Lately, I’ve been reading a lot of comments in online communities where someone has bought a new bra after following a modern measuring guide, and they believe it doesn’t fit. Usually, there are complaints that the bra is too big in the cups and too small in the band. Quite a lot of the time, one of the main issues in seeing whether a bra fits is that it hasn’t been put on and adjusted properly. For this reason, I thought it would be useful to show how much of a difference you can get in how a bra fits using the scoop and swoop method (shown here). Scooping and swooping de-squishes your breast tissue so that it isn’t being smushed into your armpits or compressed in the cup. It also makes your boobs sit properly in the cups, so that they are being lifted rather than just covered.
This bra is a Charnos 34F. The wires seem to be encapsulating my breasts, the band can’t be stretched too far, and there is no overspill – in fact there is very slight gapping at the top. If I didn’t know better, I would think that it fits, or that I maybe need a 34E. However, the wires are not sitting at the root of my breasts – they are a good inch too low down. If I scoop, swoop and align…
There is now very clear overspill. The band can now be stretched out extremely far, as my breast tissue is no longer taking up the band space. It is now clear that a smaller band and larger cup are needed.
This is a George 34F. Once again the band seems fairly firm, and the cups gape slightly. After adjusting, it is very much too small in the cup and large in the band.
Another George 34F. Once again, a seemingly too-large cup and firm band, when in fact the cup is too small and the band too large.
Ewa Michalak 30J. As the cup is much bigger, it appears to gape significantly more than the 34F bras, and the band appears slightly small. After scooping, it is clearly too small in the cup and good in the band.
Freya (worn to death) 32J. Once again, cup wrinkling changes to slight overspill. The wires are slightly too wide for me in this bra, resulting in cup wrinkling at the side/bottom after adjusting. The band is also slightly too big.
I had originally made a video for this post, but I had technology troubles :p This is the Bravissimo Alana in a 30K, screenshotted from the original video. The far left is before, showing obvious wrinkling. You can also see, as there is a sheer section, how the underwires are sitting too far down. After adjusting, it is just about a perfect fit.
Finally, Cleo in a 30J. As before, there is gapping at the top and the band seems too tight. Afterwards, ignoring the fact that I’m leaning forward in the last picture, it seems to fit well. There is wrinkling at the bottom of the cup, though this is actually because I hadn’t adjusted fully – I may have gotten impatient toward the end, oops.
This is a quick diagram showing what is happening in a too-small bra vs a well-fitting bra, with the red representing where the band sits, the blue showing where the band should sit, and the green arrows showing where the bra is pushing breast tissue. In an unadjusted bra with a too-small cup, the band sits well below the underbust. The cups compress the breast tissue, and push it down and towards the torso. More often than not, this provides very little support, and the bra is acting more as cover. The breasts are unlifted and “squished”, and often tissue migration will occur. In a well-fitting bra, the wires are at the breast root, the band is horizontal at the same level, and the cups lift the breast tissue up and forwards.
To put your bra on properly, lean forwards so that your breasts fall into the cups, then fasten the band behind you (you can put the shoulder straps on before or after this part). Then, still leaning forwards, hold either the shoulder strap or the end of the underwire with one hand, and reach into your armpit with the other. Gently scoop from the armpit into the cup. Next, hold the bottom of the underwire with one hand, and reach into the bottom of the cup with the other. Use one hand to align the underwire to sit at the root of your breast, and gently lift your breast up into the cup with the other. You might prefer to align the underwire and then scoop from the armpit, but either way should work quite well. If after doing this, you find that you have overspill, the cup is too small – try a bigger a cup. If the cups seem to fit well straight after scooping and swooping, but then your breasts seem to move back out of the cups when you move around, this suggests your band is too loose to keep your breasts enclosed in the cups – try a band size down and a cup up (e.g. 34D -> 32DD).
Putting your bra on properly is a very simple thing that can have a huge difference, and (as I learned first-hand) is often not taught by high-street fitters. Hopefully this has helped showing how a bra should fit! And once again, there is a great video showing how to scoop-and-swoop on Busty Resources 
Update: 17/04/13
The scoop-and-swoop should be done by everyone, not just those with conventionally large breasts. Here are some comparison pictures by reddit users, shared in /r/ABraThatFits. Huge thanks to these ladies for letting me add their pictures!
These pictures were made by reddit user “brafitthrow” and shared here. In these pictures she wears a 32B, which, though it appears to fit before adjusting, is actually too small in the cups and too large in the band. She in fact needs a 30D.
By the same user. In these pictures she wears a 34A, altered to be about a 30B. Once again, to the untrained eye it would appear to fit. However, after adjusting, it is clearly too small in the cup.
These pics were taken by user “esoomcol” and shared here. This is a 32AA Aerie, before and after. As expected, though it looks like a good fit in the cups before, it is actually much, much too small.
The same user in a 30C Lepel Fiore. Though the cups look much too big, after adjusting, it appears to be fairly spot-on.
I hope these pictures have helped to show that scooping and swooping is a vital part of putting your bra on for everyone, regardless of size. If anyone else has before/after pictures that they think would be a useful addition, please get in touch!
great post
I am currently trying to find a bra that fits (ordering online and having to measure by myself sucks!), and I knew about the scoop and swoop method, but I had no idea it made such a huge difference. Thanks!
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This is an amazing post! I had a friend sure she was a 10B into 10DDs after I taught her how to put on her bra properly. I can’t stand to have a bra sitting too low, so I started pulling it up naturally but if I hadn’t, this would have been so helpful to me.
Omg. I thought I knew what scoop and swoop method was. Now I realize that I was scooping only from the bottom of the cup, and then actually tucking in breast tissue on the top o.O
((( i feel like such a retard now.
No wonder my back fat is getting worse. I just ordered a bra 2 cup sizes bigger than I’m wearin right now, sO I hope it does the trick
could u suggest me a bra?my size is 40E,i have problems like overspill,my boobs becomes 4,sagging…i am using triumph doreein 40E but i m still not satisfied wid dat all these problems still ocur..so kindly help me
juhi, try http://www.reddit.com/r/abrathatfits – people there are very helpful.
This post is so awsome!
This is a great article! Your photos are very informative and helpful. This seems to be a hot topic as of late. I recently started wearing my bras a bit higher, my breasts are smaller though so it isn’t a big problem. A lot of ladies I know don’t wear the proper bra size or scoop. This should be enlightening
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Great post – thanks!
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Wow! Thank you so much! I always thought it was odd that sometimes my bra seemed to contain everything and sometimes it didn’t.. now I know why! The times I actually got all my boobs in there they were spilling over, so I’d just smoosh it back in… yikes. You and reddit are giving my a bravolution!
I scoop and swoop, but I put my bra on differently. I hook it in the front and then I rotate it around the right way and put the straps on. I can’t reach around to my back to put a bra on. Okay, maybe I can, but it seems like added work.
For a larger bust, a band that is big enough to be spun around the ribs is often too large to provide necessary support. If this works for you, that’s great. For many women it will not.
Seriously? Crap, I can’t even imagine it being simple to clasp it NOT on backwards. My life is getting way too complicated with all this proper-fitting-bra stuff, pffft.
Ladies please help I am desperate!! I am turning 20 in a few days and I have decided to become a lady and get proper fitting bras haha but after reading this and several other blogs I need help. All the bras I have do not fit at all, I used to think I was a 32A and never changed my bra size from middle school through high school ! I measured myself last year and an online calculator told me my size was a 32B so alas I got new bras! However the straps fall off and they gape at the top and after trying the scoop and swoop method I am in desperate need of a new bra. It seems they don’t cup far enough over into my armpit but the top gapes and no style bra seems to work. I remeasured myself and I am a 30 around the ribcage and 34 around my bust. Another calculator told me this was a 32 D holy crap! Yeah right. I also realized I have full on bottom boobs so can anyone help with a size and style an proper fit for me!
Hi Bethany. From your measurements of 30, 34, I would give you a starting point size of a 30D. Depending on how tight a band you like, you might prefer a 32B/C, which should also be a bit easier to find.
What kind of gaping do you get in your current 32Bs after scooping? If it’s just along the top, it’s likely to be a shape issue – you might just need bras that have more space on the bottom, and less along the top edge. But if no style bra seems to work, it might be due to the cup being too small, which is why I would recommend trying a 32C. I would suggest you try a 32C, scoop and swoop, and then look over the fit. Do you fill out the cups more? Where do you get gapping? Do your boobs stay in the cups, or do they start to move back out when you move around? If you’re in a store with a good size range, I would suggest trying as many bras in the range as you can (32B, 32C, 32D, 30DD, 30D, 30C). If you try on some bras and comment again I can try to narrow down what the size issues are, or you can email me (brasandbodyimage@gmail.com) or message me through my facebook page.
Wow… I’m actually a “certified bra fit specialist” – worked with breast cancer survivors and other women. We were taught that eight out of ten women wear the wrong size bra. But we were never taught scoop and swoop. Definitely, never, ever. And here I thought they just didn’t make bras my size – but they do!!
Also, the online calculators don’t work. They’re not right. You need to measure yourself under your armpits all the way around, and that’s the band size. Then you measure all the way around at the fullest part of the breast, and you get the cup size like this: no change from the band is an A, one inch is a B, two inches is a C, three a D, four a DD, etc. No calculations. And besides, I always believed and always told my customers, it’s not so much about the numbers. It’s all about how comfortable you are in your bra. So head to the store and try on one of every style. Even if you think you don’t like pushups or wireless, try them anyway!! And never, EVER get sized at Victoria’s Secret. Their bras run small, so you’ll think you’re a larger size than you are and have trouble buying elsewhere. And never, EVER buy a bra without trying it on. All bras are not created equal. And when you do try it on, jump around, dance, hang upside down, etc. You want to make sure the girls have a nice, snug home before you buy it.
And good luck. Bra shopping sucks.
I can tell you right now, if you measured my armpits, you’d be putting me in a 38 band, when most 34′s are actually loose on me. I have a short torso with high full-shaped breasts. Now, whether the tissue is that high from wearing too small a cup or not, is a different matter. The fact is it’s there, and totally screws this method.
Agreed – I’m hourglassy and my breast tissue starts quite high up, which means my under-armpit measurement is about 39 inches. No chance am I a 38E/40D…
You’re supposed to put the measuring tape around and pull it tight. Like, really tight. Also, do you measure yourself with your bra on, or is your tissue really just that high? Because that’s definitely interesting. Is the measure all up in your armpit when you’re measuring? Like, all the way up in there?
Would you believe that I was bra-fit trained and certified by JCPenney and they didn’t reach us one little bit of this?! Thank you so much for sharing! Great info!
That’s where I was certified! I feel cheated! But… maybe I just have no boobs, or funny shaped ones… because this doesn’t work for me. My boobs still fall around in my bras.
Do you mean that you fill/overspill with scoop and swoop, but then your boobs sort of settle back into the cups when you move? If that’s the case, it’s very possible that you need a smaller band. A too-loose band means that the wires aren’t held snugly against your ribcage, so the cups move around when you move, and your boobs make their way back out. Could that be it?
Measured, I’m 31 inches, so I need a 30/32. But I have cysts that grow in my right breast and are excruciatingly painful, so I wear either a 32 on the last hooks or a 34. I know the bands are too loose, but unless I do that, I can’t stand to wear a bra at all. And going braless isn’t an option because then the cysts are pulled downwards and hurt that way too. And sports bras are only so much help. Since I’m rather small (30C/32B/34A), and my right breast is significantly smaller than my left, sports bras also do the “she looks like a dude” sort of thing to me. And they’re nipply. Also, the cup sizes listed are pushup cups – I go a cup size larger because the extra padding helps keep my normal arm movements from smashing the cycts together, but pushing them up hurts.
Another thing that may be an issue, I don’t know. I used to be a 34C/D with no padding. But my boobs seriously shrank to a 30AA and I wore my kid sister’s bras and felt quite humiliated, having to start college like that and people asking “where’d your boobs go?”. So they’re growing again, sloooowwwwlllyyyy, but they naturally sit closer to my sides than they used to. And there’s skin I can just pinch in my fingers and hold up. And my boyfriend tells me to quit obsessing over it because he doesn’t care.
Sorry, I’m just not sure what’s going on here, and my doctor told me, “You don’t have cancer, so what do you want me to do?” I’m considering just wrapping myself in an Ace bandage and leaving it at that. I’m really at a loss here.
littleyellowjar – I totally understand your “funny shaped” boob issue from your post about your cysts. I’m in the large bust funny shaped group. I’ve been wearing a 38DD and will obviously now go and try the “swoop and scoop” and see what happens. But…I’ve had two non-cancerous lumps/cysts removed from my right breast. It’s not totally out of whack, but what seems to fit the left, doesn’t come close on the right. There’s a sunken in place (for lack of a better description) along the inside area by my ribs. It’s where the wire usually sits. This fitting business should be interesting. And yes, bra fitting sucks. I wish you well on getting relief from your cysts!
I’ve just tried the scoop and swoop and got my new measurements, but I’m not sure how accurate it is since I have one breast significantly larger than the other. I’ve been wearing 40 DD bras with an insert in one side, but with the scoop and swoop my larger breast seems to be squished inside the cup now. I’m measuring 36/44, which sounds like I should wear a 36G. Any tips on what to do since I’m uneven?
A 40DD and 36F (US 36G) have the same cup volume, so if you’re finding you have squishing at the moment, it’s possible a US 36G would be too small in the cup. Based on your measurements, I would suggest trying a 36FF/36G (US 36H/I).
As for the asymmetry, what most tend to do is fit to the larger breast, then use pads to balance it. Some people don’t mind leaving loose material on the smaller breast, but it’s personal preference. I wouldn’t recommend fitting to the smaller breast, as it’s likely to result in overspill and digging on the larger.
I fit the larger breast and then just tighten the other cup to make it fit the smaller one better. Since I have small boobs it works… not sure how it would work for larger ones though.
What a brilliant method! I got a 28DD plunge that kept gaping, but after scooping and swooping it fits a lot better – to the point that the left breast sometimes has a quadboob….
Here’s the annoying thing, though. I’m shallow on top (full-bottomed) but half-cups don’t fit properly even with scopping and swooping. : ( That’s the 28DD, though.
Can I ask for your advice? Underbust is 28 (tight) /28.5 (snug). The boobs themselves are 31.5/32 (standing) / 33-34 (leaning). I figured this made me a 28DD, but I’m paranoid I might be smaller.
Your measurements can only give you a starting point. If you’re comfortably wearing a 28 band, and you’re occasionally getting overspill in a 28DD, I’d say a 28DD/E is the right sort of area to be in.
Half-cups are often recommended for full-on-top breasts, as they’re usually cut very open. It might just be that they’re incompatible with your shape. For full-on-bottom breasts, you might have more luck with something like the Bravissimo Alana, or another unpadded balconette. There’s nothing wrong with a smaller cup if it turns out that’s what you do need – it’s about the fit, not the label.
It just seems to be a bit of a hit and miss.
Today I scooped and swooped and I had gaping, which was unusual. Then I pushed my shoulders back and boom, struggling to stay in the cups because it was pressing so hard. I ended up taking the bra off midday and found the bottom of my breast had light marks on it from where the seam was pressing.
You’re entirely write about the fit and not the label, but there’s a bit of a problem with going down a smaller size. I shop at Bravissimo and I prefer to try before I buy, so I’m reluctant to shop online. Yet if the 28DD/28D is loose in certain shapes or certain positions, it means I can’t go any smaller in cup – not there, anyway. And I don’t know any places near me that do 28 bands…
It’s weird, because after doing light weight training for two months, my breasts are a little rounder on top (but they’re still mostly shallow compared to the bottom), and fitting them is incredibly awkward…
I need lots of help!! Right now, I’m wearing a 40G but it’s very loose in the back and I always have spillage on the top and the bottom. I was measured at Lane Bryant and she measured me a 38 but since the 38 I had was making my shoulders and back scream in pain and made it look like I could set a drink on my rack, we decided to go for a 40. I always feel like I’m pulling the strap in the back down and pushing the shoulder straps out to where they don’t even sit on my shoulders. I feel like the underwire is sitting on my stomach when I sit down. I hate bras!!!!
Do you know what your exact measurements are? How much overspill do you have if you scoop and swoop? By the sounds of it you could do with going at least one band size and a couple of cups up. If you had shoulder and back pain in a 38 band, it’s unlikely due to a too-small band. It suggests that your band wasn’t supporting you more than anything – it’s very possible you might need to go down in the band more.
Do you have a cloth tape measure? Can you take these measurements? http://i.imgur.com/k6P94Bt.png
I don’t but it won’t be a problem to get one. Can I email you with the measurements or do you just want me to post them on here? The overspill isn’t much but at least an inch or so. But I don’t want to be bigger than a G : (
Either way is fine, whichever you prefer. I’ll probably see it sooner if you email (brasandbodyimage@gmail.com). Which country are you in? Is that a US or UK G?
There’s nothing wrong with being a G or bigger. G+ cups are actually pretty common, a lot of people just need re-fitting!
Just sent you an email with my meaurements. Hope you can help me!!