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| Some of my selections. |
I’ve always fantasized about ordering a huge heap of bras in every color and size just to try them all on and see what fits. It strikes me as more practical than the agonizing and soul-crushing process of choosing a single bra, ordering it, hating it, and sending it back. But I’ve never been able to do a massive order before. The fact is that you need to have a decent chunk of money in your bank acount t be able to do a big order, especially with shipping to the US. For a lot of last year, my bank balance hovered around $20--ah, the life of a student.
However, last week I realized that with my summer savings, and my Amazon Prime free trial, and the fact that I'm living in the UK right now, I was in good shape to figure out Curvy Kate bras once and for all.
For obvious reasons, I’ve been pretty obsessed with Curvy Kate ever since I discovered their existence. I love the fact that all their bras come in a wide range of sizes. I love the fact that they engage with, and clearly appreciate, their customers. I love the fact that they make bras in fun colors and beautiful designs. I love the fact that you can get their products at super-reasonable prices with great availability on brastop.com, lovebras.com, and amazon.co.uk.
However, after an initial success with the Tease Me bra last winter (the one I just gushed about in my last review) I had a lot of really negative experiences that put me on edge. The Thrill Me bra that I got in the same size didn't work as well for me, and I only kept it (and struggled with it) because it’s so pretty. Over the summer, I agonized over and finally ordered the Princess only to find that it made my boobs point straight to the ground. I persisted and tried again with the Criss Cross and the Flirtelle Petal (Flirtelle bras are constructed the same as Curvy Kate). No dice—both these bras gave my boobs a downcast, “sad” shape, identical to the Princess. The hardest part was that all the bras were really beautiful—clearly comfortable, clearly good quality and even prettier than they looked in photos. It really pained me to have to send them back (especially with the shipping—I think I got something like $4 back on the Princess after paying shipping both ways) and I began to think that Curvy Kate just wasn’t for me. This hypothesis was solidified by my failure with the Elegance just a few weeks ago. I struggled to come to terms with the fact that one of the only lingerie companies I took seriously didn’t make bras that suite my body.
So when my large order of Curvy Kate arrived on Friday, I wasn’t exactly optimistic. I’m glad I didn’t have my hopes up TOO high because there were definitely some disappointments in that package. But the order really cheered me up overall due to a few surprising successes! I’m going to review each model separately over the course of this week—I hope the reviews can be instructive for those who, like me, have longed to enter the happy land of Curvy Kate.
My major lesson from this big order is that the sizes I had previously tried in Curvy Kate were too small, and that's why I got a downward-pointing shape. In an effort to prepare for this, I ordered 1-3 cup sizes bigger than my normal Panache size in all the Curvy Kate bras I tried, and this made me realize what I was doing wrong before. If you get that "sad" shape in Curvy Kate, try sizing up one or two cup sizes. If possible, try both. For a lot of people, Curvy Kate runs a bit smaller in the cups than Freya or Panache, but it's not as obvious--sometimes the only clue that your Curvy Kate is too small is a bad shape.
My major lesson from this big order is that the sizes I had previously tried in Curvy Kate were too small, and that's why I got a downward-pointing shape. In an effort to prepare for this, I ordered 1-3 cup sizes bigger than my normal Panache size in all the Curvy Kate bras I tried, and this made me realize what I was doing wrong before. If you get that "sad" shape in Curvy Kate, try sizing up one or two cup sizes. If possible, try both. For a lot of people, Curvy Kate runs a bit smaller in the cups than Freya or Panache, but it's not as obvious--sometimes the only clue that your Curvy Kate is too small is a bad shape.
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