page_title: Bra size
section_title: Cup design origins
hierarchical_section_title: Bra size / Measurement method origins / Cup design origins
caption_attribution_description: English: 1944 advertisement for Warner's Alphabet Bra
context_page_description: Bra size indicates the size characteristics of a bra. While there are a number of bra sizing systems in use around the world, the bra sizes usually consist of a number, indicating the size of the band around the woman's torso, and one or more letters that indicate the breast cup size. Bra cup sizes were first invented in 1932 while band sizes became popular in the 1940s. For convenience, because of the impracticality of determining the size dimensions of each breast, the volume of the bra cup, or cup size, is based on the difference between band length and over-the-bust measurement.
  Manufacturers try to design and manufacture bras that correctly fit the majority of women, while individual women try to identify correctly fitting bras among different styles and sizing systems.
  The shape, size, position, symmetry, spacing, firmness, and sag of individual women's breasts vary considerably. Manufacturers' bra size labelling systems vary from country to country because no international standards exist. Even within a country, one study found that the bra size label was consistently different from the measured size.
context_section_description: The term "cup" was not used to describe bras until 1916 when two patents were filed.
  In October 1932, S.H. Camp and Company were the first to measure cup size by the letters of the alphabet, A, B, C, and D, although the letters represented how pendulous the breasts were and not their volume. Camp's advertising in the February 1933 issue of Corset and Underwear Review featured letter-labeled profiles of breasts. Cup sizes A through D were not intended to be used for larger-breasted women.
  In 1937, Warner's introduced its Alphabet Bra with four cup sizes (A, B, C, and D) to its product descriptions. Before long, these cup sizes got nicknames: egg cup, tea cup, coffee cup, and challenge cup, respectively. Two other companies, Model and Fay-Miss (renamed in 1935 as the Bali Brassiere Company), followed, offering A, B, C, and D cup sizes in the late 1930s. Catalog companies continued to use the designations Small, Medium, and Large through the 1940s. Britain did not adopt the American cups in 1933, and resisted using cup sizes for its products until 1948. The Sears Company finally applied cup sizes to bras in its catalog in the 1950s.
caption: Warner's 1944 advertisement for its Alphabet Bras in cup sizes A thru D
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