Ingrid Lunden explains:

ThirdLove – the first brand to come out of the longtime-stealth, well-backed MeCommerce group – entered the world with a bang earlier this year with apromise of a new app that uses smartphone data, by way of two selfie photos of the customer’s chest, to revolutionize how women buy bras. Now, after a closed beta period, ThirdLove’s iOS app is out for any and all to try it for themselves.

Buying bras can be a time-consuming, expensive and frustrating experience, and there are a number of apps and online services already out there trying to solve the problem. They include True & Co., Brayola and Sizem, among many apps from specific lingerie brands. Many of these require you to pull out the measuring tape to size yourself up, or provide information on your current bra size and your favorite brands, in order to help create a selection of bras for you.

ThirdLove is different for a number of reasons. For starters, there is the technology itself, developed by computer vision scientists. Using image recognition and human voice commands, the app takes you through the process of snapping two pictures of your chest in front of a mirror, one from the front and the other from the side (you wear a supportive bra in the pictures, with an option of a fitted tank on top of that). A user pinches and zooms to scale the pictures to match each other. Then ThirdLove processes them — my measurement took no more than a minute — and you are given a unique size, eg TL165.

...

The company has so far raised a $5.6 million seed round from a list of backers that include NEA, Andreessen Horowitz, Felicis Ventures, Novel TMT, Yuri Milner, Keith Rabois and more. With that funding, and with the right traction, you can see how similar technology may get applied to a number of other categories, from head (glasses) to toe (shoes) and for other demographics like men and children.

I don't get it. I don't get it at all. 

So I guess this is (kind of) competitive?

http://pandawhale.com/post/27609/man-raises-85-million-for-victorias-secret-killer-adoreme-which-sells-half-price-lingerie

I don't know. I still don't get it. 

Venture capitalists have funded at least a half dozen bra companies.

Is that really a decent size market opportunity?