The Best Button-down Shirt for Big Boobs

Until recently, my lack of options for button-down tops was an accepted reality, established sometime in middle school, when I filled out a DD bra. As I became a bit more familiar with dressing for my shape—and my cup size went a few letters further into the alphabet—the only way to wear a shirt with a button front was to utilize a set of unspoken hacks: concealing safety pins behind and between the buttons to avoid gaping, styling it with camis so as to make a popped button seem intentional, buying it a couple sizes larger so I could have it professionally tailored to fit… Honestly, option three always seemed like too much work, but they’re all a lot of work for something many describe as a wardrobe staple. (Isn’t that supposed to be synonymous with “easy, effortless”?) So, when given the opportunity to test a new made-to-measure fashion brand that would, theoretically, solve this long-standing gripe, I couldn’t pass up the chance.

This past fall, Careste—a direct-to-consumer brand helmed by Celeste Markey, Elizabeth Rickard Shah, and Hilary Peterson—launched a line of shirts with the intention to provide an answer to ineffective sizing in the market. “When you look at Elizabeth, Hilary, and me, we all have such different bodies,” says Markey, Careste’s CEO. “How on earth could we ever think that a size 6 on one body is equivalent to a size 6 on another? When we tested our product and algorithm, we discovered that none of the women we measured had a body that fit within any one size on the typical size chart.”

The algorithm Markey refers to is essentially what provides the fit for Careste products, one that’s more personalized than your typical 4, 12, or 20. In order to determine your size, the brand gathers eight measurements: shoulders, bust, bust point, sleeve length, waist, waist length, body length, and hips.

“The bust is actually the number one concern above any other measurement points,” says Shah, the brand’s creative director. “The majority of brands follow mass-produced standard sizing which does not take into consideration variations in body shapes and sizes and proportion differences from shoulders to bust to waist.”