1
Jun 06, 2014
Bra makers seem to have customers relying on a store's bra fitters to be able to figure out what an individual needs for a bra to fit; they never supply the numerical data, leave both fitter and customer to make up their own methods on how to come up with size/fit, and many stores stick to their main purpose - making money - so it's not that surprising that we're left with the mystery that is fit and how it's determined.
Given how many people arrive just here alone who are willing to do the work involved in measuring themselves and the bras they are in possession of, wouldn't it be possible to actually increase sales if the companies who make bras were to provide the number data for each style? I know that a lot of the time it's about making sales to customers who want the process to be simple, easy, and most of the work already done for them by someone else. But really...wire width and cup dimensions don't seem like they're revealing patented/design trade secrets that companies want protected to ensure their profits aren't affected, so why aren't these things given rather than make us have to figure it out ourselves? So what if there's a margin of inconsistency possible in mass produced garments of the same size - they're cut using the same measurements and those measurements should be able to be calculated into what the finished item in a given size will generally measure as.
Filed under Bra sizing and fit
4 comments
I hate to be a wet blanket, but it seems like only the bra fitting community is concerned with these numbers, and we are not a large community, especially when considering the size of the bra wearing community. Additionally, there are manufacturing flukes, and additionally, many of us buy from small companies because they will make "unusual" sizes and there tends to be more variation in smaller operations (as they are often handmade). I think it's best if the data is self reported because we don't have any corporate interests (that we'd be that concerned about) and additionally, the numbers a company decides to provide may not be enough or the data points we want. It would be tremendously difficult to do that in a way where the majority of the bra fitting community is okay with, and then on top of it, there will be women who do not know who find these numbers confusing. It could be good because it might pique their interest enough to try to get a correct fit, but as it is, women are confused about sizing.
There are many parts of this, but on one side I don't think we can expect other companies to use cup width, wire length, and other measurements that we use here. These dimensions are made up and used on Bratabase only, now other places are also making use of them which is great but those numbers mean nothing to manufacturers since they are not the parameters they use to make their bras. And each brand may use different dimensions/parameters to do their sizing. That is their secret sauce.
Also, it is not on their best interest to make these numbers public since it would tie them to a promise and right now manufacturers enjoy the liberty of not being strongly tied to exact dimensions which allows them to keep changing it per bra and per season at the expense of confused users. Women won't stop buying bras and right now if something is off most of them think it is their fault and very rarely there is evidence to go back and blame manufacturers for secretly and unilaterally changing their parameters. Curvy Kate is known to do this, and I know that in the resent years another brand changed their sizing but they got caught and asked by the crowds to go back so there is one season where they could not get away with that. The name of the brand slipped my mind right now.
I do wish that stores were sharing this information in a more standard way, and there isn't one. Herroom has been doing an effort for quite some time already showing pictures with markers on top to give an idea of a bra's dimensions, but they do it for one size only per model and the numbers are not properly structured or standardized to be carried and compared with others.
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