Breaking the Mould in Full-Bust? Love and a Little Category Untangling

Reigning fashion blog The Lingerie Addict has just featured Holly from The Full-Figured Chest on brands providing a breath of air in full-bust, and I have feelings about it, so by the power vested in me as a blogger I shall proceed to unpack them here. (Holly’s post has also elicited a sobering insight regarding a complication that’s got to be layered into the core problem — how we are all going to fix this broken-ass market, full-bust lingerie. I’ll follow up with that part very shortly.)

Feel the first.

It’s outstanding to see such high-profile attention being paid to the problem. And it’s great to see some fantastic brands highlighted that are entering the arena and really, legitimately shaking things up. Like the new indie brand All Undone. All Undone has only three sets for now —  one design, really, in three colorways — but it’s clearly operating at a level of adult aesthetic sophistication you just don’t generally see in full-bust and I am dying to try it out. More on this brand below, however, for reasons.

Holly’s post also does a service by calling attention to Pour Moi? and its groundbreaking Addicted set. I had previously hailed the Figleaves Boudoir style Carmen as the first full-bust cage style to boldly attempt the lower full-bust range of DD-G, but first report suggests that it runs small enough it may have to be disqualified from the lists. Pour Moi? offers Addicted in up to a G. If this one doesn’t run small in the cup, it may squeak into pride of place. And that is some serious Myla-level cage action it’s got going on. Provisional hail!

ongoing sisyphean quest for a cage bra

Figleaves Carmen, to G, runs 2-3 cups small; Pour Moi? Addicted, may offer a true G; Myla Rita, a non-full-bust brand/bra, shows what it is we’re after

 

Feel the second.

OMG we really need to talk about the tangled-up category structure in this market. Holly’s characterization of the Tutti Rouge polka-dotted thingy as OMG! first! ever! cute bra for teens! makes me want to turn my face to the wall and give up. Have you even SEEN Freya or Cleo or Curvy Kate this last three years I can’t even. I mean, maybe it’s just symptomatic, maybe we full-bust bra buyers take the cupcakification of everything so much for granted at this point that we’ve all got Stockholm syndrome and it doesn’t even make us wince any more. But then why is that Tutti Rouge the one that finally flipped Holly’s O HAI YOUTH switch? I’m just done, you guys. Further yet: All Undone is not an example of the androgynous aesthetic! It’s a sophisticated, minimalist aesthetic, is what it is. Not the least bit girlish, no. Not sweet and saucy. No frills and curlicues. But still: feminine as hell. No? Really? Is it just me? Have we all forgotten that femininity is not something you age out of when you leave the first blush of nubile girlhood? EFF YOU, CULTURE. mumble, sputter Androgynous, for my money, would be along the lines of the Freya Taylor and its offspring the Hatty — menswear-inspired elements like pinstripes and charcoal — or, going outside full-bust, something like VPL, all sporty and uncompromising.

unknotting the category structure a little

Category madness! Tutti Rouge: teen appeal, but unique? Really? All Undone: clean and minimal but feminine — the featured Mai is even pink, for crying out loud. And what androgyny looks like: overt menswear elements from Freya’s Deco empire, or sporty, no-nonsense VPL (not in full-bust sizes).

But you know what? If there were a well defined, well understood, well established category structure to speak of in full-bust, I wouldn’t be losing my mind about how broken this market is to the point of blogging about it in the copious spare time I have after my 80-hour-a-week day job. So let’s just give a bye here for entirely natural confusion, praise the more appropriate categorizations — Claudette in sheers, the Pour Moi? Addicted in sexy — and stipulate that there is some sorting out to be done here ASAP for the love of God. I will get to this. (Yeah, I keep promising to get to things and then not doing it. You guys do not even know. Augh.)

 

Feel the third.

Featured here — correctly, as the rare full-bust player that’s boldly filling the near vacuum in sheers — is Claudette. Look at this awesome picture of the iconic Dessous bra. Claudette is taking full-bust seriously. They’re being thoughtful about what it is you actually do when you move up into F, FF, G. See how the wing is higher and the shape and proportion of the cup changes: it doesn’t just mindlessly scale up. I haven’t tried one on, because I assumed it would be much too short.  I’m thinking about it now.

tasty Claudette

The iconic Claudette Dessous, shown in a larger cup and in a smaller one. Groundbreaking not just for sheerness but for that neon yellow. Mmm.

 

And I’ve run long, getting the gushing and sputtering out of my system. So I’ll wrap this post there. Part II will follow up shortly with the sobering market insight stuff.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Odeanna