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I accidentally attended a Panache Swimwear "trunk show"
I stopped by my favorite local bra shop last Friday (http://www.bragarden.com) to help two other girls get their first proper bra fitting. I had no idea beforehand, but it turned out that they were having a Panache and Cleo Swim "trunk show" with a Panache rep on site that day!
The Panache rep had brought along with her one of each of the current line of bikini tops and one of each of the bottoms. There was only one of each, but they were all the same size. I managed to get seriously lucky in that all the tops were a 32E, which is more-or-less my size in Cleo swimwear, which meant I could easily try stuff on.
A couple of things that I noted, in case anyone is considering any of these tops:
-First, I think I was surprised by how many of them I liked in person! I generally hate swimsuit shopping, and a lot of them that I would never have ordered based on the photos online looked great when I saw them or tried them on.
-The Panache swim bands seem to be juuuust a tiny bit more loose than the Cleo swim bands. I mostly tried on bandeau-style tops, and while both fit, the Cleos were almost too tight on me, while the Panache bands were a pretty perfect fit.
-The Cleo Betty Bandeau top has a ruffle across the top. I thought it stuck out a lot, rather than laying down.
-I thought the fit of the Leena balconet top was surprisingly great. It's obviously based on Juna, so I thought the fit would be difficult since Juna is so finicky. The Leena doesn't have that little flap of lace that the Juna has though, and I think that flap of lace is what makes the fit weird with Juna. The Leena fit me so well that I almost ordered one, but told myself that I'm probably a little old for heart prints.
-The Cleo Lucille Bandeau top is actually a different shape than the Lucille Bandeaus of previous years. The model that I saw in the store does not look like the one pictured on the Cleo website. The print is the same, but the one on the Cleo website looks like the same shape as last year's Lucille. This is last year's Lucille
http://www.twoja-bielizna.com.pl/upload/lucille1.jpg
The one I saw in the store had a more exaggerated "sweetheart" shape, with the cups coming up rounder at the top and the gore lower in the center. The shape of the one in the store matches more closely with this Lucille (I think from 2013?)
http://images.herroom.com/items/cleo-by-panache-panc01-cw0063-gsz.jpg
I had the new one side by side with one from last year, and they were definitely a different shape. The Panache rep even mentioned that the cups came up higher on the one for this year, so it wasn't all in my head. It was a special pre-production version, so it's possible that the final version is more like the photo on the website?
I didn't go in there to shop for myself at all, but I ended up placing an order for the purple Panache Marina Bandeau, which I NEVER would have picked out from a website. I don't even like purple, but it looked really good on me, and won me over.
The only other thing I can think of that was noteworthy is that at some point I said to the Panache rep "Please, please tell them we need longer straps on the Cleo bras!" She was surprised and said she had never heard before that the straps were too short on the Cleos, at which point it was my turn to be surprised since Cleo's short straps are pretty well known around here. I'm only 5'3" and even with the straps as long as they can go, they're still so short that they hurt me.
Filed under Bras ups and downs
I love bra garden! That was where I went after my first attempt at buying the right size from Nordstrom; Bra Garden has a better selection in a wider range of price points, so it was a pleasant surprise finding a small business/boutique like that when I was expecting something more along the lines of "Intimacy" near South Coast Plaza.
I need to drop by there sometime soonish for bras, I haven't needed any swimwear other than my boring basic one piece for years. The thought of trying on two piece bathing suits is making me want to hide under my desk - they never look quite right on me.