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more product reviewish stuff
I know a lot of you hate bras on principle, so feel free to just skip this entry. But I've tried out a bunch of bras recently and thought it might be of interest to some of you.
So, I've tested in the past few months basically all the variants on padded bras that Victoria's Secret makes in my size. They are, despite their iconic status as the Underwear Supermodel Sexist Franchise, one of the few places that makes bras that can be counted upon to fit me properly.
Awhile ago, I made myself my first "tribal" bra by decorating an old Target (or possibly even Walmart) bra with shells and fabric and stuff. But it came out all conical, cause the bra wasn't all that good to begin with.
So I have bought 3 - yes, 3 - black padded bras from the Vicki's in the past 6 months in hope that one of these would be a better tribal bra foundation. Here's what I've discovered:
The "miracle" bra: Is possibly made out of some sort of bizarre foam/marble combo. It's practically fetish wear, it's that stiff; it just doesn't seem like a bra an actual person would wear. I question why anyone with a DD cup would want an extra cup size or two, but it is surprisingly comfortable for having such substantial padding. One of the complaints I have about padded bras is that the padding ends up making the bra look all lumpy; this bra doesn't do that. It does, however, have plungy cleavage that made me wary of actually dancing in it.
The Effing Ipex Bra: This bra is the devil. It was so soft and comfortable the first time I put it on that I was convinced I'd love it. But it's evil after like 6 hours. The padding gets all foldy and weird, and its superwide "comfortable & light" straps twist and poke out of your clothes and fall off. I'd already worn the darn thing, so I couldn't exactly send it back. I'm going to reinforce the straps and convert it to a tribal bra, possibly with a halter. I think it'll be great for that purpose, since it's supportive and relatively structured, but it sucks as an actual bra. Don't buy one, even if it is on sale.
The Body by Victoria blah "shaping" blah blah bra: Actually is, as![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
missmeridian told me, the bomb. It's like the best t-shirt bra ever, cause it's all seam-free (it kinda begs the whole social question of why you're "supposed" to wear a bra, but it's "supposed" to not be obvious you're doing so). It's halfway between a basic cotton bra and the sculpted and slightly disturbing wonder that is the "miracle" bra. It's much too good to be a tribal bra.
By the way, since Vicki's only carries bras up to 40DD or so, and they're all about the underwire, they may not be your thing. If you want a light, basic bra, people have said wonderful things about Decent Exposures, and they're custom-made in any size. Not my thing, but might be yours.
So, I've tested in the past few months basically all the variants on padded bras that Victoria's Secret makes in my size. They are, despite their iconic status as the Underwear Supermodel Sexist Franchise, one of the few places that makes bras that can be counted upon to fit me properly.
Awhile ago, I made myself my first "tribal" bra by decorating an old Target (or possibly even Walmart) bra with shells and fabric and stuff. But it came out all conical, cause the bra wasn't all that good to begin with.
So I have bought 3 - yes, 3 - black padded bras from the Vicki's in the past 6 months in hope that one of these would be a better tribal bra foundation. Here's what I've discovered:
The "miracle" bra: Is possibly made out of some sort of bizarre foam/marble combo. It's practically fetish wear, it's that stiff; it just doesn't seem like a bra an actual person would wear. I question why anyone with a DD cup would want an extra cup size or two, but it is surprisingly comfortable for having such substantial padding. One of the complaints I have about padded bras is that the padding ends up making the bra look all lumpy; this bra doesn't do that. It does, however, have plungy cleavage that made me wary of actually dancing in it.
The Effing Ipex Bra: This bra is the devil. It was so soft and comfortable the first time I put it on that I was convinced I'd love it. But it's evil after like 6 hours. The padding gets all foldy and weird, and its superwide "comfortable & light" straps twist and poke out of your clothes and fall off. I'd already worn the darn thing, so I couldn't exactly send it back. I'm going to reinforce the straps and convert it to a tribal bra, possibly with a halter. I think it'll be great for that purpose, since it's supportive and relatively structured, but it sucks as an actual bra. Don't buy one, even if it is on sale.
The Body by Victoria blah "shaping" blah blah bra: Actually is, as
missmeridian told me, the bomb. It's like the best t-shirt bra ever, cause it's all seam-free (it kinda begs the whole social question of why you're "supposed" to wear a bra, but it's "supposed" to not be obvious you're doing so). It's halfway between a basic cotton bra and the sculpted and slightly disturbing wonder that is the "miracle" bra. It's much too good to be a tribal bra.By the way, since Vicki's only carries bras up to 40DD or so, and they're all about the underwire, they may not be your thing. If you want a light, basic bra, people have said wonderful things about Decent Exposures, and they're custom-made in any size. Not my thing, but might be yours.
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:-)
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Now I'll just have to wait for the next victoria's clearance sale!
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and really? you like the glamour bras? i found them to be made of some sort of material that is not of the lord, and certainly not to be allowed that close to my girls for any amount of time.
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I like the shape of the glamour bras; they tend towards the strictly round shape, none of that conical bs. And the lacey stuff is a vast improvement over the usual ass-nylon and lace confections that other companies make.
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Same question about underpants too, modified now for visible G-strings. Although I remember a weird underwear 'fashion' at school where it was deamed (by the female students themselves) compulsory to wear synthetic black underpants over your real underpants. You could see these right through our thin pink cotton uniforms (Australian schools all have uniforms) so lack of visible black underwear meant you were ... a bad girl, only wearing the one pair!
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:)
I just find it really...difficult to find something I like, that is cute, that fits well.
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Exactly!
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It started as a Physical Education class thing. We wore very short skirts — netball skirts, but that might not mean anything to you — to the classes, and doing, for example, high jump would reveal our underwear to the other girls and maybe the boys. The dark coloured nylon overunderpants were actually a compulsory part of netball players' uniforms (the umpires were empowered to check!) so I think the crossover was fairly natural to the PE classes, and then people wouldn't see our "real" underwear. I forgot to take the extra pants once on a high jump day and you betcha girls commented.
I don't quite understand how they made the crossover to being an unofficial part of the normal uniform. Possibly so that people wouldn't forget to wear them as above. And also the whole extra-chaste thing would have appealed to the fairly strong cult of virginity that... some of the girls were into.
The lengths that school went to to avoid putting pants as an option in the female uniform. (Most schools do.)