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ThirdLove: New app promises to measure your exact bra size

In a matter as urgent as space travel (OK, that may be a slight exaggeration), a new lingerie startup with an engineering team headed by a NASA research scientist has developed technology to address one of womankind’s most pressing concerns: finding the right bra size.

OK, that may be a slight (major) exaggeration, too. But as any lingerie expert will tell you, most women are wearing the wrong fit, whether it’s the incorrect cup size or lack ofmaterial around the back.

With $5.6 million in funding, the company, called ThirdLove, plans to launch faulty bra fittings down a black hole of obsolescence.

ThirdLove has developed an app that allows users to find their perfect fit by snapping two pictures of themselves in a tank top. The app then processes the two-dimensional images into three-dimensional data and uses that data to calculate the tank top-wearer’s exact bra size. Because, ultimately, bra size is math.

Also see: Bra vending machine unveiled in Tokyo

A few lucky tech journalists have already previewed the app, which is not yet available to the public. Here’s how Sarah Kessler from Fast Company describes her experience:

“As instructed, I stand in front of my mirror with my phone at my belly button. ‘Slightly raise right end of the phone,’ [the tutorial voice] says. Then ‘slightly raise left end of the phone.’ Then, ‘slightly raise right end of the phone.’ After about 50 more rounds of this, there’s a gratifying ‘Good job’ and a countdown to the photo,” she writes.

“Instructions on the screen ask me to line up a box with the iPhone in the photo and to place a line on my chest. Then the principal voice walks me through the same process for a photo from the sideways perspective.”

Once the images have been processed, the app will lead the customer to an online shop where bras matched exactly to her size are displayed for her purchasing leisure.

ThirdLove co-founder Heidi Zak explains the company’s ethos in a press release:

Also see: Odd line of men's lingerie gaining popularity

“Great technology should solve every day problems, in a seamless and beautiful way. We have meticulously designed a collection that fits perfectly and looks great – and that’s something all women can appreciate,” she says.

“But when we can also dramatically cut the costs of production, and in turn improve quality and design – that’s when we have the potential to dramatically change how we shop, how our clothes fit us and ultimately our confidence in what we’re buying and wearing.”

Because of the high profile investors ThirdLove has managed to attract, and thanks to the impressive engineering team the startup has put together, business insiders are predicting big things for the company and it has received major buzz.
Let’s just hope there’s a component to the app that deletes those tank top photos after the calculations are complete.

Ladies: would you use this app or do you prefer to have another human measure your bra size?