This bra is gorgeous! I got it during the sample sale, and it was marked as being a second - so the quality was not up to Harlow and Fox standards. They must be very careful with quality control, because to me this looks great!
The materials are very luxurious. The band is made from one layer of stretch silk, which is black on the inside but red on the outside. The colour is a bit deeper than it looks in the pictures. The outside of the wing is reinforced on the inside with a layer of non-stretch mesh.
The cups are made from three parts. First, a side ... sling made from silks both on the outside and the inside and reinforced with another material (probably mesh) between the silk layers. The sling doesn't have any vertical or horizontal stretch, but it does stretch a bit diagonally. The bottom of the cup is made from a black shiny non-stretch mesh on the inside and a thin black tulle on the outside. The top part of the cup is made from the same black tulle on the outside and a double layer of stretchy beige mesh on the inside. The top of this piece is also reinforced with a double layer of sturdy beige fabric at the top, where it meets the strap.
The black decoration on the tulle on the cups is actually made from laser-cut pieces of black silk which are individually sewn on the tulle - this looks very time intensive and difficult to sew. From the pictures, I initially thought it's just embroidery. The edge of the cup is cut in a specific shape and the decorations are sewn to match this shape.
The straps are made from silk both on the inside and outside and connect to the bra with golden hardware. The back half of the strap is elastic and adjustable, and the elastic is not very stretchy. If there's one part of the bra which I imagine didn't pass quality control for a £160 item, it's the way the silk straps are sewn, as there are a couple of loose black threads and it doesn't look as precise as the rest of the item.
Regarding the sizing, I think this fits true to size in the band and runs somewhat large in the cup. I had to sister size a bit since they didn't have a lot of sizes left on sale, so this is 1-2 bands too big and 1 cup too small.
Regarding fit, I have average to narrow roots and the cup is a bit on the wide side for me. The side sling makes the attachment point of the strap to the cup to be quite central, as the most tension seems to be on the seam connecting the sling to the cup than the rest of the sling itself. This reminds me of the moved-in strap alteration on Comexim (which actually makes the fit worse for me, but I know a lot of people love it), but also creates a bit of in-cup quadding. I guess this is why they reinforced the attachment point of the upper tulle to the sling. This will probably be a better fit for someone with more outer fullness - especially as the gore is also on the wide side. The cups have quite a lot of bottom projection.
I'd say the overall fit of the cup is a usual full-cup fit and unfortunately full-cups don't usually work for me, as I'm relatively full on top and I'm not a fan of the shape they give. The shape I get in this bra is also quite pointy (also because the cups are a bit too small) and I personally prefer a rounder profile. This will work best for someone full on bottom.
However, form a comfort perspective, this feels like it will be very comfortable to wear and it feels great against the skin. The support is also better than I expected.
I'll be sending it back unfortunately, but if anyone want to give it a try, send me a message and I'll be happy to list it. For the £28 I paid for it instead of the full price, this is very much worth it.
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Updated on Sep 06, 2018 Flag this