A Promising Discovery: Panache Envy
Cleo Marcie Babydoll (6835) So I got myself a Panache Envy Balconnet Bra (7285) in 30H.
This is smaller than my usual 30HH and I sometimes get a little quadboob when pulling my arms back or after vigorous scooping and swooping. But nothing that would warrant sizing upHooray for stretch lace and hope for the day when Jasmine comes in a print that I actually like!
I really wanted a black bra since I grew out of my 28J Bravissimo Alana (AU01). The Alana in 30HH (cups too small) and in 30J (I got wrinkling because it came up so high on me, there was just nothing to fill the top of the cups) sadly didn't work on me.
With Freya and Curvy Kate both not working on me, there aren't really many options left. Why isn't there a black/brown/beige Cleo Marcie (6831) yet?
I prefer the rounded, minimized shape that the Envy gives me anyway. It feels more like my boobs and makes looser tops look better on me imo.
I just have two gripes with Envy that affect its wearability (weeeell, there's more, but I'll limit it to two here):
1. The sides of the armholes come up too high for me, which gets uncomfortable with long wear. This is probably perfect for people who have trouble with side-boob escaping or need high-cut armholes though. I don't think I could alter this without making the cups smaller, so I hope it'll soften up with wash and wear.
2. The gore comes up too high/is too wide. For me, the higher the gore, the narrower it needs to be. Envy's gore gets a little stabby after a while, not to mention it sits on my breast tissue.
I want to try bending the wires a little more anyway, but I discovered that the Envy has some extra space in the wire channels. I hope Panache never changes this - unless they start producing lower-cut bras in the high cup sizes.
This means I could do an alteration that I performed on my old Cleo Marcie (doesn't fit anymore though).
I pushed down the wires, sewed the center gore shut, so they couldn't come back up. I unpicked the thread that attached the cups to the now superfluous fabric, so I could cut it off without damaging the fabric of the cups. Finally I just reattached the bow that I had removed beforehand.
I'm gonna try this with the Envy as soon as I find the time to do it.
This is a great fix for me because I prefer wearing low-cut tops but don't want to show my bras to the world.
I don't have a problem with the wires coming up high on the sides, but this way they won't bother me in the front
Filed under Bra alterations