You are not your bra size - understanding bra sizing
Bra sizes like dress sizes - sometimes they are a complete mystery that one brand can fit you like a dream in a certain size and another doesn’t fit at all. Bra sizes are basically maths, it’s just different brands work out your bra size differently.
The measurement around your rib cage is either the size you should wear (plus zero method) or you plus four to get your underband size (plus four method).
More about these plus methods
So for example if you were to go by the new method (plus zero) of measuring your bra size and your underband measures 30 inches then you would buy a corresponding bra that is a 30 band size. If you were being measured using the classic method (plus four) and you measured 30 inches around your underbust then you would wear a 34 underband. Now here comes the confusing part, wearing a 34 band is not your measurement using the classic method it’s just a number, (just like wearing a size 12 is just a number the number doesn’t correspond to anything). The bra will be cut to a thirty-inch rib cage. So if you have always worn a 34 back but bras now seem to big it could be that the company have changed their way of measuring.
How do you know which method to follow as a rough guide (and mean rough!), usually brands that specialise in A to D cups (so high streets included) will use the classic method and brands that specialise in cups that are DD and above will specialise in the new moths of sizing.
So cups are sized by how much they project from the chest wall. For every inch (or 2.5cm approx) you increase a cup size. So if measure 30 around the cage and 35 inches around the chest then your breasts are projecting 5 inches in comparison to your rib cage. So if you were to go with the new method of bra sizing you would start with a 30DD (I say start as all brands as you will fit differently).
So knowing this you will begin to understand that just a letter of your bra size means nothing a 30B is two cup sizes smaller than a 34B; and once you get into DD and above depending what country you live in you could be a different bra size from one country to another
For example from the UK to the US the cup size is the same for A-DD cups then after that the cups sizes alter and then roughly (and I say roughly as some brands do it differently)
A 34E UK equals a 34DDD US
A 34F UK equals a 34G US
A 34FF UK equals a 34H US and so forth.
And if you spot the cup size DD/E or DDD/F It’s an US brand slowly making the move from using DD or DDD cups and renaming them. It’s still not fully in line with the UK sizing but they will then be one cup apart so closer than now. And to complicate matters more the European brand cup sizing is different from the UK and US sizing charts - but I will do another blog to go deeper into the international sizes.
The aim of seeking out lingerie you love is getting the right size. And that means the right size for you, if you’re regular bra of 34D seems too big around the back in another brand, try a 32DD - this is called sister sizing which means that the volume of the cup is the same but the bands become tighter (or looser if you go the other way) so even though you’re wearing a 32DD bra size you are still technically wearing a 34D bra size in the cup. So to recap the same volume of breast can fit into a 28F, 30E, 32DD, 34D, 36C & 38B Which brings me back to the title of this post - YOU ARE NOT YOUR BRA SIZE.
One word on sister sizing though is that if you sister size because you can’t find your size, try not to go more than two sizes along the sister size chart as even though technically the cup is the same size little structures like elastic width or control panels, different widths of Centre fronts, get put in certain sizes, so you will begin to loose the shape that is correct for your breast size.
If all else fails and you can’t get your head around say a 32DD being the same cup size a 34D as you’ve worn a 34D all your life, but the 32DD fits way better and gives you a better shape and there is no way you’re a DD blah blah blah. A simple solution I suggest to all the women I’ve fitted you don’t want to wear a bigger bra size (even though it’s the same cup size or a particular brand you need a bigger bra size) is …
… cut the bloody size label out and go be you’re amazing self without having to worry about about how your bra fits all day.