require support and fullness at the bottom and a tall cup (so that the edges don't dig into the soft upper breast tissue) that doesn't have a lot of curvature to it. Some teardrop shapes work well with shallow breasts. Lots of women also find that true balconette styles (like Medina) with vertical seams work well because the fullest part of the bust sits in the cup then the upper soft tissue isn't bisected by the cup. Stretch lace is a great friend to shallow breasts because it doesn't bisect the tissue and gives a smooth look.

It's common for women with shallow breasts to have tried multiple different sizes but may have missed trying on cup shapes that work with their breasts. It's worth trying a size you've tried before in a shallow-friendly cup shape.

Shallow Friendly Bras

Lucy works for medium to close-set shallow breasts

Claudette Dessous range is a phenomenal choice for shallow medium to wide root breasts

Idina Plunge has a stretch cup that is great for wide root shallow breasts average to narrow set

Andorra is a stretch lace bra good for wide, shallow breasts