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!
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 have a long torso and broad shoulders, so I have to get xl tall shirts in some brands because most make their standard xl shirts wider but not taller than med and small.
Banana Republic is the shortest length. Hurley is the best length.
Then there’s XXL and 2XL, which aren’t the same size for some bizarre reason
Tall sizes ftw
They’re so hard to find. I have to buy all my shirts at Eddie Bauer because 1) I’m a dad and 2) they’re one of the only stores that regularly carry them.
Some brands do slim sizes. Small shirts don’t cover my belt but mediums can be baggy on me, but medium slim fits perfectly.
At this point, my wife just naturally reaches over to pull my shirt down if i do that, like for example holding on a tram :D
That sounds like a problem a tailor could solve
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.
I think there was a great youtube video on clothes standardization, and how its basically not good for anyone, neither is it standard in any sense of the word
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
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.
They aren’t?
In theory they’re standardized. But in practice, no they’re not.
I’ve been married for 8 years, and I had no idea 😂
Never been underwear shopping with the wife? I usually take my wife once a year. Think of it this way. A good bra is like a good pair of work boots. You get a shit pair and you’re in pain every time you wear them. Bras are the same thing.
Yes and no. Sexy underwear, sure, but never a big talk around the vast differences. I told her about this comment, and I got a 10 minute talk about it 😂 no regrets!
Lol she will be impressed if you take her out for shopping for some bras that fit her. Glad to help
I’ll do that! Next time we’re in the city, I’ll make sure to plan for it 😁
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.
Yup! “Oh, she should probably go down a band size and up a cup size” popped into my head one day and I laughed at the absurdity.
I introduced my wife to the world of proper bra fit, because she’d never known any of it. No one taught her. Made me feel vaguely guilty of mansplaining, but it helped!
I introduced my wife to the world of proper bra fit
How? like, I don’t want to mansplain her, but I don’t want her desconfortable just because it’s using the wrong size
Not to point to the other site, but r/ABraThatFits is a great place to start. They have guides and stuff. It’s fascinating.
Today years old
same
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.
I would swear T-shirt sizes have shrunk since I was a teenager.
I thought that too, but it turns out I just got fat
I have size M shirts from high school that fit like an L on the rack today.
It’s been the opposite for women’s clothing in my experience. I’ve had to give up multiple brands as their shirts got too big. Same labeled size, same style, but it’s suddenly 2” wider.
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.
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.
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.
Just now.
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🤡
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