Panache, maker of two of my favourite bras in the world (the Tango Luxe and the Zara) has recently added a new section to its website – the Bra Fit Challenge. It’s a simple online tool that asks you a few questions about your current bra and then gives advice on whether you need to rethink your choice. I was asked by Best British Bloggers to test out the tool (with some handy Strictly Come Dancing-esque scoring paddles) to see if it really will help women find the perfect fit…

Take the Bra Fit Challenge for yourself by clicking here

First, let’s talk about ease of us. It’s a pretty straightforward site, with a simple design and easy to read questions. However, even on my fairly large laptop, I had to scroll down to see the full page sometimes. I think there’s a bit of room for tidying up, but the photos and questions are clear and it definitely does the job. A very respectable…

…7 points for the look and feel of the site.

Now the questions themselves. It asks your current bra size, then goes through a series of fairly obvious questions about fit (how are the straps, how does the band sit, how are the cups). As you answer each question, you’re given a bit of feedback on what this means in terms of fit. My big issue was that you couldn’t choose multiple answers. For example, if the underwire sits away from the body at the centre front, it’s highly likely the whole wire moves away when you lift your arms, but you can only choose one or the other of those options. You *can* go back but it’s a bit fiddly. For this reason, I give the questions themselves…

…a bit of a stingy five. For me, these questions were a bit obvious and can easily be found on most lingerie websites. They do get to the point quickly but I feel a few things were left out. For example, on the question about how you bra straps feel, if you choose ‘straps often fall down’ it doesn’t really given any explanation as to why this might be except ‘they are too loose’. Why are they too loose? Probably because the band is too big so the straps are too wide set, but this is not clear! This is a big bugbear for me because this issue with straps falling down is often what I find really hammers home to women that they need a smaller band. You probably don’t have sloping shoulders or bad posture, you’re just in the wrong bra!

Now to the results. When you’ve answered all the questions, you can fill out your details (or leave the boxes blank) and receive your results. The actual ‘prescription’ the site gave me was spot on. It told me I’m wearing the right size bra – which is lucky given how frequently I get measured. The fit challenge recognised I knew my stuff and told me exactly what I expected. I also gave the tool a go as if it were 5 years ago, when I was in a badly fitting 36C. I was honest with what that bra felt like – band rode up, cups felt ok, straps fell down – and it told me exactly what my Bravissimo fitter told me – I needed a smaller band and a bigger cup to compensate. It then advised me to go and get fitted asap. With this in mind, the score for accuracy has to be…

…top marks! A score usually reserved for things like Mark Ramprakash and Karen Hardy’s Salsa. I couldn’t fault the results, so there’s no reason to knock off points here. As far as I’m concerned it doesn’t matter how you get to the results, so long as they’re right, that’s the most important thing.

Overall, the fit guide is simple, easy to use and will help anyone who’s not sure how a bra will fit. For me personally, it didn’t tell me anything I didn’t already know, but due to this blog and the amount of time I’ve spent working with lingerie brands or attending their events, I’m probably a lot more knowledgable on bras than your average shopper. I like that they don’t suggest you measure yourself at home and try and calculate your new size with a tape measure and calculator – A good fitter and trying bras on is the only way to get the right size so I have to praise Panache for recognising that.

If you’ve not been measured since your teens and you don’t know about modern bra fitting techniques, I strongly suggest giving the tool a try to see if you learn anything new. If you’re a bra obsessive who knows all the tricks, you probably won’t get anything out of it except the smug feeling of being right all along. But it is fun, especially if you take stupid photos while you do it…

Now for a bit of silliness to finish! I spent quite a lot of time taking photos for this, so I had to share the outtakes. GIF TIME!