How would anyone be able to buy a bra, which is an elastic device that lifts, shifts and holds the breasts – an incredibly variable bit of anatomy – without trying it on?

http://www.flickr.com/photos/sousveillance/6617089103/

You seem to imply that it is obvious that woman have to try bra's to buy them. But it's not, proof is that even woman ask this question:

https://www.google.com/search?oq=can+you+try+bras+at+store&#...

You've just voluntarily lumped yourself in with Yahoo Answers folk.

Yeah but it's just a weird dichotomy of women buying stuff that's been tried on and dudes just buy a bunch of boxers.

I would assume this company has a marked bunch as having been tried and sends those out first and they are marked as 'trial' bras.

Not especially weird.

Boxers go against your asshole. Bras, not so much. Women's swimwear – very fit dependent – includes a protective, throwaway panel for this purpose.

Tons of women's clothes are highly fit-dependent. Boxers mostly aren't.

This is a bit silly don't you think? Boxers and bras are not close the same thing. Clothing can be washed and I would argue that trying on a bra is more akin to trying on a shirt.

On the contrary, I've never been to a store where you couldn't try on a bra. It's what makes this service and it's appealing algorithm so interesting - most women would never consider buying a bra without having tried it on.

My understanding, perhaps incorrect, is that even after trying them on, most women still buy the wrong sizes (80-85%. Wikipedia has 4 citations to this stat, i haven't bothered to read them all, but here is one study: http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC2275741/).

That makes this even more fascinating to me, because while women apparently want to try them on so they can test "fit", whatever they are trusting to determine that fit is apparently causing them to buy the wrong bras most of the time.

Of course, it's also not clear if this is intentional (IE they uy the wrong bra size thinking it makes them look better or whatever), or accidental.

Interestingly, reading the results of that study, it could be they don't care. The study finds that various forms of pain are not correlated with improper bra size, so it could be women just wear what they think makes them look good, and since it doesn't cause any pain, they don't realize it's not the right size.

If it makes them look good, and doesn't hurt, by what measurement is it not the right size anyway?

Apparently, providing proper support, etc.

It turns out that just because something doesn't hurt, and looks good, doesn't mean it's good for you.

My naive, non-boob-having understanding is that using the wrong size will cause your boobs to sag faster, as well as causing other medical issues, even if it doesn't cause pain.

Wearing a bra will actually make your boobs sag faster, not the other way around. It's a very common misconception among women, though, who apparently can't be bothered to look these things up before shoving "advice" down your throat that "everyone knows" is correct.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ptosis_%28breasts%29#Bras_don.2...

Yes, you can. In fact, it's kind of crucial, because each bra fits differently.

And I can't resist but to point out the awesome fact that you can actually wash clothes you bought. (That, and bras don't come in contact with waste products. )

When Gilly Hicks launched (subsidiary of A&F), one of their main selling points for the stores was having all of their bra sizes and styles available in the dressing rooms. Thus, you could go into the dressing room to figure out what fits, then pick out the ones you liked from the store floor.

I'm not sure if this is still the case, since I no longer work at A&F and don't go to Gilly Hicks, but my coworkers at the time were pretty excited, since finding well fitting bras can be very difficult.

I've confirmed with my girlfriend: you can try on bras in stores.

Who said that you may not try boxers out? I do it sometimes, but saw many times others doing it. Most of good brand boxers are not paked in plastic, so you can try them out.