This is going to be a lot. I'm going to start with the swim top off of me and looking at mainly the bra aspects of the swim top, then go into what makes it more swim top-y, and then whatever else needs to be said while wearing it.
Two layer cup, one an outer typical swimsuit fabric layer and an inner very slightly stretchy but still sturdy mesh layer, the inside mesh layer is a 3 vertical part cup construction. Straps feel like what I remember feeling some sort of neoprene material, similar to what I think a wet suit feels like, and its really nice, feels super sturdy but also has a lot of stretch, no irritating extra frills. One plastic clasp at the back that was very easy for me to hook, the band is very stretchy, there is a side support section that appears to have three layers-swimsuit fabric on the inside and outside with something non stretchy in the middle, the other portion of the band is made up of two layers- outer swimsuit fabric and inner black mesh but much stretchier than the mesh in the cup. On the inside of the cup the wires are covered in the swimsuit fabric as the outer layer, i don't know whats inside but it feels like a typically padding level for a wire. Straps have the typical bra strap adjustment and are attached. The swimsuit fabric is sewn in a way that instead of attaching to the mesh at the "top" of the cup and potentially allowing for the mesh to show, the mesh cup is about an inch shorter than the cup itself and the swimsuit fabric in the pattern is used to make up that extra inch.


Now the GORE. It's like nothing I've ever seen but it works! The actual gore of the bra of the swimsuit lays flat is is very bra like, however this swimsuit model is designed to look more bandeau and the less bra. I has a gathering in the middle between the boobs, we'll get to that. When you are wearing this bra and look down at your chest the gore will be tacking (if it fits) but there is fabric that extends horizonally forward so that the swimsuit fabric can look flatter from the front. Looking down it looks similar to this OVO If each boob is an O the bottom of the V is where the gore tacks to my chest and the top of the V would have fabric going straight across, I think it doesn't go quite straight across but it keeps the swimsuit from looking to bra like. I don't know how to totally explain what is happening here but basically there's a little strong you can tug on to make the top lower and more scrunched in the middle or loosen to make it flatter. You'll have to look at the pictures because I can't think of a better way to explain it.

While wearing:
I have never really noticed wire flexibility in a bra before, I've heard it discussed briefly but didn't have the bandwidth to understand but this bra has a wildly (and wonderfully?) flexible wire, flexes in all dimensions. I checked a few bras near me and they felt like sturdy wires so I grabbed the other swim top I got and it felt pretty flexible too, not quite as much but its in a padded cup so I assumed there's less allowance for flexibility. Another thing, I don't even know how or why or if its a pro or con but whenever I grab my boobs while I'm wearing this it feels like there's removable padding in it, truly don't know why but it's kind of nice. maybe its just sturdy and because its not a single layer cup like most others I try on the sturdiness of the underlayer combined with the stretchiness of the outer layer is giving this effect. I know this doesn't fit perfect on me, the wires sit a little low but god it is so comfortable! Typically with all of the bras I've tried on my arm and upper body movement is restricted, painful, uncomfortable, or moving makes something hurt really bad or stop fitting right, but with this I can flail my arms around with NO problems! Which is great since I'm actually going to use this for swimming like for exercise and not laying around tanning (I only burn) or just sitting in hot water talking to people or reading a book. I honestly can't believe this is so comfortable! Is it the wires? Or do I just need to buy another one and make it suitable for everyday wear? Until recently I have only worn Elomi bras but this most recent attempt at finding a bra that fits I learned more about my shape and learned elomi has very tall cups and I have short roots, I thought strap gap was going to be a given but I've actually found a couple bras that almost don't have strap gap and surprisingly this is one of them! There is a gap but it is small. On top of that I think all or at least most bras so far have caused a varying amount of pain in the part of the cup thats in the armpit, some extremely and some manageable but this doesn't hurt at all and I've been wearing it for at least 20 minutes and there is only a faint line where that part it, usually that's where the deepest and reddest and longest lasting marks are after I take a bra off!

I also wore this swimming right after I wrote most of this and it was great! It did start to hurt after a while in typical (for me) bra fashion but no major pain. It was easy to get off while wet. It worked great! Even though it doesn't technically "fit" I love it, definitely more comfortable than many bras I've tried on. Does hurt a bit after hours but not all that bad and it doesn't hurt or impede swimming at all.

Dark Tropics colorway

Updated on Jun 28, 2023 Flag this

---

add a comment

Use @ to mention users, brands, models and more

You need to sign in to comment