(I said I was going to write about this last Friday or Saturday. What I should have said is that I would discover my H cup fit model on Friday, spend the weekend gathering tax documents, spend this morning with our accountant and spend this afternoon with my new fit model and pattern maker. Exciting things are underway, readers!)

Now back to what I promised last Friday . . . .


To find the perfect makeup, I’ll spend hours reading reviews on MakeupAlley, and to find the perfect hotel, I’ll do the same on TripAdvisor. Now there’s a similar resource for women searching for the perfect bra: Bratabase.com–except you can’t spend hours reading reviews on it yet because there’s not enough data. It’s up to us to add it.

Adding the data is pretty laborious, but I set out to compare my Panache F cup bra (that doesn’t fit) against my Panache FF cup bra (that fits perfectly). I was curious after Lisa Cole explained that Panache created FF to accommodate F cup breasts that are just a little fuller, but not full enough for a G cup. After entering the measurements for both bras, I discovered that the main difference is in the cup depth and wire length. Now I understand why the Panache in F gives me muffin boobs.

Admittedly, this is a pretty intellectual exercise. That’s why I titled this post “for the bra fit enthusiast”. Bratabase has a lot of potential for building understanding about bra sizing. Just measuring my two Panache bras gave me a renewed respect for the engineers who design bras.

The site is a pretty enormous undertaking by its developer, JJ, who I’ve met recently via email. What if women measure incorrectly* or think something fits when it really doesn’t, or vice versa? That’s why the more data that’s entered, the better the chance for accuracy. So go find your tape measure and a couple of bras and add to our collective knowledge about fit. And give JJ some feedback on the experience.

*For instance, in the picture above, should the tape measure run in a straight line from hook to eye, or should it be placed against each curve in the fabric and cups? I think a video demonstration would be helpful for this step.