Development of a new chinese bra sizing system based on breast anthropometric measurements

Abstract Since 1935, the bra sizing system has been based on bust girth and underbust girth. Woman's breast is however a very complex 3D geometry, the existing sizing system based on just two girth measurements may be inappropriate in the categorization of breast sizes for bras. Through analyzing the nude breast measurements from 456 subjects aged between 20 and 39, we hereby propose a new bra sizing system for Chinese women. The new sizing system uses underbust girth and the breast depth width ratio as the classifying parameters. They were identified through principal component factor analysis and K-means cluster analysis as the two most critical parameters out of 98 measurements obtained from 3D body scanning and 5 supplementary manual measurements as well as other relevant breast parameters including breast angles, distance, width, thickness, volume and curvature. Relevance to industry The existing bra sizing system is inadequate in classifying breast sizes for bras. This paper presents a method for classifying nude breast shape for establishing a new bra sizing system. The application of the new sizing system will be important to improve fitting comfort in intimate apparel.