How to Measure Your Bra Size, Plus a Nautical chart & Calculator

If you're reading this, y'all probably know also every bit whatever other woman that finding your bra size isn't as clear-cutting as yous in one case thought. Your bra size has likely changed throughout your life, which can happen for a number of reasons including fluctuating weight and having children.

Helping other women learn how to measure bra size is role of what got us here. By learning the different shapes, sizes, and measurements of millions of women, we created bras with unmatched condolement and support.

In this article, we're going to break downward how to measure your bra size in three easy steps so that the next time you lot go bra shopping, you'll have a better idea of what to await for when trying to find your best-plumbing fixtures bra.

How to Measure Bra Size in 3 Steps

There's much more than to measuring your bra size than just grabbing a measuring tape and marking down a band size (if only it were that simple!). In the next three steps, we'll go into measuring your band size, then your bust size, and lastly, your loving cup size.

Determining the correct – and about current – measurements for your ring, bust, and cup will make it Then much easier for yous to find bras that fit right, and fit yous, no matter where you get your bras. Plus, with those measurements, you lot'll finally get confirmation to toss out or donate those bras in your drawer that yous've been keeping just to go on.

Step 1: Find Your Band Size

Make sure to wear a lightly-lined or unpadded bra earlier measuring your band size. Take out a measuring tape and wrap it snugly across your back, keeping it parallel to the ground, and mensurate directly under your bosom. Round down to the nearest even number and note your band size.

Step two: Measure Your Bust Size

Go along the measuring tape around your dorsum at ring level and measure out beyond the fullest part of your chest, making certain to hold the measuring tape snugly against you lot and parallel to the basis. Take a few deep breaths to let the tape residue on its most comfortable position (merely non likewise loose!). If information technology falls on the half-inch, but round up. That's your bust size!

Step three: Determine Your Cup Size

Determining cup size is where things tin go tricky because loving cup sizes tin vary depending on the maker. The most common way to calculate your loving cup size is by subtracting your band size from your bosom size and using the deviation to notice your cup size according to a bra size chart.

Bra Size Nautical chart

It's not uncommon to have different sized bras from i brand to another. That discrepancy happens because dissimilar bra sizes oft have like measurements with slight variations in loving cup and band sizes.

So, let's become down to the nitty-gritty of your bra size. Start with your current bra size and use the nautical chart below to help refine your bra size estimation and fit.

Exercise You Have the Right Bra Size?

The only way to tell whether the bra size given to you past a bra size calculator and nautical chart is right is to put it to the test. Try on bras in your size from different brands and see whether yous get the same comfort and back up from each i.

What the correct fit feels like:

  • The straps stay put on your shoulders and don't dig in.
  • The ring sits snugly against your back on any hook, ideally the loosest one. There should only be enough room to slide one finger underneath the band.
  • The cups properly comprehend your breasts with no overflow or gaps.
  • The underwire sits comfortably under your breasts.

You lot can also look at it the other way and determine whether you take the wrong bra size based on the tell-tale signs of a bad bra fit: cup gaps, straps and bands that are either also loose or tight, band riding up, etc.

What the wrong fit feels like:

  • The straps dig into your shoulders leaving painful marks, or slide off, especially if they're adapted to the tightest fit.
  • The band feels too tight or loose, peculiarly if information technology squeezes or rides upward on the loosest hook or slides around on the tightest claw.
  • Your breasts overflow out of the cups or the cups have gaps.
  • The underwire sits on top of your breasts (not only uncomfortable, but defeats the whole purpose of an underwire!).

Either style, it won't take you long to know whether you lot've got the right or wrong bra size. Good bras are comfortable and supportive. Certain, in that location are plenty of practiced bras out there, but on superlative of comfort and support, the best bras are likewise available in a wide range of sizes, styles, and designed for versatility – which can be hard to come by if y'all don't know where to expect.