Men of Lemmy, how old were you when you found out that bra cup sizes are not standardized in the slightest?
It's so bad that my fiancée has some bras that say she's a B cup and others that says she's a D cup. In order to go bra shopping, you have to actually try them on to find out if they fit.
If I had to try on underwear to see if they fit, I might not bother with underwear at all!
Today years old.
It's also the fact that cup size is not necessarily independent from band size, that's where the trick is. I used to think I'm an A with a high band size as I'm huge with no booba, like a 39A or something but those never fit that well.
According to ABraThatFits methodology I'm actually 36C, which somehow does fit and super well, though by common and dudebro methodology I'm most certainly more of an "A cup" if that makes sense.
It's because whatever maniac invented the sizing scheme decided that every letter represents 2 inches more around your body at the weirdest boobage point than just below it. What a bonkers system! A woman with 38B bras is 38 inches around at the band, and 42 inches around at the girls. Nonsense. The way dudes THINK it works makes so much more sense.
I’m a woman w
Have her go and get fitted. Many women don't know what their band/cup size really is.
Also, IMO, women's pant sizes are where the real absurdity in sizes is.
Not much help to know what cup size you are if the bra companies are only pretending to be standardized
Only knowing your cup size is not enough. You need to know the underbust size as well. A 32D and a 34C have cups with the same volume. Sure, there is still some variance but not as much as I thought before I learned that.
Edit: This calculator and the community of the same name on the-site-that-shall-not-be-named helped me a lot in finding my actual bra size. Now my only problem is that almost no company here has more than two or three bras in that size...
Agree on all points! When I was had my first grownup job I was trying to build up my wardrobe and found a pair of jeans that fit and felt great. Size 3. I went back after another paycheck to get an identical third pair and when I got home, they were practically falling off of me. I had to exchange them for a 1, which was still larger than the size 3s from just a month or two earlier.
But a fitted bra? One of my best purchases ever. Getting in the right size resolved about 70% of my chronic back pain. Fit is different between bra types but decent brands’ sizes are standardized, regardless what OP says.
Well, today years old. Thanks.
They aren't?
In theory they're standardized. But in practice, no they're not.
Today years old
I would assume they're not but that's because I notice that depending on who makes what shoe depends on what size I have. I also see this in pants and shorts for men as well. I just assume nothing is actually standardized due to QA never really catching things.
There are plenty of brands that follow mostly standard sizing, as I understand it. But popular brands in the US (like Victoria Secret) generally don’t.
I fell down the r/abrathatfits rabbit hole one day, years ago. It’s fascinating.
I once talked to my girlfriend about bra sizes and how much i don't understand them. Then we both googled bra sizes and how often women wear the wrong size and fit and all. It's a whole science behind it and it's quite interesting. Now, 10 years later i still often think: oh no, she wears a bra that doesn't fit right and probably doesn't even know it.
Today years old
same
Oof, yeah I was about 23 and wanted to help my now wife to get some of the correct size, which was an almost impossible ordeal. Wanna hear the story? Fine:
Taking the two measures was the easy part (and doing it again during her period, because of course the size changes during the cycle, anything else would be too easy). Then I read that the cup size is the absolute difference between bust and band measurement no matter the band measurement. Furthermore since the material is elastic, for a good support, the band should be a tad below the measurement*.
So far so good, went to the store and there are only A-D cups everywhere, E if you're lucky. So basically no matter what exact measure they take between the cups, you're ok if you're thin and have small or somewhat big breasts, or you're a bit fuller and have tiny breasts. Everyone else is automatically screwed. If you're lucky enough to fall into those categories you then have to try on so many to sift through different positioning and forms of breasts until you find one that is comfortable. We had to order some all the way from the UK because it wasn't possible to get anything coming near the correct size here.
*women who wore normal cloth bras before and continued wearing the same size have felt that the elastic hasn't made things better necessarily. Can't find the source for that one right now though.
Men's clothing sizes are a little dumb sometimes but I can usually take a tape measure to my waist and correctly order pants. Your guess is as good as mine what the difference between "boot cut" and "relaxed fit" are, and I would swear T-shirt sizes have shrunk since I was a teenager. As in, I can compare a Medium I've had since the Dubya administration to an XL today. But getting fitted for a suit, they measure me in inches and the clothing is more or less sized in inches.
Women's clothing sizes have had two different ice pick lobotomies. Women come in a wider range of sizes and aspect ratios, women's clothing is pretty much universally designed to fit tighter, but on the rack they're given one meaningless size number. a 12 is bigger than a 10, who knows by how much, and there's nothing on the girl you can measure with a tape to get that number, and there is no standard here at all. Why they haven't revolted I have no idea.
There is a whole NPR episode on women sizing and history of sizing in general.
Boot cut is tighter around the hips and thighs, has a slightly flared leg (think bell bottoms but way smaller flare). Relaxed is straight leg, but not so tight as to be skinny jeans. I generally wear boot cut, but my boots are only ankle high so it's not like I need the extra leg room. I just like the way they look on me.
Boot cut means a slightly flared leg (think a very very subtle bell bottom) so that they fit over cowboy or work boots easier.
Relaxed fit means it's made a little bigger in the seat and thighs compared to the same size in a regular fit. The lines/silhouette aren't as clean/nice, but it's comfier; which is why it's called relaxed fit.
Just now.
The cup size SHOULD be the difference in inches between the circumference below the breast and circumference around the breast.
3" difference would be a C cup
5" would be DD.
Why they double up some letters and not others, I couldn't tell you. 🤷🏻♂️
My ex used to sell underwear.
Trying to buy bras for my wife has been an eye opening experience.
One thing that I haven't seen mentioned here yet is the Wild West of standards once you get to big cup sizes. Apparently DD is the same as E, DDD is an F, and I've even seen a DDDD, which would be a G. Depending on cuts, brands, and styles, her size can go from a DD to an I.
Not to mention these things are like $100 for a "cheap" one. The amount of engineering it has to take to design that shit is probably a few years of grad school.
Not to mention these things are like $100 for a "cheap" one. The amount of engineering it has to take to design that shit is probably a few years of grad school.
There's a reason Playtex got to make space suits.
It’s not that they’re not standardized, there’s a thing called sister sizes
Here https://www.sizechart.com/brasize/sistersize/index.html
Your actual size is the lowest sister size
This is the case with all clothing.
All is a strecht... But yeah once marketing took over that function, it got turned into whatever the fuck we got now in the US🤡
Just now.
When I was 25, my girlfriend complained about buying the same bra, same size, same material, same URL, from the same company, on their website, 2 years apart. The first ones fit really well, the second ones didn't fit at all.
Meanwhile, there's a shoe that I buy a pair of every few years. They release a new "version" about once per year, but the fit has been consistent, so I'm over a decade, and 6 pairs, into my purchase of them, with no problems.
It's wild to me that people just buy the same shoe over and over. I'm not a fashionista by any stretch of the imagination; I just have one, maximum two, pair(s) of footwear per temperature slice, and I don't even have any formal ones.
But even I would want something new, even if my old pair had served me well.
Shoes are the most obnoxious things to shop for. Buying what you know makes total sense.
It used to be that any DC skating shoe size 12 for me. Could just pick a model and leave the store. Then they became a fashion brand rather than a skateboard brand and suddenly it was made for tiny model feet.
A got older with an older body I just get the Bondi8 for summer and Kaha for winter as HOKA does wide and quarter sizes.
But even I would want something new,
They're new shoes, not my old ratty ones
What can I say I found out at 14 that all-blacked converse hi-tops look good on me and so why bother changing
Right now reading the title of this post.
You all need to adopt metric for bras
Honestly even Imperial would help at this point. Clothing sizes, in general, are based on basically clouds and dreams and vary wildly by brand or even by model.
I just wish the world standardized. I don't care how. As long as it's standard.
It was a long time ago that I realized that women’s clothing sizing was largely fiction. Trying to buy clothing for a girlfriend or (later) my wife based on the tag of something they already owned was an exercise in futility.
Today
Right now..
News to me
Right now
me2
Most of the bras that my girlfriend gets fits on her first try, although she does tend to prefer sister sizes over her real size. If your girlfriend is having issues with bras fitting, it might be worthwhile to read up on how bra sizes are actually calculated and do a measurement yourself. Funny enough, most girls don't seem to know how the bra size system works either and they just get their sizes through trial and error, which seems like what has happened here.
The letter by itself is fundamentally meaningless. A 32D is equivalent to a 34B! And most girls severely underestimate their actual size. What would colloquially be called a B or C is actually an E
I don't think you know how the bra size system works. The number is the size measured underneath the breasts. The letter is the cup size determined as a the difference between the measurements across and underneath the breasts.
Therefore no way is 32D equivalent to 34B. Or at least it shouldn't be equivalent, but manufacturers don't respect the standard, so the equivalence is not impossible in some cases. It's really super inconsistent.
Also breasts can have different shapes and can be placed closer or further appart, which makes finding a fitting bra very hard for some people.
I never knew per se, I just assumed that like with all women's clothing sizes are a convenient fiction
I'm both fat and tall. None of my fucking clothes have consistent sizes that fit. I'm not the least bit surprised that the clothing industry's greatest minds were defeated by breasts.
Also, sometimes different colours of fabric fit differently in the same bra size.
Most women don't wear bras that fit.
That inconsistency is not exclusive to women's undergarments... I bought a half-dozen of the same American Apparel hoodie in different colors... very different fits.
Yes! Also in panties. Usually black, for some reason beyond me, is tighter than any other color both for bras and panties.
Good thing guy underwear doesn't give one fuck about the shape of the penis. They either mush it into the crutch to defeature the shlong, or they let the whole thing just flap around under loose shorts.
Just get a small penis. Everything fits fine.
Oh this old thing? I can't even see it. Without my glasses 🤓. All you gotta do is think of the ugliest person and it goes away during the day.
The new president elect works alright but it's fucking annoying when he's talking. I rather think of Rudy. LOL.
discovering saxx was life changing for me, good underwear gives you a comfortable dong pouch
Right now. I just tuned out all the complaining and assumed that it was a skill issue.
Its even different in different parts of the world. Related Wiki: wikipedia-bra size
I really want a law that requires clothing sizes to include actual measurements. And it's insane that I would have to specify that these measurements must be accurate, but the clothing industry has made lying about sizes the norm.
There shouldn't be anything preventing me from figuring out women's bra sizes with a tape measure aside from the fact that I don't know them and they probably don't want a stranger obsessively measuring their boobs.
I really want a law that requires clothing sizes to include actual measurements.
Men's pants are sized based on the number of inches around the waist and the inseam. The inseam is stupid because it ignores the height from the waist to the crotch so relaxed fitting jeans will have a shorter inseam than a regular fit. I'm sure it is because it was standardized when higher waisted jeans and overalls and that kind of stuff was popular.
But it doesn't matter any more because the waist sizes can be off by a few inches anyway. It was literal, then became kind of close. Not as bad as women's clothing, but it is brand specific depending on how hard they lean into vanity sizing.
OP is wrong. Bra size is the ONLY women’s sizing that is related to specific measurements. It can still take a while to find a comfortable fit based on shapes, but the sizes are standardized across good brands.
Starting point to find the size: Measure the rib cage right under the bust. If even, that’s the number; if odd, round up. Measure the largest size around the bust. Subtract underbust from bust measurements. 1” = A, 2” = B, 3=C, 4=D.
It gets confusing from there in the US because instead of going alphabetically, the US just adds a D for every inch after 4 until some arbitrary letter then goes back to the alphabet. Using UK sizes just follows the alphabet and so is very simple.
Right now, although I'm not at all surprised.
I'm gay, so current age I guess
Grade 9- girlfriend at the time was "blessed" so to speak. Learned e women have a much more difficult time finding bras and underwear that "work" than most men do.
Just now
Now but I had my suspicions considering the trend with women's clothing.
They're definitely defined differently between some countries. Japanese cup sizes are different to US ones
I think this is filed in my head under "no two manufacturers' sizes are the same (even if they're supposed to be to a standard)", and "this is especially true of women's wear", so while I may have known about bra cup sizes specifically at some point in the past, I'm not sure I did at the time I arrived at this post, and yet am thoroughly unsurprised to (re)discover it.
Well I don't wear underwear at all already 😀
Username checks out
My understanding is that some European countries have laws standardizing bra size.
When going for brands, like Lounge Underwear or even more expensive ones like Marlies Dekkers, Aubade or Lise Charmel (instead of cheap imports from China) there's almost never a problem with the size. There have been maybe 2 or 3 bras (cheap ones) that did not fit in the last twelve years and everything else has the same size and fits her.
This old.
I'm sad I missed the days of girls wearing no bras. Must have been nice.
You don't live in Australia then.
I cut a check when the boob owner says it's boob maintenance time. Why do I need to know anything about sizing?
Knowledge is power and it allows you to give a wider range of gifts if you know more
I always figured it was like pants where a 34 waist from company A wouldn't fit like one from B.
Teenager. I'm an artist. I was drawing some characters. Had to find some references.
Europe, my beloved...
However old i was when I first heard my mom complain about bra's
The same time I learned it was like that for all women's clothing. So about 18
Probably around 14 or something. For whatever reason, people will often name DD as a large bra size around here. It also doesn't exist in our bra size system. Some girl pointed out that non-sense at school.
This might go some ways to explaining why I've never known a woman who liked buying or wearing bras. I'm comfortable blaming the patriarchy, which can absolutely get fucked.
It is well standardized around here.
Around 19, I’d say. 42 now.
No clothes shit in my country is standard so why would the bra's be?
Wut
I don't see how most men would even find that out. Underwear is too intimate of a topic to open up about to the opposite sex.
Maybe for friends but not for spouses.
Maybe for you but not for others.
I talk to my husband about this stuff because it's just funny to watch him react to it.
@ThisIsAManWhoKnowsHowToGling I don't remember exactly, but I was well into adulthood.
Oh hey, a Mastodon user! Nice to see ya
@ThisIsAManWhoKnowsHowToGling I follow a bunch of Lemmy communities; I love how we can all interact together from our individual corners of the #Fediverse.
Clothing sizing in general is just arcane at this point.
This. I mostly buy size S t-shirts, sometimes M, occassionally XS. I dont even care anymore.
If the shirt isn't xl, I can't raise my hands without showing my belly.
Also if the shirt is bigger than L, I'm swimming in it.
I’m between a medium and a large. More often then not though, I need the shoulder width and arm length of a large, but the cut in the torso of a medium. Clothing manufacturers assume Americans scale horizontally as they scale vertically. This maybe true given our obesity crisis.