Every day thousands of similar questions reach search engines all over the world. In one of Stanikomania's notes this issue was explained by Kasica, however the note may have been covered by heaps of new ones and it may be difficult to find for anyone barely acquainted with well fitted bras.

The world market has several size systems – AU: Australian, EU: European (the name is used even though the system does not operate in France, Belgium, Portugal, Spain, or Italy), FR: French, IT: Italian, UK: British and US: American.

Australian symbols are also used in New Zealand, French symbols in Belgium, Spain, and Portugal, and European symbols – in Japan.

Size system – naturally – comprises of different cups and different bands.

Some size systems have certain “parts” in common. For example, bra cup sizing is the same in FR, IT, and EU size systems. UK has the same cup size system as AU, and UK has the same band symbols as US.

I have already described how to take your measurements to fit your bra in my notes “How to choose your band size?” and “Let's take another strange measurement.”.

I wrote there that in order to find your size you need to find out the band of your bra (on the basis of your under bust measurement) and your cup size (calculated as the difference between your fullest bust measurement and your bra band).

Now let us think what to do next.

According to European standards ISO, D cup should correspond to 18-19 cm difference in measurements. What is more, this is the only bra cup that is same for all size systems in the world. All the size systems I have mentioned have D cups for 18-19 cm (7-7.5 inch) measurements difference.

One inch converts to approximately 2.54 cm, however for this article I will round it to 2.5 cm. This way we all can calculate much more easily.

In Anglo-Saxon countries, bra size calculates as follows: you need to take your under bust measurement in inches and round it down to the nearest full inch.

Let us say that a person measures 30 inches (approx. 75 cm) under bust. Since she measures an even number of inches – we add four – we arrive at band 34, which is European 75.

If the person measures an odd number of inches under bust – we add five and thus find the bra band she should look for.

First, the bands.

As we can see, at least the bands should give us no problems.

In theory, knowing your size within only one system is enough and in the table above you should quickly and easily find your size in another manufacturer’s system.

Bra cups present more problems.

As we can see in the table in the frame on the right, even in theory bra cup sizes differ considerably, depending on the size system of bras we try on. The further from relatively alike cups D or E (British DD), the more differences there are, even those coming from the differences between metric and imperial measurement systems – you can see this from the colours. There are differences even in the smallest cups!

Let me return here to the question above, is 32DDD same as 32F?

Is there a simple answer to this question? I am afraid not.

If 32F bra is made according to US system, then indeed, 32DDD is same as 32F. However, if 32F bra is made according to UK standards, 32F is larger by one cup size than 32DDD bra, which in fact is the counterpart of 32E bra in British size system.

In Poland (also in Germany, Switzerland, Austria, Sweden, etc.), they sometimes partly “translate” British and American bands and there are hybrids; e.g. size 32FF is described as “British 70FF”, size 34E as “British 75E”, and so on.

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