New Ways To Solve Bra-Fit Problems

During a recent bingo night with “the girls”, the subject of bra-sizing came up in conversation. As you can imagine, everyone had something to say about it and all of us had horror stories.

Bra sizing has been a constant complaint among women for generations. Different brands using different size protocols and so-called ‘formulas’ for finding the right size rarely work for women outside of an ‘average’ body shape or size. Is it any wonder that most lingerie experts report that 80% of women wear the wrong bra size?

Thankfully, a lot is being done to address this problem, with many brands coming up with creative strategies for leveling the playing field where bra sizing is concerned.

Here are three recent examples of companies tackling the size issue. All are unique and, yes, all are helpful. See if one of these helps you solve your fit problems!

HerRoom
To mark National Bra Fitting Week, the Texas-based online lingerie retailer developed something called Universal Cup Sizing. It’s a web-based tool that uses an algorithm to identify common sizing among different brands.

For example, if you are a 36E, you’ll get a different fit from La Perla than you will for Bendon. HerRoom‘s tool creates a new series of sizes that compensate for that variance (under the UCS, you’d be a 36-D2 in La Perla, and a 36-D3 in Bendon).

The HerRoom system is meant to overcome the discrepancies in cup sizing among brands, especially in Europe, where many brands have their own sizing conventions. It’s become a huge issue especially among women with larger cup size.

The UCS system was the result of years of research and testing involving consumers, manufacturers and designers. Check it out here.

Eve’s Apples Lingerie
If larger-busted women face bra-fitting problems, so do those with petite frames. The standard ‘equation’ for measuring bra sizes can actually result in some smaller women having a negative cup size!

Eve’s Apples, an online lingerie boutique, responded by creating an online bra-fitting tool especially for petites. Visit their site, fill out the questionnaire, and it will return a free one-to-five page report that gives a custom bra-fit consultation.

“Most bra-measurement systems don’t take into account breast shape, tissue, and placement on the chest,” says Eve. “So women with petite and small breasts often guess their bra size and end up wearing ill-fitting bras with cups that are too small and bands that are too big.”

The free tool “takes the guess work out of finding a bra size,” said Eve. “And it helps women understand why they’ve been having specific issues with getting a good fit all these years.”

Warner’s Suddenly Simple
One of North America’s leading bra brands, Warner’s takes a different approach to solving the fit problem: using fabric technology to overcome the “numbers” problem in bra sizes.

Warner’s’ new Suddenly Simple collection is offered in four lettered sizes from S-XL, and uses modern stretch fabrics that adapt to your shape. The company offers a chart that shows how the “old system” of band-and-cup-size numbers corresponds to the new stretch collection.

If you ask me, one of these new approaches to bra sizing should solve the problems faced in the past by almost all women. The next time I meet with my foxy bingo girls, I’ll have plenty of good news to share with them!