The Alana is a 3-part cup balcony bra, with fully adjustable straps and fastens with a closure with 3 rows of 3 columns of hooks. This bra is in the 'nude' colourway.
The lower part of the cup and the wings are made of a medium beige coloured opaque fabric, with the upper cup section made from a translucent beige coloured fabric with a geometric pattern on it. The embroidered pattern doesn't seem to show through shirts, and basically it's a pretty utilitarian design.
Whilst to my advantage in that it makes the bra run both firm and short, this bra has basically no wing! While at rest, there's only ... 4.5cm/1.5" between the outer edge of the wire channel and the outer edge of the strap attachment. This makes the bra function as having closer to what one would expect as a 28 band. To be honest though, this is a design flaw, and narrower wires together with a longer wing and a strap attachment point which is closer to the fastening would make the bra a better fit for anyone in this size range.
I suppose I shouldn't even expect anything else, but the straps are very wide-set and have to be angled in to sit on my shoulders. The attachment part is far too wide on both my front and my back.
I was sold this bra in the Bravissimo Oxford Circus store while on holidays. Whilst the fit is by no means perfect, and both myself and the salesperson agreed on this, trying a 32KK meant that I had quite a bit of gaping at the outer top of the cup and cutting in under my arms, whereas if I line my nipples up with the T-seam in this bra, I only ooze out of the cup slightly, and the quadding isn't visible under a shirt. If I fully scoop into the cups, they are visibly quite a bit too small. The cups are fairly closed on top, especially because there's a little seam tape on the top of the cup, but I've found because of the height, the cup doesn't directly dig into my evenly full breasts.
The bra is sturdy and the straps are stable and don't cut into my shoulders (unlike my EM bras where I've had to resort to compromising support a little and loosening the straps off all the way). Because the straps are too wide-set and the wires are too wide, it does create a point of pressure on the outside of my frame, making the bra uncomfortable to wear for more than a few hours at a time.
The shape is probably closest to the 'green' shape on me (uplifted apex, a little pointy), and the cup apex seems to be somewhat splayed owing to the wider gore and shallowness at the centre of the cup. It's not horribly weird under a shirt, and I have fairly low standards regarding shape, with comfort and support as higher priorities, so I don't mind too much. It's not a favourite though in this regard. I'd also love to see more attractive cup grading, the upper section of the cup is unflatteringly large (as usual). A line which is closer to horizontal with a deeper upper section would be more aesthetically pleasing.
I was a little surprised to see that there were a few loose threads where lines of stitching hadn't been finished correctly, and slightly uneven finish on the inside of the wing at the top edge. Everything seems to have been sewn correctly, it's just lacking a little polish which I've come to expect from mass-manufactured bras.
Overall, I guess I feel that this bra is not bad and wearable. It's not going to be a favourite of mine, but it's functional and nice to have some non EM styles in my rotation.
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Nude colorway
Updated on May 06, 2015 Flag this
