Old time listeners of Loveline might remember this being a talking point.
American bra sizes offer a very strange range of measurements – AA goes to A, then normal alphabet progression B, C, D.
But then again to DD, DDD. Then back to E, F, etc.
I understand European sizing is more straight forward A->F+ without the double letter stuff.
What is the reason or origin behind the idea of “double D”, “triple D” etc. vs. just going to the logical next letter of the alphabet? Was it a marketing ploy?
In: Other
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It all started wit A, B, C, D, E and so on. One letter further in the alphabet represented a 1 ” increase in the difference between underbust and on bust measurement.
Then they wanted to sell bras to those that dont really need them and introduced AA and AAA (and padded them like winter coats to make something appear to be there that isnt). There you have marketing point 1.
And now to marketing point 2: There is a lot of vanity in clothing and the often “I can’t be that big” dilemma.
That lead to marketing selling what in other countries is properly labeled as E and F cups to be labeled as DD (E-Cup) and DDD(F-Cup) because they sound smaller than they really are. Its easier to sell a DD or a DDD to a woman than to tell her she needs and E, F or G cup. Also it is possible to sell too small cups because the difference in size between a D and a DD or DDD doesnt sound as big as an increase in volume stating you need an E or F cup (victorias secret is famous for that ploy).
If you want to learn more about bras and proper bra fitting look here: [https://www.reddit.com/r/ABraThatFits/](https://www.reddit.com/r/ABraThatFits/)
Bra sizes are based on the difference between 2 measurements of a woman’s chest. The first is done above the breasts, to get the size of the woman’s chest, just like a men’s suit jacket, and the other is across the widest part of the chest including the breasts. The difference in those measurements are the bra size.
In the specific case of D and DD (DDD doesn’t really exist) a D cup bra will have a difference of 5” and a DD will have a difference of 6”.
With a bra that is 34D it means the woman’s chest is 34 inches(the above the breast measurement) and the D would be a measurement of 39”. A 34DD would have measurements of 34” and 40”.
You can have a 30D and a 30DD just like a 50D and a 50DD. These women will be very different in size but the differences between the measurements would be 5 or 6 inches.
Now why do they have a D and a DD? Just because that’s how they have always done it. Womens bra sizes go from AAA, which would be a difference of less than an inch and a L which is a difference of 12 inches. So you could have a 34L and a 50AAA. Again the difference in overall size of the women would be very obvious but the difference in the measurements would be fixed.
DD is the same thing as E and DDD is the same thing as F.
Also, fun fact, band and cup size are a bit of a sliding scale. A 32E is the same thing (mathmatically) as a 30F. Obviously at some point it gets silly but purely theoretically every human has both an A and a G cup that fit them.
Edit: I did not expect this to spark so much heat. To clarify, the sliding scale part really only works, as far as I’ve been told, going up or down one or maybe two letters. The bit about A and also G was a joke people. It was a hypothetical, notice the word “technically”. Please stop getting so up in arms about it.
I’m not saying that people with a 34E should start shopping for 42As or 30Gs.
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When they first introduced cup sizes for bras, A, B, C, and D cups, they rapidly acquired the nicknames; [egg cup, tea cup, coffee cup and challenge cup](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bra_size#Cup_design_origins)
In the UK it goes (AAA- very hard to find) AA, A, B, C, D, DD, E, (no EE) F, FF, G, GG, H, HH, J (no I), JJ, K, KK, L, LL, M (biggest I’ve actually found in a shop).
So far as I can make out the sizes were A-D, then AA and DD were added as a sort of ‘extra’ small/large. This covers the most common sizes, and until recently, they were the only ones available outside of specialist shops.
But as fitting started getting better and demand grew for bras that actually fitted rather than ones that could just about hold things in, they added extra sizes- E and F. Since then new sizes have just kept getting added on. I assume the lack of I is because it looks too much like a 1?
Because people care too much about the number/letter size they are.
I’m a 000 in jeans. Why? Because if I was a 0, that means everyone else has to move up 2 numbers. If I was a 2 everyone would have to move 3 numbers. And that’s too scary for people.
So then the grumpy large people get mad that there’s 000 and how can you expect anyone to be a number that’s less than a number, so often, my size just gets chopped.
And kids jeans don’t fit because they don’t have women proportions.
Being a shunked adult is the most frustrating thing when they to buy clothes.
You know about the cup sizes and all? They have different cups.You got the A, the B, the C,…….the D. That’s the biggest. Ok, what else. You got the cups in the front, two loops in the back. I guess that’s about it.
There is absolutely E, F, and G sized bras. And As, Bs, and Cs, also come in double and triple sizes.
It just allows for more incrementation in the sizes.
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