This is my absolute favorite bra. I will definitely be buying more bras from Understance.
The material is soft and the wire doesn't dig into me in the way my other bras do. I was surprised when I looked in a mirror and saw how supported I was, because I didn't feel anything digging in anywhere! (Crazy that you CAN have both!) The lace and strappy things are really lovely and delicate. The Understance website says the lace is "okay" under clothes and not perfectly smooth (another thing to love about Understance: they document the pros and cons of their bras excellently), but it's actually much smoother than ...my Panache bras and you can't really tell I'm wearing a bra through thin tops.
I have close-set breasts in a large cup size for my petite frame, so I've had perennial problems with center gores. My old 34C bras didn't even come close to touching my chest for obvious reasons, so when I discovered my real size I tried a Panache Ana and it had the opposite problem, stabbing me before I even had the band closed. I've since bought two other Panache bras with higher gores that can get uncomfortable throughout the day since the wire is in contact with my breast tissue. With the Gemma, though, the center gore is perfect. It sits on my chest so docilely I forget it's there, but it still holds everything in.
My one qualm is with the strappy things, since they do show under anything with a square neckline or lower V, but I think they actually help the structure of the bra stay in place so I'm not complaining too much. Read more 172 more words
The band is stiffer than I would like, and the cups run small by maybe one size. I’m not sure, because I haven’t actually gotten my hands on many bras in this size.
The crossing straps at the front are really helpful. Since I’m center-full with soft tissue, I tend to pop out between the cups when I lean forward. This keeps me in without a high gore. The gore still isn’t low enough for me, though.
There’s no elastic band on the top of the wings. I’m not sure why.
After a few wears, the bottom of the band (under the cups) has rolled in and scratches a ...lot.
I’m a bit disappointed in this part, but maybe it was my mistake: I got this from Understance’s “asymmetry friendly bras” collection, which advertises “removable padding or uniwire.” Since it’s lightly lined, I assumed I could take out the lining on my large side (that often shoves lined cups down) and leave it as is on my smaller side, so the cup doesn’t crumple. But I don’t see a way to remove it without destroying the bra, so it’ll just get shoved down and dig into my ribs. Anyways, the lining is soft and comfortable. Read more 96 more words
The Gemma has more room in the cups and is better suited for my bottom-full breasts, with a layer of lace and a layer of mesh lining. The gore is shorter and wider, and the bottom of the band is shorter (less vertical distance from the bottom of the cups to the bottom of the band).
The seams are itchy! I got a rash on my large side where it gaps at the top and rubs my tail of Spence. Maybe it wouldn’t rub if the fit were different, but this is the Gemma’s biggest cup size.
I used Understance's calculator to get to this size, and fits overall except for one area.. I think the cup is too tall (the underwires "U" dip too low) because there's wrinkling near the gore there. (This causes the fabric below center gore to bend (ever so slightly) away from my torso because my boobs are pushing it down) I wish they designed this bra to be more deep rather than tall.
