This following is from an article by The Telegraph that mentions that while women love the push-up bra many clothing designers still seem determined to hide big breasts.

“Nowadays, fashion and frontage do not mix.  Marks & Spencer now sells a J cup, but this bears no relation to what is seen on this spring’s catwalks. A boyish physique has long been the ideal in the lush, homoerotic environs of high style. But, of late, a glossy sub-genre has flourished in which flat-chested fashionistas scorn their well-endowed sisters.”

It is widely known that 3,000 British women have nominated the push-up bra as the greatest fashion invention of all time in recent polls.  The push-up bra scored a hefty 20 per cent of the vote, well ahead of more sophisticated stalwarts such as the stiletto and Hepburn’s little black dress. With the strapless bra at number eight and the grisly chicken fillet at 15, it is safe to say that paying and displaying one’s assets remains a pressing popular concern.

“Breasts, one may infer, represent the difference between the haute and the high street. Where flat chests are chic and classy, so heaving bosoms are judged trashy, de trop.”

This should come as little surprise. Throughout history, breasts have been the playthings of class. During the Renaissance, when Elizabeth I was wont to draw attention to her sexagenarian assets, the chic bosom demanded small and perfectly formed Diane de Poitiers-style orbs. Less than a century later, the upwardly mobile breast required the more lavish proportions of a Barbara Villiers or Nell Gywn. Victorian breasts were modest, Edwardian embonpoints; Twenties bosoms were flattened, Forties appendages were recrafted as missiles.

Over the past 10 years the average bra size has swelled from a 34B to a 36C. Marks & Spencer reveals that a quarter of the bras it sells are a D cup or larger - a statistic that has doubled in three short years. Its sizing now extends to a J cup. Bravissimo, which specialises in lingerie for the bigger breasted, has three K-cup styles.