Review: Curvy Kate Emily

I love red underwear. And after my near success with the Curvy Kate Princess, I decided to snatch up the Emily in “Flame” that was on sale at Brastop.

I knew a 30 band was too large, but thought that other Curvy Kate bras would run larger than the Princess, so I kept the same cup volume by purchasing the 28HH. I also bought the shorts in a size 12.

The shorts fit pretty well. I’d heard Curvy Kate pants run small, so I went up a size from what I thought I’d wear in most brands, but I think I overestimated a little, as they’re a little large. Next time I buy the matching panties I think that I’ll go for a 10 in this brand. They have embroidery that matches the bra, and are sheer all around. I think they’re really really adorable and am very pleased with them!

The bra is also very beautiful, the color is very flattering (especially now that I’m freshly tanned from the beach!), and I thought that I liked the shape… at first.

After a few days I realized that I actually disliked the shape. It’s what blogger Bras I Hate calls the “sad” shape. Basically the bra kind of makes your boob point towards the ground. She’s found that this is often a symptom of too small a cup in Curvy Kate, and I began to wonder if that was what was causing it in my case.

Soon I realized that my  nipples were sitting right in the middle of the sheer section, even though my nipples aren’t particularly high set, and I haven’t seen anyone else’s nipples in this bra. Since my nipple is the fullest part of my breast and it wasn’t sitting in the fullest part of the cup, my boob was kind of getting smashed down and flattened by the sheer section of the cup.

Since then, it’s just become more and more obvious to me that this cup is too small. I’m nervous about going up a cup though, because the wires on this bra are very very wide, and the side of the cup comes all the way up to my armpit. I’m beginning to think that even though this bra is beautiful, it’s not a good cut for me. It seems to be too shallow and too wide for me, because I think if I went up to a 28J or JJ the shape would be better, but I can’t imagine it coming up any higher under my arm!

Overall I like the look of this bra so much that I’m willing to buy a larger size to try and get the right fit, but I’m not sure it will work. There are tons of women who really love this bra, and one thing I do love about it is how flat it lays underneath clothing. In the Princess the velvet polka dots are very visible under clothing, but the embroidery on the Emily lays flat and is invisible under almost all clothes I’ve worn it under.

Hopefully some day I’ll be able to update this review with the correct size, and hopefully it will be happier, since I love the look of this bra so much, and it comes in so many pretty colors! Not to mention it’s usually on pretty deep discount at Brastop!

Review: Curvy Kate Princess

I’d read in other reviews that the fit in the Princess was hard to get, so I ordered up from what I considered my size to a 30H, and I’m so glad I did. This bra really is beautiful, and I plan on ordering it in my more correct size soon, but until then this one will do.

The bra features velvet polka dots that are just SO soft and smooth and add a great texture to the bra, although it does make it difficult to wear under thinner knits, as they bump up underneath. I wear it anyway, and find that the bumps also conceal any nipple appearances that may occur in the freezer aisle of the grocery store.

It has a very pretty lace top with a ribbon run through it. The ribbon is a little tight, and cuts into my breast in the 30H, so when I order again I plan on ordering a 28J or 28JJ, as I also fasten the band on the tightest hook.

(You can’t see the cutting in so much but I promise it’s there! 🙂 )

This is my favorite of the shapes that the non padded Curvy Kates have given me so far. I also own the Emily in a 28HH and this shape is just FAR superior. The shape is soft and rounded but still natural looking. It isn’t my favorite shape overall (I prefer Cleo’s very round look) but it’s nice for days that I want to minimize a bit.

I have 2 negatives for this bra:

1. The straps are not fully adjustable. I am a short person (around 5’3″), and usually need to adjust the straps pretty tightly to get good lift. The Princess has very pretty embroidery on the straps, but it limits their adjustability. I made do by just carefully pushing the embroidery through, but it did make some of it come a little loose and not look as nice.
2. The second problem is purely because of the color I chose, but the velvet polka dots picked up the colors of all the shirts I’ve worn over it and it hasn’t come out even though I’ve washed it twice. I’m pretty sure this is a white problem, not a problem with the bra, but it’s something to be aware of if you’re thinking of purchasing.

I’m glad that I like the Princess because it comes in like a million beautiful colors. I’m especially into the red, hot pink, and indigo versions:

Overall the Princess is currently my second favorite seamed cup bra, and I give it my seal of approval!

Review: Alegro Summer Dream

I bought the Alegro Summer Dream in a 30GG for less than $10 on ebay. It was a great deal, and although now I know that 30GG is a bit off from my true bra size, at the time I expected it to fit me.

Unfortunately, pretty much everything about this bra was horrible for me. I’d never tried this brand before and there are very few reviews available, so I’m glad to be able to add this for other women who may be looking for one, since the bra is on ebay very often and is very inexpensive.

When I received the bra, I thought it looked huge. It really is just a lot of bra. It is shaped kind of like a balconette but fits like a full coverage. The color, however, is beautiful and I loved the white flower embroidery, as well as the frills on the straps and under the cups, although the frill straps does mean that they are not fully adjustable.

The looks were pretty much the only good thing about this bra though.

This bra just gives me the absolute worst shape I’ve ever seen in my whole life. It’s that east-west look, but incredibly angle-y and pointy, and far apart. The underwire goes up really high in between the breasts and didn’t sit flat against my chest, both because I have close set breasts and because the cups were too small.

I could put an eye out with these things!

Really it was just horrible. And the construction of this bra is really weird. Like I said, it isn’t really a balconette, but also not really a full coverage. The seaming on the bra must be what gives it that weird pointy shape. In most balconettes the outside section of the cup that attaches to the straps is also the widest section, and then the inner section is smaller. On this one, almost the whole bra is the inner section, and the outside section that connects to the strap is only about 3 inches long at the largest point. For comparison, my Cleo Lucy’s outside section is about 6 inches long. I think this is what makes my breasts stick so far out.

The one other positive that I can say about this bra is that the band fit very well, although I guess that means that it runs tightly on TRUE 30’s, since I usually wear a 28 now. It fits very similarly to the 28 Curvy  Kate Emily, so I’d say most people will want to size up in the band on this one.

I hate not having anything positive to say, but honestly the only place I’d wear this bra is to a 1950’s costume party where I wanted that really pointy bullet bra look.

At least it’s pretty?

Are you wearing the wrong size?

Before I delve into the reviews, I figure I should probably discuss how to know if you’re wearing the correct size. If you don’t know the signs of a poorly fitting bra, then how will you know if the bras fit well in the reviews I do?!

The state of bra sizing in the  USA at the moment is really quite dim. In stores that aren’t specifically bra boutiques for large busted women, I usually get measured as a 34DD or SOMETIMES a 34DDD. With a 28.5″ underbust. If I didn’t know how bras were supposed to fit, I’d be stuck wearing bras that look like this:

You might be thinking, “Oh, well that doesn’t look so bad!” and you’re right. From the front, this bra is doing okay, except for the fact that the cleavage in something that isn’t a push up bra might be a symptom of a bigger problem.

Wait… if I can pull the band away from my body so far that my breasts start falling out… then how is that supportive? Well, it’s not. 80% of the support from your bra should come from the band, and if you look closely at the picture you may be able to notice that the straps are digging into my shoulders, which leaves uncomfortable red dents at the end of the day (but luckily I haven’t had to wear this poorly fitting monstrosity in months, maybe a year!)

Here is another picture showing how large this band really is. And this is fastened on the tightest hook. If your band rides up in the back, then the cups fall forward and your breasts don’t sit as high as they’re supposed to! In a bra with a properly tight band, your breasts should sit midway between your elbow and shoulder, and the band should be horizontal.

This picture also brings me to another part of this bra that is very poorly fitting: the cups. How can you tell if your cups are too small? Well, besides the obviously quadriboob (seen in the photo below), a cup that is too small will also not contain all of your breast tissue on the side. Do you see how the wire in this picture is poking directly onto fatty tissue? This is because the wire is not wide enough for the breast tissue that has collected under my armpit after years of wearing the incorrect size. Theoretically, it could be that the wires are wide enough, but my breast tissue hasn’t been properly placed in the cup. If I scoop all of the breast tissue I can forward, in front of the underwire…

Ok, the wire is in the right spot (mostly)…

But now I’m a four boobed alien.

So this is what years of Victoria’s Secret fittings have done to me! Turned me into a person with either a lot of armpit fat or an alien with four breasts! Admittedly, my boyfriend might quite like the latter, but I for one, do not!

So how did I stumble upon my correct size, and become a haven of bra related knowledge?

Well, once upon a time (summer before my senior year of high school) I had just graduated from 34D to a 34DD. “A DD?!” I thought, “That’s huge! I am going to need underwire bathing suits to support giant DD breasts! Pamela Anderson has DD’s… people who get implants have DD’s… that’s like, the largest size available!”

So off I ventured to a local store that I’d walked past before. They had underwire bathing suits in the windows and I thought that hopefully I’d be able to pick something up in a 34DD there.

When I walked into Breakout Bras, they insisted on fitting me for anything. They’ve since done away with this, I think, but at the time they were a very new store, I’d never been there, and they had very little stock on the floor. So off I was whisked to a dressing room, and I was fitted as a 30FF (a more detailed post of being fit at Breakout Bras will follow!), and put in a lovely nautical inspired Panache bandeau bikini with boyshorts. I LOVED it. I loved the support of a well fitting bra. I was hooked.

Unfortunately, not all women have access to wonderful bra experts, especially in the US. But hopefully my blog can help some of those women out! In conclusion, here’s a condensed list of the signs of a poorly fitting bra, and how to fix them:

1. Your straps dig into your shoulders, leaving dents and creating shoulder pain. Solution: Your band is too big, forcing the straps to take on the weight of your breasts. Go down a band size or two and up one or two cups (as the band size decreases, the cup size increases, so 34DD=32E=30F=28FF. These are called “sister sizes” because the cup volumes are the same.)
2. You immediately fasten your band on the tightest hook, or your band rides up your back during the day, causing the cups to fall forward. Solution: Your band is too big, go down in band size until it is very firm on the loosest hook. This will allow your bra to last longer, because you can move to the inner hooks as the elastic wears out.
3. Your breasts spill out of the top or sides of your bra. Your cup is too small. Move up a cup size.
4. Your breasts don’t quite fill the cups, causing wrinkling or gaping. Your cup may be too large. Before moving down a cup size, check that you have properly placed your breasts in the cups. As you put on your bra, lean over and get as much breast tissue as possible into the cups. Fasten the bra and stand up, and then scoop any breast tissue you might have in your armpit forward into the cup. If there is still wrinkling, go down a cup size.
5. The center gore does not lay flat against your sternum. Solution: Your cup is likely too small, and your band might be too large. 

There are a few other signs that will get covered as this blog continues, but these are the most obvious and will get you on the road to finding your correct size.

So how is it that I am continuously placed into this poorly fitting bras? It all comes down to how the store measures. Many retailers use a very outdated formula of adding 4 inches to the raw underbust measurement. This originated in the 1930s, when bras were made out of much firmer material. If you measure a 34 inch band today, unstretched, it does equal 30 inches. But because of the elasticity of today’s materials, these bands no longer support the breasts of a woman with a 30 inch underbust.

Still stranger is the method of measuring under the armpits and over the breasts to determine band size. I don’t know where this ever came from, but it seems to be the devil for larger breasts. If you have larger breasts, then this measurement ends up including breast tissue, expanding the measurement. I have heard that this method works fine for small chests, but for a large chested girl it is horrible, and how I am continuously placed into bands 6 inches too large for me.

The method that I use (and that most ACTUAL professional bra fitters use) is using the raw underbust measurement as the starting point for band size. I measure 28.5, so I wear a 28 band (although I could sometimes do with a 26, depending on how the bra runs!). This method won’t work for all women either, and some women may find that they prefer to add up to 2 inches, or subtract inches, but I firmly believe that once you begin adding more than 2 inches, your support becomes compromised.

If you have any questions about your fit, or how to measure, you can ask in the comments and I’ll be sure to answer!