Of Bras and Measurement Theory
Jun. 28th, 2009 01:12 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
daidoji_giseiYesterday my big adventure was going to the mall so I could shop for bras. I admit that this isn't all that adventurous, but the work side of my life has been generating all kinds of excitement lately so I am fine with the idea of a non-adventurous adventure. And I really did need bras; the ones I had were all purchased at the same time and so they had all begun to wear out at the same time. I should really go out and buy a few bras six months from now, so as to prevent this from happening again, but six month from now I'll be in the midst of the holidays and am I going to think of bras then? Not bloody likely.
Shopping for bras freaks a lot of women out, but for me it's simply a matter of tedium. The primary reason for this is in my younger days I worked in the lingerie department of a local department store and was trained as a Certified Lingerie Fitter. No, really--we had a folder full of materials to study and an exam we had to pass before becoming Certified. Thus, I am well-versed on the characteristics of a properly fit bra and how to find a bra that displays those characteristics so my only bra-shopping-drama comes from cursing manufacturers who don't make bras in my size range. I do a lot of that.
At the moment I'm a slave to Lane Bryant for bras, because while my favorite manufacturers (Vanity Fair and Bali) in theory make bras in my size I cannot count on the department stores to have them there waiting for me. To be fair, LB makes pretty decent bras so I'm not complaining that much. And they were running a sale, so that's even better.
When I was in training to be a lingerie fitter I was also taking a math course that included a unit on measurement theory, and as a result I had an astounding revelation: The system used to specify the size of bras is fundamentally flawed. A breast is a three-dimensional object, and yet cup size is solely determined by one number--the 'height' of the breast above the chest wall. It makes no allowance for shape of breast as it flows up to that point. In addition, it ignores the fact that there are two breasts, and that the spacing between them is not uniform. That is, the nipple-to-nipple distance is not a constant over all women, or even over the set of women of a particular size. (A tertiary concern is that the two breasts are of different heights on the chest, but I don't think I ever had a customer who was offset enough to provide a fitting problem. If I had, I would have gone to one of Vanity Fair's love-knot styles.)
In actual practice this turns out to be a manageable problem, because different manufacturers design for different body-types, and even within one manufacturer's styles some bras will fit women of one shape better than another. One just needs the patience to try on bras until the correct size and style are found. (This is where the tedium comes in.) Nevertheless, it offends my physicist nature to have such a blatantly illogical system in use.
I was able to find a good bra relatively quickly, which made me happy. It even had lace, which is always a plus for me. Choosing colors took a while; the sale was buy 2-get 2 free and so I needed four bras. I spent a long time gazing longingly at the 'smoke gray with coral red embroidery' number before surrendering to the practicality of a second ivory bra.
I'm never going to like that sizing system, though.
Shopping for bras freaks a lot of women out, but for me it's simply a matter of tedium. The primary reason for this is in my younger days I worked in the lingerie department of a local department store and was trained as a Certified Lingerie Fitter. No, really--we had a folder full of materials to study and an exam we had to pass before becoming Certified. Thus, I am well-versed on the characteristics of a properly fit bra and how to find a bra that displays those characteristics so my only bra-shopping-drama comes from cursing manufacturers who don't make bras in my size range. I do a lot of that.
At the moment I'm a slave to Lane Bryant for bras, because while my favorite manufacturers (Vanity Fair and Bali) in theory make bras in my size I cannot count on the department stores to have them there waiting for me. To be fair, LB makes pretty decent bras so I'm not complaining that much. And they were running a sale, so that's even better.
When I was in training to be a lingerie fitter I was also taking a math course that included a unit on measurement theory, and as a result I had an astounding revelation: The system used to specify the size of bras is fundamentally flawed. A breast is a three-dimensional object, and yet cup size is solely determined by one number--the 'height' of the breast above the chest wall. It makes no allowance for shape of breast as it flows up to that point. In addition, it ignores the fact that there are two breasts, and that the spacing between them is not uniform. That is, the nipple-to-nipple distance is not a constant over all women, or even over the set of women of a particular size. (A tertiary concern is that the two breasts are of different heights on the chest, but I don't think I ever had a customer who was offset enough to provide a fitting problem. If I had, I would have gone to one of Vanity Fair's love-knot styles.)
In actual practice this turns out to be a manageable problem, because different manufacturers design for different body-types, and even within one manufacturer's styles some bras will fit women of one shape better than another. One just needs the patience to try on bras until the correct size and style are found. (This is where the tedium comes in.) Nevertheless, it offends my physicist nature to have such a blatantly illogical system in use.
I was able to find a good bra relatively quickly, which made me happy. It even had lace, which is always a plus for me. Choosing colors took a while; the sale was buy 2-get 2 free and so I needed four bras. I spent a long time gazing longingly at the 'smoke gray with coral red embroidery' number before surrendering to the practicality of a second ivory bra.
I'm never going to like that sizing system, though.
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no subject
Date: 2009-06-30 04:36 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2009-06-30 05:15 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2009-07-02 06:53 am (UTC)Apply usual grain of salt to my musings.