Trying to understand bra sizes can be very confusing to many women. It is important that you have bra sizes explained to you as a woman, a correct bra sizes is vital for confidence and physical health.
It is understandable if you’re lost; the numbers and letters don’t seem to mean an awful lot and even women who have been purchasing bras for years and years can have very little understanding of the system outside of their own size.
What is perhaps even more daunting is if you’re are reading this as a man! Don’t worry though understanding bra measurements is much simpler than understanding bra clasps! You might even surprise your significant other with your newly imparted knowledge.
Bra Sizes Explained
First, it is important to understand that a bra size is broken down into two parts; the band size and the cup size.
The band size is the length of the straps that go around your back, typically denoted in inches. For instance a 32B bra has a band that is 32 inches around. In some European countries this can be given in centimetres. Bras would be 80B or 85D for example.
Next comes the cup size. The cup size of a bra is denoted by a series of letters. Cup size is determined by the difference in the diameter below the breasts and the distance around the breasts. This can be a little difficult to understand so we’ve got a diagram of this below:
The smallest cup size in the US is AA, whilst the smallest cup size in other parts of the world is an A. In order to tell what the smallest bra size in your country use the navigation bar above.
These cup sizes advanced through the alphabet as the breasts become bigger and bigger. A B-cup is larger than an A-cup for instance.
To further complicate this some countries use systems which feature “DD” (and even DDD in the case of the US). DD breasts are larger than D’s whilst DDD are bigger again. Sometimes DDD-cup is referred to as an E-cup.
In essence, if a bra size has double letters it means it is somewhere in between the “whole” letters. For example a DD is half way in-between a D and an E. An FF meanwhile would be in between a F and a G.
This is perhaps the part that most people confused by; some even think that since a DD is twice the size of D since there are double letters!
Now that you’ve had bra sizes explained you’re well on the way to understanding the order of bra sizes and becoming a brassiere pro!
For a wealth of information on this topic also consider visiting the Wikipedia page on Bra Measurement.