Basic Requirements of Bra Fitting - Những yêu cầu cơ bản của áo ngực phù hợp

Bra or brassiere is an undergarment of women. It is one of the oldest intimate wear items for women. Bra is a form-fitting undergarment designed to support or cover the wearer's breasts. Wearing a bra involves lifting the breasts upward. The force of gravity attracts every woman’s body towards the center of the earth, thus lowering the breasts. Wearing bras can improve posture and prevent a lot of spine problems and back pain. 

There is a growing demand for well-fitting bras to enhance women’s body shapes and improve their self-confidence. However, bra fit is very challenging from both an industrial and an academic perspective. The assessment of bra fit requires a deep understanding of material stretch, three-dimensional (3D) body and breast curvature, mechanical support, and comfort pressure. It can take 10 to 20 fit sessions to get a new bra style approved. The factors affecting the quality of bra fit include body size and shape, the bra style and shape, the pattern dimension and curves, the material modulus in different directions, the manufacturing workmanship, and the pressure applied on the skin. 

Basics of Bra Fitting: 

Overall silhouette: 
A good fit bra on a live model should provide an overall bust silhouette as required for the specifically designed style and support function. Fig-1 shows some examples of the following bra silhouettes: 

• a balcony bra, which gives uplift and fullness
• a plunge bra, which creates deep cleavage
• a deep-V bra, which has a very low center front for more exposure
• a minimizer bra, which compresses the breasts and minimizes breast projection
• a triangular bra, which provides aesthetic “young” appeal more than fit and support
• a Doreen bra, which encases the entirety of both breasts into rigid boundaries

Fig-1: Different types of bust silhouette

Different bra types have different effects on the final bust silhouette. For instance, a sleep bra is supposed to retain the natural breast shape, but a push-up bra must create deeper cleavage. Achieving both breast shaping and comfort tends to be contradictory. It is challenging to balance the requirements of bra aesthetics and function. 

Bra components: 
Like an elastic sculpture, a perfect fit bra demands the appropriate elastic integration of all the components, including bra cups, gore (bridge), cradle, wing (band), shoulder straps, and closure (hooks and eyes), as shown in Fig-2. 

Fig-2: Different components of bra

Surface appearance: 
A smooth surface appearance is the basic requirement of a well-fitting bra. Any gap, wrinkle, or digging-in can be readily detected by a professional fitting technologist because such a rough surface appearance obviously influences the aesthetics of a bra. It is important to check the bra’s appearance on a table, by hand, on both a mannequin and on a live model. Undesired stroke lines (creases or wrinkles) may be caused by poor workmanship, wrong alignment of the grainline within the fabric, or a mismatch of material elasticity. Even if the bra looks good on a table, it may exhibit a problem when being worn by a mannequin or a live model. In the process of altering a pattern after fitting on a live model, all of these are important points for consideration. 

Comfort: 
Comfort is a fundamentally important attribute of a well-fitting bra. Unlike a mannequin, a live model can sense pressure, itchiness, roughness, and sharp points. She can identify the problem points and provide valuable comments. However, not all her comments may be acceptable. Different people have different sensations of comfort. Some comments are too subjective. The fitting technologist needs to observe and determine which comments are valid and relevant, for example, by pulling the underband to check the fit under different methods of stretch, and by measuring the bra on the model’s body. Comfort is affected by many factors, including the material used (surface roughness, stiffness, softness, and recovery); the bra style (coverage provided by the bra, use of straps and seams); bra pattern; the bra’s intended end use; the body figure; and the expectation of target users. 

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