Review. Mimi Holliday Nymphina Lace & Silk Satin Super Plunge

Purchasing this bra was a mistake, but lucky one (literally, I was buying Nymphina Comfort lace bra, but ebay seller made a mistake). I like this bra so much I want pure black (Angelique Jet seems perfect) and nude  (Bisou-bisou brulee may pass as nude, but I’m afraid that show through factor is pretty high for this bra, so I’m not really sure about it) versions of it and may be some colourful. Poppet (indigo) and Berry Fest (magenta) would be beautiful combo with all my paleness, but this is a pure whim, a caprice, so I’m going to indulge it only if I see them really cheap on ebay.

I got this bra in my usual 32E and cup size was spot on and band is quite loose. I can technically go to the last hook, but it feels most comfy on the second, so for the bra I’m not going to wear often it’s not that bad and in doesn’t ride up, at least immediately, but for future I’m going for 30F.

I must say that in higher cup sizes this bra looks completely different than in 32Bs I saw it and wasn’t interested at all. I think that 32E could be called higher cup size in this case, because this bra doesn’t go past 30FF and sister sizes (and it’s no 28G, only 28FF).

Nymphina front view

Nymphina profile

Very different from this, isn’t it?

This is how it’s featured on Damaris site

But you know what? I think that I like the design in 32E much better.

The bra has vertical seams on cups, but if you look inside you will see that it really has one diagonal seam construction.

Nymphina cup inside

Good things about this bra:

• This bra is insanely comfortable (at least for me). No pinching, itching etc. Everything is very soft. It’s very well made. Well, this is expected for Mimi Holliday I guess.
• Straps are wide set, but not terribly so, they are not in my armpits, hoooray! And they look nice, so I don’t mind if they become visible.

Things about this bra, that definitely good for me, but can be showstopper if you have different breast/body shape:

• Very opened cups. It makes this bra very good for girls like me, who are quite firm and have “short” breasts, but I think those with softer breast tissue could feel not supported enough and on “tall” breasts it could look ridiculous and show a part of the nipple.
• Straps are not fully adjustable and quite thin.
• Wires are flexible and wide, more of a “smile” shape than deep U, if you need sturdy or narrow wires then keep your distance.
• It gives immediate depth.
• Padding is thin and very flexible, so it doesn’t mold your breasts it molds to their shape and provide nipple coverage.

Not so good:

My only complain about this bra is that it shows a lot under clothes. Seams and the top edge of the cup are very visible (they are visible on my photos, made by old cellphone, but in real life it’s worse).

I’m also not really sure about stretchiness of the band and straps (they are very soft and thin and it’s suspicious), but it’s more like a “special occasion bra” for me, so I think that it won’t be a problem. The band has 4 columns 1 row closure.

Nymphina closure

Strap close up – the thinnest straps of all the bra I own!

But we will see. And I’m going to update this post in a year or so, but until then I’m no help here.

This bra gives rather natural shape, but in a very nice way.

Nymphina on me under thin jersey turtleneck

So overall conclusion: great bra if you like low half cups and need wide wires! Consider going for the sister size in the smaller band if you are on the smaller end of the band size.

Review. Panache Loretta Plunge

This was an experiment as it was the first unpadded bra I purchased since I discovered that I’m not 36B. To my disappointment it wasn’t successful. I’ve bought this bra in 32DD because from bratabase it seemed that it runs larger than padded bras (in fact the cups are bigger than some 32E bra I own).

The justification of this purchase for me was that all my padded bras I love so much are not really good for 100F. When its that hot you need something more breathable and Loretta seemed perfect: low central gore, no padding, beautiful yet flat embroidery,  wide wires. Of cause it’s a little bit visible under clinging jersey, but you really don’t want anything clinging when it’s 100F.

Product image. She is beautiful!

Some close ups

Strap. Antislip texture which is really pretty. Bravo! And it’s fully adjustable!

Isn’t it just lovely?

Said all that I have to add that this bra has a one huge flaw for me. It doesn’t fit. Shape of the cups is just wrong. The inner edge of the cups goes inward too much for me, so I have quadraboob plus gaping near the apex, relaxing the straps makes this better, but can’t make it disappear. Nothing new of cause, being shallow and wide I have this problem quite often. And I don’t think that going up cup size is going to help, because this bra is deep enough for me judging from the digits and the width of the cups is also spot on, so in the bigger size I would get too large cups.

This failure makes me think about getting unpadded half cups, because they are usually better for shallow profiles, but I’m totally clueless which brands/models to try.

Modesty Panel. What Modesty means for us?

The group of lingerie bloggers were discussing this topic lately. There are a lot very different points of view and some really heartbreaking stories.

Bras and Body Image

Boosaurus

Braless in Brasil (What if you want more coverage?)

Braless in Brasil (Modesty from mom’s perspective)

By Baby’s Rules

Contrary Kiwi

Fussy Busty – Nicole

Fussy Busty – Amy

Hourglassy – Abreast Abroad

Hourglassy – Corporate Curves report

Hourglassy – Darlene

Hourglasse – Off the Rack

Miss Underpinnings

Red Hair and Girly Flair

Sophia Jenner

A Sophisticated Pair

That Bra Does Not Fit Her

The Tit Rambler

Thin and Curvy

Undiegamer

Weirdly Shaped and Well Photographed

Wide Curves

I wasn’t really interested in this topic until this flash mob started. For me modesty is just a set of stupid conventional rules, completely arbitrary depending on socio-cultural factor. But this mob made me think about how much my behaviour governed by these rules.

Except some African countries women wear tops in summer just to cover up. Vast majority of men wear shirts or T-s for the same reason, and I can’t remember a lot of really short shorts on men. So skin is banned for both genders, but for women rules are more strict in the chest department and less strict in tightness and length of bottoms. What we think as immodest is mostly outfits that are on edge of this rules, but not ignoring the rules totally (that would be considered more like rebellion or even insanity).

I think that our clothes are a symbolic language of some sort, with all that polysemanthic that symbols usually carry. And this really creates a lot of misunderstanding. Because sometimes when you mean: “I want to feel comfortable and I like sun on my skin and I’m happy” some not very pleasant person reads it “I have no self-respect, I’m a slut and I want men attention really bad”. And it was short bright sundress with opened shoulders. And when you mean “I’m value freedom including freedom of movement and I’m soft and creative” some not very pleasant person reads it “I have no self-respect, I’m depressed and frigid and lazy”. And it was boho style outfit in muted colours with all that shabby chic that some people just don’t get. And when you mean “I’m smart, pulled together and serious” some not very pleasant person reads it “I’m a corporate slave”.

Modesty as a message “I don’t want attention” could be expressed by clothes with a lot of coverage and clothes hiding the shape of the body. But what many people don’t seam to get is a lot of skin and clothes revealing body shape don’t always mean “I want attention from opposite sex”, sometimes they mean “I think that the heat is really excruciating today” or “I love my body” or many other things.

And there are cultural differences. In exUSSR high heels on women mean “I’m feminine” and could be worn very casually, they are not considered “sexy” by themselves. To get this you should complete the look with make up and revealing clothes. In many Asian countries hems are quite short and it’s not about attention, but about climate. Although neckline that is ok here could be considered too revealing over there. Outfit which is modest in any European country is very revealing in Saudi Arabia.

It’s polite and considerate to comply with the written rules if they exists. If temple asks for covered head, knees and shoulders then I go for a long skirt, a blouse with sleeves and a head scarf if I want to visit. If I had a dress code at work or in school then I would stick until I find another (hate this crap, but if it’s in the contract then I’m all about keep to the terms).

If I feel comfortable that any person I know could find this photo of me in the Internet, then I feel ok to upload. If not then I don’t want the risk. That’s why, sorry, but no photos in the underwear, don’t want guys at work to find them.
I really grateful to women who post their photos in reviews, so I do feel like I’m not contributing as much. Although I think it is not a good reason to do something that would make me uncomfortable.

I think that life is too short to think about people who could get me wrong or think that I’m too prude or too shameless, because there are always be such people no matter how hard I try to please everyone. And the best option in my opinion is to express myself in a way which is comfortable for me.

http://widecurves.wordpress.com/2013/05/20/modesty-panel-thoughts-i-want-to-be-big-and-immodest/

Breast height?

I was thinking about this for quite some time for now. This is factor of fit which usually hasn’t a lot of attention.  The thing is that two women with the same depth and width of the breasts can have very different sizes due to third dimension. Sometimes it called length, sometimes tallness, sometimes height – it’s projection of the base of the breast on the ribcage. And the fact that there is even no common word for that saying a lot about how often we speak about this: almost never!

But this parameter is actually quite important when we are talking about fit, it can make your go to size to be one or even two cups bigger or smaller, it defines how bras look on you, length of wires you need, models you most likely fit into etc

Recently I came across this post Exceptions to the “Starting Point” Size by This Bra Does Not Fit Her (excellent fitting guide BTW, exactly one of the ten reasonsfitting guides, which written way better than I ever be able to write why I’m not going to write my own, at least in English). And what brought my attention is that in my case this starting point correction for shallow profile and broad base should be done in the opposite direction. You know why? Because there is more than one type of shallow breasts: they could be half of the upper torso in height or they can be quite compact in the any other direction except width. In the first case 1-2 cupsizes up could be a great idea, in the second case not so much. I wear two cup sized down from what my measurements suggest, actually, because vertical distance between my breast root and apex, measured at center gore to ignore projection, is just a little bit more than 2″ and I don’t need a lot of a bra up there too! Much lesser breast tissue than with the same measurements, but taller breasts. My ideal bra would be a half cup with 2″ center gore and very wide wires (like at least 6″ wide, while most bras in my size are from five to five and a half). But the first woman, whose breasts are taller, wouldn’t benefit from such bra at all, because what she really need is tall and shallow cups, not short and shallow (it could be tallish balconette or plunge with wide wires like Panache Porcelain, e. g., but bras like Fauve Lucia or Masquerade Tiffany would be disaster on her).

WordPress doesn’t allow me even miniscule onClick (cruel people! no fun at all!), so I have to add this as links, instead of proper spoiler HTML.

My oh, so not academic drawings: (attention, naked breasts!)

Short breasts

vs

Tall breasts

The same of cause is fully applicable to narrow and deep breasts. They could be tall or they could be not. Further more breasts could be more like proportional on width and depth, but rather tall or short. In any case there are very different bra choices.

And what I also wanted to mention is that sometimes girls and women with less breast “height” can technically fit into tallish cups. But lets be frank: it could be comfortable, but it looks like hell a lot of a bra and often it’s pretty much obvious that it didn’t meant to be like that.

So, what do you think about all this?

PS My blog is not exactly top five lingerie blogs in the lingerie blogging community and I’m very interesting in the topic, so feel free to take this discussion anywhere if you are interested in the subject.