Bear with me on lack of pictures/crappy pictures for current posts… as mentioned on Twitter, I just have a halfway broken camera and a cell phone to work with currently 😛
The other two Curvy Kate bras I received in my last package besides the Tease Me were the Portia and the Angel bras, both in a 28GG. I decided to wear each one while making notes on them (which proved surprisingly difficult, as you’ll note in a moment).
Bra Log 12/18/11
Portia Bra:
Bra very VERY tight, so much so that it prompted me to buy an extender and try it that way. Center gore stabbing painfully. Cup fabric cutting into breasts, very noticeable quadboob (on the left, my bigger side, especially). This effect a bit more pronounced without the extender. Cups comes up a little high on the armpits and are rubbing there, and cup wires don’t go back far enough to encase all breast tissue on the side. Red indentation left where center gore was stabbing. Did I mention wearing it is painful? I couldn’t wait to take it off.
Besides all of that, I liked the overall front shape that it gives (ignoring the quadboob, etc)
Angel Bra:
Band feels a bit on the tight side. Cup fabric comes up high under the armpit and is rubbing. Slight quadboob effect for left side. The shape feels too “spread out”, and the cups aren’t as uplifting as I like. Not a good look.
Conclusions:
Despite the pain I endured with wearing the Portia, I’d be willing to give it another try in a different size because I liked the overall shape it was giving (and it was cute!). I’m assuming the band felt so tight mostly because the cups were too small. I’m guessing if the bra were going to work for me, a 28HH might be my go-to (up 2 cup sizes from my “usual”).
I had heard good things about the Angel, but I don’t think it’s a bra for me. I might try it again if I was in a store with a wide variety of sizes, but I don’t think I would order it again just based on the shape it gives me (spread out, doesn’t feel terribly supportive). You can see from the links above that even on the models, the Angel bra seems to give a more “spread out” and lower shape than the Portia. The Angel may work much better for someone with a different shape and preferences than me.
So far with Curvy Kate bras, I’ve learned that I would seem to need a 26J in one (Tease Me), a 28HH in another (Portia), and I don’t like the third (Angel). I’m surprised at the seeming disparity between what my size seems to be for these bras and what my size is for other bras. I need to try on more Curvy Kate bras before I come to any solid conclusions, but right now I’m feeling like their sizing between styles is not at all consistent. I decided to line up my 28GG purchases to compare bands and take a look at the difference in lengths:
(from top – Panache Tango II Plunge, Curvy Kate Portia, CK Angel, CK Tease Me)
I’m rather astounded at the differences in band length between these bras, which are all labeled as a 28GG – and three of them are the same brand! Why such difference?
Curvy Kate, I haven’t given up on you yet, but I’ll be proceeding with caution. I know some people love Curvy Kate, so it may just be that it’s another brand that doesn’t work well for my shape…