Ergonomics researchers in Hong Kong have launched a bra revolution. The say their new mathematical equation measures breasts more accurately, and will deliver new comfort and shapeliness for women.

According to Britain’s Telegraph newspaper, one of several news outlets that reported the findings of the Hong Kong Polytechnic University team, the under-and-across the breast measurement system of today’s bra designers has been the standard method for some 70 years.

The researchers, writing in the International Journal of Industrial Ergonomics, described a woman’s breast as “a very complex 3D geometry," and pointed out that the existing system might be "inappropriate" for categorizing breast size. They say there are more than 100 key measurements necessary to produce the perfect fit, and bra sizes should be based on a new depth-width ratio, the so-called DWR.

The Hong Kong team scanned 456 Chinese women in 3D. The researchers honed down 100 measurements to just eight factors to describe the breast shape: overall build, breast volume, inner, outer and lower breast shape, height, and gradient and orientation.

If adopted around the world, the DWR system will replace the “Alphabet” bra formula devised in the United States in 1935 – A cup (youthful); B cup (average); C cup (large); and D cup (heavy).

According to the news magazine, Irish Health, the HK Polytechnic offers a course in bra studies, or designing intimate apparel. Many lingerie manufacturers have factories in the region, a circumstance that could speed the adoption of the DWR system.

The DWR method would increase the number of existing bra sizes by between eight and 16 size combinations, offering more choice.

"This is the first time that a bra-sizing system protocol has been proposed based on 3D nude breast characteristics," the researchers say.

Sources: Telegraph; Irish Health; Sydney Morning Herald