Lingerie sizing when there is no fitting room

The first thing to understand about ordering lingerie is that the label is not speaking bra language. A piece marked Medium is sized the way a dress is sized, from a chart of body measurements, and the cup and band that a bra fitting would give you do not appear anywhere in it.

That is good news for some garments and bad news for two of them, and knowing which is which is most of the job.

Three measurements, taken once

Take them over bare skin or over a thin bra, standing, breathing out normally rather than holding it in.

1. Bust. Around the fullest part, tape level all the way round and not pulled tight. This is the measurement that decides most tops.
2. Underbust. Directly under the bust, snug. It is the one people skip and the one that decides whether a bustier fastens at all.
3. Hips. Around the widest part, usually seven to nine inches below the waist. This decides bottoms and one-pieces.

What this range actually carries

A chart is a promise. This is a count, taken from what is in stock as this page was built.

Two things are visible there that no product page shows. Departments do not carry the same run: the small structured departments stop well short of the ends, while the loose ones go furthest in both directions. And the price floor moves with the department rather than with the size.

The two garments that forgive nothing

Bustiers and corsets

Structure is the whole point of them and structure is what removes the give. A bustier is held by its band and its boning, and a band that is one size out does not fasten. This is the department where the underbust measurement earns its place.

The other half of the problem is the cup. Underwire holds a shape whether or not it is your shape, and a wireless bustier follows the body. The card for every piece here says which, and it is the difference between a garment for an evening and one for an hour.

Bodysuits and teddies

A one-piece has to fit two places at once with one number. There is no adjustment between the bust and the hip, and the torso length nobody measures is doing quiet work in the middle.

If your bust and hip fall in different sizes, a one-piece is the hard purchase and a two-piece set is the forgiving one. That is not a compromise, it is the reason separates exist.

The garments that forgive almost anything

Babydolls and chemises hang from the bust and skim everything below it. A babydoll one size out reads as a babydoll. That is why it is the safest thing in this range to buy for somebody else, and why it is the first department in the range.

Nightgowns and slip dresses are nearly as forgiving, with one caveat: a slip cut on the bias clings where a babydoll floats, so it shows a size error that a babydoll hides.

Why the run here goes further than most

This range runs from 3X-Small to 7X-Large, which is wider than most lingerie ranges attempt, and the width is not evenly useful.

At the small end the sizes exist because the garments are cut on a stretch base and shrinking a pattern is cheap. At the large end they exist because somebody drafted them, which is expensive, and that is why the ladder above thins out towards the top rather than stopping cleanly.

The honest reading of a long size run is therefore not that everything comes in every size. It is that the extremes are real but sparse, and the ladder is the place to check before ordering rather than after.

Where the size sits on the garment

Two pieces marked the same size can fit differently because the size is being carried by a different part of the garment.

Held at the band

Bustiers, corsets, bras. The band under the bust does the work, the rest follows. Get the underbust right and the garment is close to right.

Held at the bust

Babydolls, chemises, most nightgowns. They hang from a point and float below it, so the bust measurement is the only one that decides anything.

Held at two points

Bodysuits, teddies, bodycon slips. Bust and hip both matter and the torso between them matters quietly, so this is the hardest group to buy blind.

Reading which of the three a garment is takes about two seconds from the department name, and it tells you which of your three measurements to trust for it.

Between two sizes

The rule that holds across this range is to size up, and the reason is specific rather than general.

Lingerie is made from stretch fabrics with almost no seam allowance. There is nothing to let out, and a garment that is tight in mesh does not stretch to fit, it distorts the pattern and pulls the lace open at the seam. A garment that is slightly loose still looks like the photograph.

The exception is anything described as bodycon or ruched. Those are cut to be tight, and a size up on them reads as a size wrong.

What the label is required to say, and what it is not

Lingerie is clothing in the legal sense, which brings it inside the fibre labelling rule.

So the label must carry a fibre list. What no rule requires anywhere is a size chart, a body measurement or a fit note. Sizing is entirely voluntary information. That is what makes it vary so much between makers, and what makes a chart from one brand worthless against another.

The practical consequence is that your own three measurements are the only stable thing in the process. Everything else is a maker's opinion about them.

Fabric decides how much a size error shows

The same size error is invisible in one fabric and obvious in another, and this is the part almost no sizing guide mentions.

Mesh has the most give and the least recovery: it forgives a tight fit once and remembers it afterwards. Floral lace has structure in the pattern, so it holds its shape and shows a wrong size more honestly. Satin has almost no stretch at all, so a satin slip is the piece in this range most worth measuring for.

Buying for somebody else

The hardest version of this problem, because you cannot ask the question directly without giving away either the present or your ignorance.

• Look at a dress rather than at a bra. This range is sized like clothing, so the size on the label of a dress she already wears is closer than any bra size she might mention.
• Choose a department that forgives. A babydoll or a chemise absorbs a size error. A bustier and a bodysuit do not.
• Go up if you are between two. A piece slightly loose gets worn. A piece slightly tight goes in a drawer and is never mentioned again.
• Avoid bodycon and ruched for a guess. They are cut to be tight on purpose, and the margin for error is nothing.

The pattern behind all four is the same: pick the garment that has the fewest ways to be wrong, not the one that photographs best.

When the size is right and the fit still is not

The band rides up

Almost always a band one size too large rather than a cup problem. A band that is doing no work travels upwards through the evening.

The straps dig

The opposite fault: the straps are carrying weight the band should carry. On an adjustable piece this is fixable, and on a fixed-strap babydoll it means the size is wrong.

It gapes at the bust

The bust measurement is smaller than the garment expects for that size. On a wireless piece it is cosmetic. On an underwire one it means the wire is sitting on tissue rather than round it, and that is the fault worth returning for.

The hem sits wrong on a one-piece

Torso length, the measurement nobody takes. Nothing on the label addresses it, and it is the reason a bodysuit can be right in both the bust and the hip and still be wrong.

A short checklist

• Measure underbust, bust and hips once a season. Write them down. They are the only numbers in this process that belong to you rather than to a maker.
• Read the department before the size. A babydoll forgives an inch and a bustier does not.
• Between two sizes, go up unless the piece says bodycon or ruched.
• Check the size exists at all. The ladder above counts what is actually in stock, which is a different question from what the chart offers.

If what arrives in the parcel rather than what fits is your question, the piece on what actually comes in a lingerie set covers the piece count.