With sign language and a bit of charade playing between me and my sister gamelon musicians, I understood that we are supposed to wear a strapless black corset underneath the new burgundy see thru with red brocade flowers here and there material that we are having sewn into kabiyas for all 30 of us for the upcoming performance next week. I had watched the animated meeting the women had as to what "model" kabiya to sew. I was not surprised to realize that the 2 very beautiful and elegant women in the group are also the ones with very fine taste and set the tone for the choice. Not owning a strapless black corset, I began to ask around where I could buy one, and how much they cost. The first answer I got was that in the village there is a store (almost all are about the size of a small bedroom) that has samples, and I can try them on, and I am probably a 38, (whatever that means) and then it will take at least a week for it to arrive from the capital city (3 hours away). Okay….and the price is $35….which I was shocked at, since a worker earns about $2 a day….but there are cheaper ones but they are not good." Okay….
The next person I asked is more familiar with the needs of westerners and said that in the big city 1 hour away there is a department store that carries large (westerners as opposed to the petite balinses) sizes and that I am probably a 38 (whatever that means again…) and I can find it there. Hmm…how will I get there…it is now the muslim holiday and everything is closed, spend a whole day on public transportation and then get there and they won't have my size? Or black?...and then the phone rang and it was my girlfriends husband, asking me if I would like to join him to go to the neighboring city now, because he is going on his motorbike…I do believe in telepathy, but this still made me shake my head in disbelief. I had just thought the thought and he was already bringing me the answer!? "Yes! How did you know I need to go to Singaraja?!" His reply "Ha, ha, ha".
I giggled at the parking lot of the 3 story department store. There were about 100 motorbikes parked in the lot and it took up the size of about 1 normal row in a parking lot for cars! I had never thought about that before…that they don't need big parking lots, because almost all of them ride motorbikes, for the time being…. Then up the escalator, me and Ketut, and I spot the bra department and tell him that I need to buy a bra. He says, fine, and comes with me. As soon as I reach the display I see a black corset and am so excited. I point and tell him this is what I need. A young saleswoman approaches me, and I explain to her in my broken Indonesian, and ketut clarifies in Balinese. Not wanting to impose on his time and not used to being with a man in the lingere department, I am intent to do this as quick as possible, as opposed to a slow meander if I was alone, and lots of time needed to decide. She looks at the size of the 3 black corsets on display, she explains that the one I have pointed to is small, is it okay to give me the one next to it in my size? A 38. (Ha!) "of course!" and I am so excited that they have my size, black, and strapless! She gives metwo to try on and shows me to a dressing room.
Once undressed I pick up the corset and realize it has a zipper front! Brilliant! No hooks to try and hook together along this whole strait jacket. But, no way can I even get to zip it up. I am not leaving this department store without a black strapless corset! So I take it off, zip it up and decide to put it on over my head! Ugh…not easy, but managed. The only thing left to do now is to try and figure out what to do with my breasts.
The corset is fine, giving me a lovely svelt body, but the little double AA cups are not exactly appropriate for my sagging, 6 breast fed baby, sixty year old breasts that are more like a C cup….okay….I am not leaving this department store without a black strapless corset. I try plopping them in the AA cup….but that does not seem to work, I try smushing them in partly, and that is an option. Just then there is a knock on the dressing room door. "Eileen? Is everything okay?" I didn't realize how long all of this was taking me! The zipper, the smushing…"Yes, I am almost done. One minute" and I fling off the strait jacket, determined that it Will work, and quickly put my clothes on and open up the door and meet ketut and my saleswoman, who have been wondering what I could have been doing in that little dressing room for so long. "I'll take it!" "Does it fit okay?" "Yes. Fine. But I don't have enough money." Ketut offers to loan me money and off we go to the checkout counter, me in seventh heaven that I have my black strapless corset, to wear underneath the red see-thru blouse!
The next day there is a cremation. I wake up early, decide to wear the new black corset with my dark temple clothes for cremation. But now, in the space of my larger bedroom, and alone with some time and a full length mirror, (no mirror in the dressing room….) I realize that I am going to have to be creative with this new bra. After trying out a few more boob combinos, I opt for just putting the corset on top of them, so that I look flat chested, other than the tiny pointed cups that are up close next to my neck.
No time for beauty now, we are on the way to a cremation. Just get dressed and be presentable. But during the 6 hours that I am with the other hundreds of people I must admit that I am a bit preoccupied with these little points almost up to my neck… what is this image of Balinese beauty? Why is this considered attractive? What about my big, full, round, well worn, soft, sagging breasts? Don't they have a place in Bali? While we sit at the cemetery waiting for the body to finish burning to ashes so we can take it to the sea and send it off for its next incarnation, I keep looking at all the women and their "points" and are they also stuffed into this tiny thing, or am I some kind of a freak? What I don't want is to be one of those women that has these pointed cups around her neck, with the low cut blouse and all you see is these stiff black cups creating a nice silhouette, but they are empty of any real body mass! And isn't there some way to take out the push up padding that makes up half of the content of this AA bra cup?
When I return to my room and begin to get undressed I realize that I am in Bali, and this is what bras are like here. Take it or leave it. How will I look with the see thru red net material if I take off these straps and really go strapless like I am supposed to? I try, but quickly realize that its not going to work. This whole idea of corsets is in order to hold up the sarong, and give a svelt shape to waist and make a nice flow of midriff, waist and hips inside the skin tight sarong and kabiya (blouse). And that all of this began some 70 years ago when until then the women here went topless (with their little pointed AA breasts) but the occupying Dutch thought it was too provocative for their soldiers and had the women start wearing tops. Often when I walk through the village I see old old women topless…. And realize that this is how their mothers and grandmothers lived, and now it is their time. It's hot, and they are not interested in corsets and AA pointed cups for their tiny pointed breasts that have turned into sagging breasts that reach their waist, which is almost small enough to wrap your arm around their thin thin body.
I meet my Balinese friend that told me about the department store and decide to ask her what the deal is about buying a corset that just comes in a number size like "38"? "What about a cup size?!" "Oh, you just have to tell the saleswoman that you want the larger cup." What?! This young saleswoman didn't SEE me as she handed me the black corset to try on? ""But there were only 2 black corsets on display." "They have more in the back room." Aha. So there are cup sizes….hmmm…off to singaraja again. So much for impulsive buying…
I go back to the department store. This time I am alone, I know how to say "bigger" and I know how to point. So I go up to the saleswomen and bring the corset and point to the little pointed AA cups and say "bigger". They turn to the display stand, again 2 black corsets, the three saleswomen start to zipper me into one, on top all of my clothes! unsuccessfully. I am not leaving this department store without a strapless black corset. I grab both sides of the strait jacket and give it a fierce tug, and suddenly they are surprised that they can zip all that flab and clothing up into this little corset. The cups look bigger…but I've never really bought a bra like this, with my own bra and blouse on and standing in the middle of a department store. "Do you have bigger?" "No." I am not leaving here without a black strapless corset. "Fine, I'll take it."
Wondering if when it is actually strapless and I am in it, if the cups are going to be standing out in the air somewhere, I ask if maybe they have the plastic invisible bra straps? Yes. Great! And the young girl rushes off to another department to find it for me, returning with light blue, or see thru with pink butterflies….I am not leaving here without invisible bra straps "Fine, I'll take it. Thank you!"
so…all of my theories are out the window. There are bra sizes here in bali. "Big" and "Small". Until now I kept imagining what a fantastic business a bra manufacturer could do here since the options are so minimal and archaic compared to the west. And that there would be a gold mine here for a famous bra manufacturer like Warners, or Bali …hey!! The brand name of the bras that I have worn my whole life is called Bali! Ha, ha, ha.
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