Bra scientists find formula for that perfect fit

Bra scientists find formula for that perfect fit
By Caroline Davies
23/07/2007
Telegraph UK

Curvy women could soon find a bra revolution making life slightly more comfortable. Until now, bra sizes have followed a formula devised in America in 1935.

For 70 years bra designers have stuck to a formula which decides sizes through measuring under and across the bust. But now researchers in Hong Kong have come up with a different mathematical equation which they say will produce shapelier outlines and greater comfort for Chinese women. If successful, their bra-sizing system could be adopted across the globe.

They say there are more than 100 key measurements necessary to produce the perfect fit, and bra sizes should be based on a new depth/width ratio - or DWR.

Writing in the International Journal of Industrial Ergonomics, the Hong Kong Polytechnic University team says that a "woman's breast is a very complex 3D geometry" and the existing sizing system may be "inappropriate in the categorisation of breast sizes for bras".

As a result, the report points out, as many as 70 per cent of women in Britain are wearing the wrong-sized bra.

Until now, bra sizes have followed a formula devised in America in 1935. "Alphabet" bras were born - advertised then as A cup (youthful); B cup (average); C cup (large); and D cup (heavy).

The Hong Kong team's system follows 3D scanning of 456 Chinese women.

The researchers' 100 measurements have been honed down to just eight factors to describe the breast shape - overall build, breast volume, inner, outer and lower breast shape, height, and gradient and orientation.

Currently, they say, the size and volume of a B cup on a small ribcage, for example, is different from that on a large chest. It could correspond not only to a 34B, but sometimes to a 32C or a 36A.

By using the DWR method, they aim to increase the number of existing bra sizes by between eight and 16 size combinations - offering more choice to women.

"This is the first time that a bra-sizing system protocol has been proposed based on 3D nude breast characteristics," they say. "Besides the intimate apparel industry, the new breast sizing system may be applied in the medical field to identify the breast size for plastic surgery or other apparel product development."