You may have seen this viral tweet before. It was retweeted over one hundred thousand times, and racked up nearly three times that number of likes.

To paraphrase, it goes like this: "In case you've ever wondered why women get so frustrated with our clothing sizes––every pair of jeans pictured is a size 12."

The tweet in question references women’s clothing specifically, but it’s true for men’s clothing too. In fact, since manufacturers abandoned US standard clothing sizes as a universal guideline in 1983, there has been no official sizing standard for pants or shirts­. For the most part, each clothing manufacturer designs their clothes to fit certain body types. It makes sense from a business perspective–if you know that Brand A jeans fit you better than Brand B jeans, for example, you are more likely to purchase jeans from Brand A in the future–but it can be incredibly frustrating for the consumer.

For better or worse, the same holds true for bra brands. There is no universal sizing system, and that’s why a 32G Panache bra will almost certainly fit you differently than a 32G Elomi bra. Although they may be the same size on paper, they are designed for different body and breast shapes, so they won’t fit exactly the same. 

These discrepancies can really suck when you’re still trying to find the styles that work best for you, but as the saying goes, variety is the spice of life. When it comes to your bra, the secret is to start with style instead of size. Some styles work better for heavy breasts, some for full breasts, some for shallow ones, and so on. Some underwires are firmer than others because some women need or prefer that extra structure. Some styles have more side coverage because some women need or prefer the extra containment. Once you figure out your size in a style that works, you can expand your horizons into different styles as necessary.

That’s where bra fitters come in. Although we can’t control how our various vendor brands size their products, we can take the work out of it for our customers. Our fitters are trained on the fit of our many different bras, from the general brand fit to the more specific features of each style. We know which styles run true to size and which ones might need some adjustment, which cups are deep and which are shallow, which bands are firm and which are stretchy. We also know which styles are based on other styles–like Keira and Kayla from Goddess, or Elomi’s Caitlyn and Cate. Just tell us what you’re looking for in a fit, and odds are, we will be able to help you find it.

Our whole purpose is to help women navigate through the often overcomplicated world of lingerie. We work hard to provide constructive criticism to our manufacturers so they can improve the way their products fit on different bodies. We wear test the products ourselves, and we use our customers’ feedback–both positive and negative–to make suggestions on how to tweak current styles and make future ones even better. We do all this for one reason: to earn the trust of our customers. Whether you’re a 34J or a 48FF, you can count on us to help you find your fit.