Replacing bra shelf foam with horsehair?

In article ,
wrote:

It seems to me that this discussion/rant/argument is a very old one...
Fuller figured women do need more support than the less well endowed,
but unfortunately these ladies are very sadly *underserved* by the RTW
lingerie companies...

This is another example of the industry taking a pattern for something
that works fine in smaller sizes, and enlarging and enlarging,
without taking additonal factors into account, and changing their
patterns accordingly. So, the larger busted ladies tend to be
uncomfortable, and have bras that usually do not fit particularly
well. This is a pretty sad state of affairs no matter how you look at
it...

You hit the nail on the head! They "grade" bras just like they grade
patterns--- stupidly for the most part. But, being the outspoken,
intelligent and creative women that we all are, we are gonna change
that!!! We're all gonna open our windows and yell, "I'm just not gonna
take it anymore!" ........ uh......well, that works well in a fantasy
anyway.

I do not make lingerie myself, but there is a sweet lady in Australia
who is a real crackerjack at making/designing bras for overly-endowed
customers... I will have to see if I can locate her, she may have
some suggestions from her experiences...

Oh now that would be interesting.

Phae

--
I fear me you but warm the starved snake
Who, cherished in your breasts, will sting your hearts. (Henry VI,Shakespeare)

Phaedrine wrote:

I was recently bra hunting and I looked at the Freyas online, especially
the balcony bras. They are indeed beautiful and they even have them in
my size which is amazing. What deterred me was that I have very narrow
shoulders (and ribcage... I'm usually looking at a 34H) and they seemed
to have a very wide strap placement. Our local bra & corset shop does
not yet carry them. Alas. Are they as wide at the shoulders as they
seem? And the other thing is that the straps are all so narrow. A
really great bra does not depend much on the straps for support but I
cannot tell just from pictures. So your experience would be helpful.

I have very sloping shoulders and the straps stay on just fine. They
seem to be in the same place as most of my other bras - at least, I
haven't noticed a difference. I tried slipping the strap down to see
what difference it made: the cup wrinkled because it was no longer
under tension but didn't sag much.

As for them being narrow: no more so than others. I've just measured
one and it's 5/8" wide, nice heavy satiny elastic.

I like them because they fit me on the cup and the underwires are
close together at CF. Other makes are pretty but they just don't fit
as well.

Sally

Phaedrine wrote:
In article ,
I was recently bra hunting and I looked at the Freyas online, especially
the balcony bras. They are indeed beautiful and they even have them in
my size which is amazing. What deterred me was that I have very narrow
shoulders (and ribcage... I'm usually looking at a 34H) and they seemed
to have a very wide strap placement. Our local bra & corset shop does
not yet carry them. Alas. Are they as wide at the shoulders as they
seem? And the other thing is that the straps are all so narrow. A
really great bra does not depend much on the straps for support but I
cannot tell just from pictures. So your experience would be helpful.
i'm about a 38H and i have a 36JJ in a freya and although the cups fit
perfectly the straps are so wide spaced that they dig painfully into my
arms. i wouldn;t call them narrow though.
emma
Phae

--

In article .com,
wrote:

Phaedrine wrote:
In article ,
I was recently bra hunting and I looked at the Freyas online, especially
the balcony bras. They are indeed beautiful and they even have them in
my size which is amazing. What deterred me was that I have very narrow
shoulders (and ribcage... I'm usually looking at a 34H) and they seemed
to have a very wide strap placement. Our local bra & corset shop does
not yet carry them. Alas. Are they as wide at the shoulders as they
seem? And the other thing is that the straps are all so narrow. A
really great bra does not depend much on the straps for support but I
cannot tell just from pictures. So your experience would be helpful.
i'm about a 38H and i have a 36JJ in a freya and although the cups fit
perfectly the straps are so wide spaced that they dig painfully into my
arms. i wouldn;t call them narrow though.

Thanks for letting me know, Emma. I can cross those off my list. They
sure look widely spaced in all the pictures too. Believe me, I know
about pain and aggravation from ill-fitting bras. My shoulders have
permanent grooves from effing bra straps. So I kinda like wide straps
now. My Fantasie Lily's straps are 26 mm and my Rosa Faia's are 32 mm.
While neither bra is perfect, the straps are quite comfortable.

Phae

--
I fear me you but warm the starved snake
Who, cherished in your breasts, will sting your hearts. (Henry VI,Shakespeare)

In article ,
Sally Holmes wrote:

Phaedrine wrote:

I was recently bra hunting and I looked at the Freyas online, especially
the balcony bras. They are indeed beautiful and they even have them in
my size which is amazing. What deterred me was that I have very narrow
shoulders (and ribcage... I'm usually looking at a 34H) and they seemed
to have a very wide strap placement. Our local bra & corset shop does
not yet carry them. Alas. Are they as wide at the shoulders as they
seem? And the other thing is that the straps are all so narrow. A
really great bra does not depend much on the straps for support but I
cannot tell just from pictures. So your experience would be helpful.

I have very sloping shoulders and the straps stay on just fine. They
seem to be in the same place as most of my other bras - at least, I
haven't noticed a difference. I tried slipping the strap down to see
what difference it made: the cup wrinkled because it was no longer
under tension but didn't sag much.

As for them being narrow: no more so than others. I've just measured
one and it's 5/8" wide, nice heavy satiny elastic.

I like them because they fit me on the cup and the underwires are
close together at CF. Other makes are pretty but they just don't fit
as well.

Thanks for the info!

--
I fear me you but warm the starved snake
Who, cherished in your breasts, will sting your hearts. (Henry VI,Shakespeare)

Pogonip wrote:
Would this be one of theirs?
http://digitalcartography.com/boobs/...sManhattan.jpg



I've seen that movie! It's called "The Brab."

JK ;-)

Pora

Thanks for letting me know, Emma. I can cross those off my list.

Wide strap placement aside, the Freyas tend toward a rounder, more
"natural" breast shape for their youngish market. For me that means a
bit saggy in the bottom cup. Definitely not as supportive as Fantasie.
Young Attitude also has this attribute.

Pora

Phaedrine wrote:

Good thinking! I've been cogitating along similar lines but with
ridgelene or, preferably, some of the other, softer synthetic boning.
The German plastic bones are quite good. Farthingales has them and
other synthetic boning:

http://www.farthingales.on.ca/plastic_bones.php

I think I'll get some just for experimenting. I wonder how flat it is.

My thoughts about the reinforced flat felled seams were inspired by
that Freya bra, the Tallulah full cup. It's one of the ones Oprah
raved about. The bottom cup is made of a net-based lace backed with
denier tricot and it's got 3 of these flat-felled type seams running
vertically. They are impressively stiff enough to keep the lace from
crumpling down but are quite flat. Combined with the steel underwire
it's achieving the necessary shaping with minimal fabric. One might
increase the rigidity even more by including organza or stiff net in
the seam (not the whole panel).

Pora

wrote:
umm that was all a bit ranty but i would like to add that i was in a
bad mood this afternoon! no offence intended
also i would actually like to find a bra that fits comfortably i've
just never found it hence slight ****ed off ness:-). closest i've got
is comfort without fit.
emma

I haven't forgotten about your need for lower underwires. I have a
plunge bra like the one in the Ezi-Sew picture and out of curiosity
measured the wire. It was a metric 105. The wire in my regular bra is
a 95. I don't know if there is a rule to be derived from this. I
posted a comment asking about this on Beverly Johnson's blog. We'll
see if there's anything to learn. But for your sake, I still seems
like a good idea to simply lower the neckline on your best-fitting bra
and snip the wires. You can leave it fully banded and get pretty good
stability. What are your thoughts on this?

Pora

Sally Holmes wrote:

I like Bravissimo (can you tell?) and if there's a shop near you I
suggest going to have a bra fitted. You may find that your band size
drops significantly.

By the way, I did recently try out a high-end shop and walked away with
a few from Prima Donna. They're the full figure part of a family of
Belgian luxury collections by Marie Jo (similar to Rigby and Peller).
I subsequently bought more from Marie Jo's other lines and have gotten
a better idea of how they achieve their high-end look and feel. The
fabrics of course are better, but they clearly strive to make the bras
light in weight. For example, the side shaping power bar in the
embroidered stretch net bra is made of tulle. I would never have
thought to do that and it is absolutely invisible. I was shocked to
find it. Their cup linings aren't tricot but ultrafine mesh. Stretch
or non-stretch as appropriate. Although the tulles and meshes aren't
so *very* comfy as tricot, the superior fit, fabrication, construction,
lightness and style keep me coming back to those bras. I think the
definition of elegance is achieving the most result with the least
effort. Compared with the overkill of heavy layers and foams in other
fuller-figure bras, this approach is inspirational. I'd say that's
what's gotten me so fired up in this 48J project.