A Bra Buying Guide: How to Buy Your First Well-Fitting Bra?

I have worked for lingerie retail for this summer and have come to a conclusion that so many women out there don’t know how to tackle buying their very first well-fitting bra. It is especially hard to buy your first bra online but for some it’s the only way. Not all towns have their on lingerie boutiques and even though some do, they don’t always carry all the sizes available. This is why I decided to put together a guide for those who are a little lost with their breast size and shape. I will refer to some of my old posts as well so do check them out through the links. Also Finnish readers listen up – my links include bra fitting tips in Finnish so please have a read if you are in a need of this info!

1. Measure yourself, correctly

Here’s a link to post I wrote a long time ago but it’s still pretty accurate info (there’s a list of other links to check out if you want to know more about bra fitting in English). Even though so many of the brick-and-mortar lingerie boutiques don’t use the tape measure, I actually prefer it when fitting yourself at home. Check out the previous link for measuring yourself, I will not repeat the procedure here. 

I think the tape measure is a great way to find your starting point size. I would start off by ordering one single bra in a couple of sizes. If the tape measure says you are a 34F I would probably go and order either a 34FF and 34E too, especially if the returns are free. This way you can determine which size is the closest and fits the best.

2. Order the same brand first, then experiment

I would say the number one mistake people make when ordering online is that they start with too many brands and too many sizes at the same time. Different brands fit differently so if your first bra was a bit of hit-and-miss, you should probably NOT exchange it to another brand and a size – you are very likely to go wrong again. 

Let’s take an example. We have woman saying her 30E old Panache bra gaps a bit and doesn’t fit right. She want to try Curvy Kate but as many of us know Curvy Kates run a bit smaller in the cups than Panache. For this reason, I advice her to stay with her 30E with Curvy Kate and order another size (32DD) as well to compare it to. In the end her breast shape and size fits Curvy Kate “Smoothie” pretty perfectly in 30DD. She needed one single exchange to determine her size in this brand since we kept it simple – just one brand, a few different sizes. 

When you have determined your size in one brand, it’s a lot easier to do it with other brands as well which leads us to number…

3. Read blogs

Blogs are an easy way to find out what sizes and brands might suit you. Find a blogger that has detailed reviews and who has about the same size boobs so you can have a hint about what might be your size when it comes to a particular bra. Also it’s important to really read those reviews and compare your own boobs with the blogger’s breasts – it sounds ridiculous but is actually quite vital. If that one blogger is full-on-bottom and you are full-on-top you might not get along with the same bra styles. 

Bra blogs are a great source of information if you just take the time to actually read them and educate yourself. Whenever you are about to buy a bra, check it out online and see if there are any reviews that might help you. Read particularly accurately the parts when the shape and size is discussed and don’t forget to check the wire width. 

4. Ask for help

Always ask for help, even though your question might sound super-silly and you feel a bit stupid about it. It’s always better to ask the professional than to go all nuts with the not-so-successful bra buying ventures. Also, remember to check your spelling and write accurately about your fit issues – we cannot know what you need if it’s not phrased correctly. 

As I reply customer emails some issues come up quite frequently. I hate it when I see someone buying the wrong bra sizes over and over again without ever emailing us about their issues that could actually be fixed pretty easily. One of the reasons we get so many faulty orders is number…

5. Learn about sister-sizing

This sounds pretty odd to some but there are actually SO MANY people who don’t get what sister sizes are for and how they work. This means a customer wants a cup size bigger of her exchange product and ends up switching 34F to 36G. Don’t get it how this can even happen? Well, let’s pretend we have a customer A. Miss A wants a band size and a cup size bigger but as she thinks the bra is labeled with EU-sizing and the cup sizes don’t increase in size with the band size, she ends up with a bra that’s whopping three sizes bigger than her initial order. Baffling? Yes, but it happens.

What miss A should have ordered is a 36F since as the band size gets bigger the cup size get bigger as well. Also ALWAYS check whether the bra you are ordering is in EU or UK sizing. The sizing is drastically different meaning you will end up with a completely wrong cup size when mixing them up (for instance, I’m 30GG UK and 65J EU). 

This is probably it for this time but I might write a follow-up if something else comes to my mind. Have a happy and warm week y’all and see you soon with a brand new review 😉 xx