If your jeans weren't long enough, would you buy a larger waist band so that they would droop lower around your ankles? Probably not, unless you're heading to a hip-hop concert.

However, women make this mistake all the time with bras.

All of the experts who took part in our bra intervention agreed. Women typically find a bra they like, but the fit isn't quite right. So they usually go up a band size to accommodate their bust.

The women would usually be better off if they went up a cup size, instead. The band is the foundation of the bra. It should provide the most support. In most cases, it probably needs to feel tighter than you think, not looser.

Some estimate that 90 percent of the support for your bra should rest on the band. That means only 10 percent of the burden should be on your shoulders.

But for some reason, most women imagine that their cup size is fixed in stone. That's probably because many women imagine that a cup size is more than a measurement.

We associate certain adjectives with D-cups and DD-cups and those things are usually different than the words we associate with A- and B-cups.

Rightly or wrongly, cup sizes carry certain connotations that extend far beyond simple anatomical measurements. Each carries mixed assumptions about personality, especially as sizes increase. Augmented cup sizes have become status symbols and sources of ill-placed self-confidence.

This conspires to make us all a bit delusional when it comes to determining what size bra is best for our bodies, right now, today.

Since we embarked on an effort to hold bra interventions with some of our readers, I've been a lot more observant about how people fill out their blouses and tops. Overall, I'll admit that I've noticed a scourge of bra calamities.

And, yes, I've looked in the mirror and seen problems there, too.

In recent weeks, I've been to three bra fittings and been given three different bra sizes. Before I started on this mission, I assessed my bra drawer and discovered that I was wearing bras in five different sizes (one of which was scarcely worn because it was woefully inadequate).

Since then, I've donated some bras to charity and trashed some others. My bras may never be the same size, but they will all fit the way I want them to.

This week's bra story addresses problem-solving, but the most important thing to remember in finding the right bra is to use the sizes as a guideline, not a rule. There are many exceptions when you're dealing with the quirks of anatomy and manufactured sizing.

You might be a 34C in one brand and a 34D in another, if not a 32DD. Being incredulous about it, doesn't help. If you think, "I can't be a C-cup" or "I can't be a B-cup" or "I've always been an A-cup" and therefore you refuse to try another cup size on, whom do you think suffers?

Like all matters of women's apparel, our pervasive vanity sizing fetish has made all sizing disingenuous.

I kid you not when I say that I currently own clothing labeled by every numerical value from a size 2 to 12, though most average around the middle. Yet these are all clothing items that I can wear right now, today, and look polished.

But whereas in clothing, you might opt for a comfy large sweater instead of a form-fitting medium, wearing a poorly fit bra creates a problem. This is compounded if you have a larger-than-average bust line.

The truth of the matter is that women's busts are front and center. Anyone who says they don't notice is probably lying — cursory glances are inevitable. So that means that we also notice when something doesn't look quite right.

No matter the circumference of your bust line, most people agree that symmetry is best.

And so I'll share with you the best advice I got from this bra journey: the equilateral triangle test.

Catherine Burns of Ann's Bra Shop crystallized that gut instinct most of us get when we see a woman walking by with a bust slung too low, wide, narrow or high (yes, we're talking to you, Mariah).

So here's how you do the test:

Put on your bra. Starting at the base of your neck measure the distance down diagonally to each nipple and then measure across from nipple to nipple. The numbers should all be the same.

If your numbers lack a perfect trinity then you can start to deduce your problem. Adjust your band, and your straps. If the numbers are still off, you probably need a new bra.