Before I get to the strappy tops from Bravissimo, just a little reminder that my Parfait giveaway ends tonight at midnight! Don’t forget to enter for a chance to win any 2 pieces of your choice from their SS2012 collection…like this dreamy babydoll, the Alexis:
Okay, now onto my Bravissimo finds!
I decided to take a chance and give these skinny strap tank tops with built-in underwire bras from Bravissimo a whirl.
Image via Bravissimo
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- Image via Bravissimo
I’ve been itching to try these tanks as a simple solution to layering a bra and a tank and then having to think about making sure your bra straps don’t stick out. I usually wear a layering tank with thicker straps to avoid that (this reversible Anthropologie one) but I liked having the option of skinny straps for once!
Because I’ve been working in a cluster of sizes rather than just a 28J or 30HH, I tried the top end of my band range (this tank starts only in a 30 band) and the biggest cup available, a 30H, to see if it might possibly work and ordered the blue and white nautical stripe and basic black ($51.75 each; also in a pretty hot pink shade and basic white).
Size chart for Bravissimo strappy tops with built-in underwire bras
Lo and behold, I loved them!
They work great for layering. Here’s the blue and white under a sheer Joie button front navy top. I love wearing this with coral maternity jeans (size 6 US, $58.17) from Asos and easy Yosi Samra ballet flats!
Layered under a sheer navy Joie top!
I also like them on their own. These are 60 cm long, so they are working for me and my baby bump, even at almost 26 weeks pregnant. They should be plenty long if you’re not expecting! This is such a fun top with dark jeans (these are my big pregnancy splurge, AG maternity skinnies) and a colored shoe (red croc print Yosi Samra flats work for me!). I love how seamless the back looks — no bra band bumps here!
The black has been also been a great wardrobe staple for me (as these should be at $50 a pop!!). Here it is with my coral jeans and a thin gray sweater:
In Sedona on my babymoon!
There’s also darts under the arms that I find super flattering:
FIT AND SIZING:
- The blue and white feels best on the tightest hook, instead of the loosest where you should be starting, but this works for me because if anything, I’ll need to expand out over the next few months as I enter my third trimester and postnatal stages. Because of this, I’d say that for the best fit, your normal band size would probably work best. However, if you’re going for the black, I found that the band does feel more snug. I am wearing the black on the middle or loosest hook…depending on the day! (If you’ve ever found black bras to run a bit tighter in general, Claire at Butterfly Collection explained to me before that the dye process to make garments black can result in a snugger fit…a bit of trivia for you!)
- From my experience the support has been as good as a regular bra for regular everyday wear.
- The H cup fits nicely on me, so perhaps the cup runs a bit big compared to other bras since I’ve usually been wearing a 28J/JJ or 30HH. When I checked my experience against the reviews on Bravissimo, there’s mixed feedback: some find the cups big and others find them true-to-size. From about 6 weeks of wear now, I haven’t had to muss about with these at all; everything stays put, straps, cups, all’s where it should be all day long.
- I’ve also found these tops very comfortable, with one exception. The hooks on the black tank run right up to the very edge of the band, so when I wear it on the loosest hook I can feel where the hook and eye meet. This seems to be a manufacturing error on my tank because this is not the case on the blue and white striped tank, which has a good amount of material left to protect my skin from the hook-and-eye closure.
- The straps are fully adjustable. I wear mine tightened to the tops of my shoulders.
- The closure can be a little bit of a pain to get closed, unlike the photo above where the model seems to hook the bra part with ease. I can’t hook this in front and spin it around because of my pregnant belly, but if you are a spinner, that might be the easier way to close this. To hook it from the back, I can only do it if I leave my arms out of loosened up straps, then put the straps on and tighten them up. Otherwise I feel like quite the contortionist!
UPDATE:
Erin C asked a great question about the padding of the bra part of this tank in the comments, so I’m adding two photos here of what the bra part of this top looks like. The top of the cup is sewn right into the top seam of the tank. When I felt the padding on this versus an old Freya Deco I have in my donation box, the padding on the tank felt slightly thinner to me. These photos also show the 3 seams on each cup that helps give this shape, as well as the mesh band and center gore. If anyone has tried both the Bravissimo and the Panache and can compare the two, please do share in the comments!
UPDATE PART 2:
Annie from Bras I Hate asked a great question about how this bra works, so although I don’t normally show photos of myself in bras, because this one has a lot more coverage I’m going to add some photos of what the bra portion looks like on. Please excuse the bit of baby bump! Also, my tissue is quite full on top so the shape you get in this might be slightly different.
The bra portion acts like a normal bra. The tops of the cups are simply extended to meet the top of the tank and sewn in to the seaming there
The underwires extend all the way back like a normal bra
A 2-hook closure. This portion is detached from the tank
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