Oar and Lemon Breasts: The Wide, Shallow Shape

Oar and lemon breasts have a wide base that stretches out towards the armpit and a shallow, oval shape that spreads across the chest more than it comes forward from it. They tend to sit low on the chest, with the nipples low too. The oar is the flat, broad blade; the lemon is the gentle oval. Fitters would call the shape wide and shallow, and the whole trick to fitting it is the underwire.

What do oar and lemon breasts look like?

From the front, each breast is wider than it is tall, an oval lying on its side, with the outer edge reaching well towards the armpit. Side-on, the projection is modest: the volume is in the width, not in how far it comes forward.

That is why two women with the same cup letter can look so different. A shallow, wide breast and a narrow, projected one can hold exactly the same volume, spread in different directions.

How do I know if I have oar or lemon breasts?

Two checks. From the front, trace where each breast begins and ends on your ribcage: if the outer edge runs well round towards your armpit, you have a wide base. Side-on, if the breast comes forward only a short way from your chest, you are shallow. Together, that is this shape.

Its neighbours are saucers and pockets, which are wider and flatter still, and potatoes and apricots, which share the set-apart look but with more forward projection and outward-pointing nipples. As always, the two sides may differ; see One Breast Is Bigger Than the Other: The Honest Answer.

Which bras suit oar and lemon breasts?

The wire decides almost everything, and it is chosen for your base, not your cup letter.

A wide, shallow underwire. The wire should sit on your ribcage all the way round, behind the breast rather than on it. If it digs in at the side or rests on tissue near your armpit, it is too narrow for your base, however well the cup seems to fit.

Balconettes are often ideal: wider-set, shallower cups with a low top edge that does not ask for depth you do not have.

Stretch lace, mesh and unlined cups follow the shape instead of imposing their own.

Deep moulded and deep plunge cups are the ones that argue. They are built for projection, so a shallow breast leaves an empty space at the top or front that no amount of strap adjustment fixes. That is a cup made for someone else, not a problem with you.

Side-support panels can gather the outer width forward, if you want a slightly more projected outline.

When you try a bra on, lean forward, settle the breast into the cup from the side, then stand up. With a wide base, a surprising amount of tissue sits under the arm until you do.

For the cuts, see Every Bra Type Explained. For the numbers, the bra size calculator and the fitting guide.

What does the folklore say about women with oar and lemon breasts?

What the folklore says. The Russian breast-shape lists that have circulated online since at least 2007, and that this chart is drawn from, give every shape a character. Here is what they say about this one, with the unkind parts left out.

The oar woman is uninhibited and expressive, with no subject off limits. The lists say she would make a natural actress, and some of what else they say about her we will not repeat. The lemon woman is cheerful, sincere and devoted, keeps her troubles to herself, and never lies.

Other systems call the lemon independent and solitary, or melancholic. Cheerful, solitary and melancholic cannot all be true of every woman with one shape. None of them has to be true of you.

Is any of that true?

No. None of it comes from a study, and no study we could find has ever tested whether breast shape and character are connected. The lists name authorities that do not hold up. The "Italian sexologist" is a real author of popular books on the history of erotica, not shown to be a sexologist, and the system credited to him changes from one outlet to the next. The "Japanese doctor" cannot be found at all. The "eighteenth-century Spanish" origin has no source behind it. Where the lists disagree, and they often do, they disagree completely. Read the box above the way you would read a horoscope: for fun, and about nobody in particular.

The short version

A wide base, a shallow oval and a low set. Choose the wire for the width of your base, favour balconettes and stretch fabrics, and skip deep moulded cups. The same volume spread wide is still the same volume.