After buying the Brazilian underwear in Crimson that matched this bra, I decided to give it another chance. I really love red bras and I was determined to make it work. What I noticed about the underwear (and RollsAndCurves' review of the bra in her size) was that the mesh material stretched a bit after wear.

This made me think that my previous review of 38J - Curvy Kate » Ellace Balcony Bra (CK4401) may have been problematic because the fit was off. First, I am solidly a 38 band now, and originally I needed an extender which changed the fit of the bra. Second, I hypothesized I would need to size down in the cup to get the slightly stretchy fabric to give me support. Finally, I realized the lace in cup quadding was actually due to the lace section being too loose, not too tight (because I tried a bunch of sizes and it was worse on the bigger bras I tried than the smaller ones). Hence here I am with a 38HH, which is 1.5 cups smaller than I normally wear, but my normal size for stretchy fabric cups.

So the straps on this colorway are much nicer than the slippery ones on the black colorway. They are wider and padded. That's a big change and makes the bra wearable. I have them cinched up more than I normally do for padded bras, but I had no shoulder pain after wearing it all day today.

The wires are also slightly firmer than usual CK bras. The gore tacked very firmly, providing a lot of support. Unfortunately, it's slightly too tall for me and my touching breasts on the top of my root rubbed against the sides of the gore. I'm thinking of shortening the gore to correct this problem (my breast roots are only about 3 inches tall so this is a normal problem for me. The bra is great in general for short roots).

The band measured about 38 inches stretched when I first got it. It's stretched out to about 40 inches now after one wear. The top band elastic is looser than the bottom.

The underbust elastic is nice and soft. It does roll under but that's all bras for me.

The wings poke. I think the wire ends should be padded because this bugged me all day. I will probably fix this problem with padding on the ends.

The lace accommodates my full on top shape well. The shape I get is like Jasmine but rounded and with a shorter apex for my short roots. It's quite projected and incredibly narrow for this size in a U.K. Brand. Pretty nice. Materials are softer than Jasmine too.

The color is a beautiful blood red/burgundy color and the contrast bows and elastic are a darker purply red. It's very elegant. Again I have the matching undies which are nicely low rise and Brazilian. I do feel sexy and adult in this set. It's a good look for CK.

Edit: after wearing this bra all day a few times and washing it, I have a few things to report. First, after washing and pushing the wires all the way back towards my armpit in their channels, I don't get rubbing at the gore or armpit pinching and the armpit scratchiness is basically gone.

Second, just as I expected, the fabric does stretch slightly throughout the day, and it's just not a super firm support bra, although I don't notice a change in shape over the day. This is not the bra I'll wear out dancing, but for walking and sitting at a desk, my normal activities, it is very comfortable. I can wear it for 10+ hours with no back and neck pain. The band has not stretched further and is quite comfortable as well.

Crimson colorway

This bra is not owned any more

Updated on Feb 16, 2017 Flag this

• Show all comments (8)
• 1

  This color is gorgeous!!

• 2

  Beautiful bra and looks good on you. Nice that you have the set! Lots of stretch in that band after one wear. Hopefully it still works :)

• 2

  I have it hooked on the last hook on the bottom and the first hook on the top so I think I might need to sew darts in the band on top at some point to fix the tension as this is definitely made for a v shaped back. But it feels very firm hooked like that right now so I'm hoping that's where it stays for a while! I do believe the bottom elastic is very sturdy so I hope it works for a while.

• 1

  I hope it does too! It's a gorgeous color and looks great on you!

• 2

  Thanks so much! I wore the set for the first time yesterday and walked around feeling very good about what I might look like under my bundled up winter clothes. :D

• 1

  This fits you so well! I expected to see in-cup quadding, but you don't quad along the seam. Perhaps they remedied that fit issue in your size? Gorgeous on you!!

• 1

  Love4Pollinators get this. I tried this bra in a 40J, 40HH, 38JJ, 38J, and 38HH. In all the sizes but the 38HH I got in cup quadding or wrinkling or both. I think it has to do with tension on the lace- if the lace is pulled taut there is less quadding. It was the same in this colorway as well as the latte I tried before, which I tried on just for sizing. So I don't think it's just about the colorway.

  Normally there would be no way I could wear this size but the lace is quite accommodating to my very full on top tissue. I guess I can do with with stretch cups because I have very little tissue in the bottom of my breasts. Years of them laying flat against my ribcage has really pushed all the tissue to the top. In fact, sometimes I can feel that my breasts are a tiny bit concave on the bottom. So weird.

  You can't see it in the pics but there is the tiniest bit of in and top of cup quadding. It's not visible under clothes though.

• 1

  Thanks for sharing! Good to know!

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