When I started writing this post, it was meant to be one of my regular reviews, this time of the Curvy Kate Dreamcatcher Balconnete in 28D, DD, and E. As a result of reading a recent fit check on bratabase for the Curvy Kate Gia, this post morphed into something bigger, tackling Curvy Kate's performance as a brand in smaller sizes, and specifically it's non-padded bras and smaller breasts. I'm basing this post on my own experience, numerous fit checks from Bratabase and r/abrathatfits, a wealth of reviews from these two, as well as blogger reviews and customer reviews from retailer sites like Figleaves, Amazon and Herroom.
Now for a bit of history on Curvy Kate's models and their performance on shallow breasts: Curvy Kate has acquired a reputation of being wide and shallow in all of their models - I personally think the "wide and shallow" reputation originated solely from the larger cup sizes, and got also assigned to the smaller cup sizes. This reputation is simply incorrect when it comes to non-padded designs in the smaller cup sizes - the cups have always been quite deep in the lower size range, and have barely, if ever, been a success for shallow breasts. The brand listened to the customer complaints of "wide and shallow", and redesigned their entire collection (both lingerie and swimwear) to be narrower and deeper, starting SS13.
As a side note, I'm not going to devote much words to their swimwear collection for two reasons: 1) reviews are scarce, and 2) aside from the halternecks, all models are based on existing models of the main collection. Their first swimwear season was SS12, followed by SS13. For SS14: the tankinis are based on their balconette cut, the moulded bras are based on the Smoothie, and their padded bras are based on the Daily Boost/Lola. The halternecks do look shallow friendly, although the only reviews I found (most of them FF+ cups) only mentioned that they run small in the cups. Then again, complaints of cups running small are often a sign of the cup being too shallow for projected breasts.
The other padded model in their arsenal, the plunge, was a success for small, shallow sizes. Tempt Me, Wild and (especially) the Elegance were also a success on shallow breasts, but have been discontinued since SS13. The continuity multi-way plunge, the Desire, is also shallow, but has some (unrelated) issues which cause the top edge to flare. The Roxie showed up in SS14, but there aren't enough reviews available for me to give a proper verdict. It's supposedly based on the Tempt Me post-SS13.
An entirely different story are the padded balconnetes, based on their non-padded design: the continuity style Daily Boost, and the Lola (also available as a babydoll). The latter will show up in fashion colourways until at least AW14. These bras feature projected cups with narrow wires. Note that sizing down may allow shallow breasts to work in this style, but I personally can't comment on that.
Their moulded offerings, the Smoothie and Starlet (both continuity styles), are a tricky fit - the top edge is fairly closed, the bottom is very shallow, and the center is rather projected. In my case, going down a cup size solved this problem, but it does make this bra a mixed success for those with shallow breasts. Their first moulded strapless bra, the Luxe, is to be released in September as a continuity style. Strapless bras tend to be shallow, but time will tell if the Luxe follows this trend.
I won the Dreamcatcher months ago in the one year anniversary giveaway of Let's Get Lippy, a wonderful and well written beauty and lifestyle blog. After the bra arrived and didn't fit me, I ordered the bra in 28D and 28DD from Brastop, determined to figure out once and for all if Curvy Kate's balconettes can work for my shallow breasts.
The Dreamcatcher is a three-part non-padded balconette, introduced AW13 as a continuity range. According to bratabase, it's based on the Emily, Ella, and Romance. The cups are quite close together, not wide, and the wires are narrow-medium width in all three sizes I tried.
The main problem with me and the Dreamcatcher are the cups being too deep overall and too closed along the cup edge in all three sizes I've tried. The 28E was a mess of epic proportion: the cups wrinkled like no tomorrow, and no adjusting of the straps or band could fix it. The 28DD was a wrinkly mess of biblical proportions, and the 28D was simply a wrinkly mess, with cutting in at the top. Of course, me being conical plays it part, but the wrinkling presented itself in such ways that my shape on the sides hardly mattered with everything else going on.
Curvy Kate is a brand I've loved ever since I discovered my well-fitting size (I'm leaning towards 28E currently, but I'm still the occasional 28DD). However, I'm slowly coming to terms with the fact that me and Kate are just not working out. Don't get me wrong, I still mostly like the aesthetics of their bras, but the fit part of their designs is a another story.
"Curvy Kate Bras are Wide and Shallow"
Now for a bit of history on Curvy Kate's models and their performance on shallow breasts: Curvy Kate has acquired a reputation of being wide and shallow in all of their models - I personally think the "wide and shallow" reputation originated solely from the larger cup sizes, and got also assigned to the smaller cup sizes. This reputation is simply incorrect when it comes to non-padded designs in the smaller cup sizes - the cups have always been quite deep in the lower size range, and have barely, if ever, been a success for shallow breasts. The brand listened to the customer complaints of "wide and shallow", and redesigned their entire collection (both lingerie and swimwear) to be narrower and deeper, starting SS13.
As a side note, I'm not going to devote much words to their swimwear collection for two reasons: 1) reviews are scarce, and 2) aside from the halternecks, all models are based on existing models of the main collection. Their first swimwear season was SS12, followed by SS13. For SS14: the tankinis are based on their balconette cut, the moulded bras are based on the Smoothie, and their padded bras are based on the Daily Boost/Lola. The halternecks do look shallow friendly, although the only reviews I found (most of them FF+ cups) only mentioned that they run small in the cups. Then again, complaints of cups running small are often a sign of the cup being too shallow for projected breasts.
Even before SS13, reviews of the non-padded balconettes from bratabase users with shallow breasts are overwhelmingly negative. The reviews after SS13 even more so. Currently, there are 4 continuity styles available, the Princess, Portia, Gia, and Dreamcatcher. Some models, like the Romance, only have fashion colourways available, and some only pop up once a season, like AW13's Rosie. Most of these balconettes have the same base construction with slight variations to differentiate them, such as a tighter upper section (Princess), or a laminated cup (Lottie, Eden). Curvy Kate introduced their non-padded plunge in AW13 with the Daisy Chain. There aren't any reviews available in smaller sizes, but I doubt they'll be any more positive than the reviews for the balconettes.
In the past, most of Curvy Kate's padded half cups proved themselves as a success for shallow breasts. They were generally one-or-two seasons flies, like the Entice and the Fleurty. The Tease Me is also often cited as being well suited for shallow breasts, but despite having very shallow cups at the bottom, the deep apex makes it a very tricky fit, as it does require much top fullness and and projection. This makes it a very hit or miss bra in the smaller sizes (judging by the bratabase reviews, it's overwhelmingly a miss). The Thrill Me has some sizing issues of its own, but fares better than the Tease Me thanks to the cups having less projection on top - some reviews indicate it to be wider and shallow than the Tease Me, but as the colourways differ so much from each other, I cannot state this with certainty. The Tease Me will return in AW14, all the others have been discontinued. SS14 saw the introduction of a new padded half-cup, the Ritzy (also available as a babydoll), and a half cup longline, the Carmen. There aren't many reviews out there on either, but so far the Ritzy seems to be promising, with Carmen being on the fence - more reviews will hopefully shed more light on their respective fit.
The other padded model in their arsenal, the plunge, was a success for small, shallow sizes. Tempt Me, Wild and (especially) the Elegance were also a success on shallow breasts, but have been discontinued since SS13. The continuity multi-way plunge, the Desire, is also shallow, but has some (unrelated) issues which cause the top edge to flare. The Roxie showed up in SS14, but there aren't enough reviews available for me to give a proper verdict. It's supposedly based on the Tempt Me post-SS13.
An entirely different story are the padded balconnetes, based on their non-padded design: the continuity style Daily Boost, and the Lola (also available as a babydoll). The latter will show up in fashion colourways until at least AW14. These bras feature projected cups with narrow wires. Note that sizing down may allow shallow breasts to work in this style, but I personally can't comment on that.
Their moulded offerings, the Smoothie and Starlet (both continuity styles), are a tricky fit - the top edge is fairly closed, the bottom is very shallow, and the center is rather projected. In my case, going down a cup size solved this problem, but it does make this bra a mixed success for those with shallow breasts. Their first moulded strapless bra, the Luxe, is to be released in September as a continuity style. Strapless bras tend to be shallow, but time will tell if the Luxe follows this trend.
So, while Curvy Kate did score some hits in the past, their current collection exists mostly of non-padded balcony and plunge bras that do not fit shallow breasts well. Their SS14 collection offers 19 models in total: 8 non-padded models with a nearly non-existent success rate, 3 padded models (Daily Boost, Lola, Lola Babydoll) with a very low success rate, 2 models with a mixed success rate (Smoothie and Starlet), 1 model with a decent success rate (the Desire), and 5 models with an undecided success rate (Roxie, Ritzy, Ritzy Babydoll, Carmen, and the as of this writing still unreleased Luxe). AW14 sees even more non-padded designs, mostly new plunges, the Tease Me, Carmen, Ritzy, and Roxie all return with new fashion colourways, and a new fashion padded plunge will be available, called the Lovestruck. In my eyes, it looks like Curvy Kate's priority for now are their non-padded designs.
Me and Kate: A Summary of Tried and Tested Bras
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| 28E |
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| 28DD |
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| 28D |
As a reminder: my breasts are shallow, close-set, even in fullness, and have a conical shape, meaning I'm narrow on the sides and center heavy.
I won the Dreamcatcher months ago in the one year anniversary giveaway of Let's Get Lippy, a wonderful and well written beauty and lifestyle blog. After the bra arrived and didn't fit me, I ordered the bra in 28D and 28DD from Brastop, determined to figure out once and for all if Curvy Kate's balconettes can work for my shallow breasts.
The Dreamcatcher is a three-part non-padded balconette, introduced AW13 as a continuity range. According to bratabase, it's based on the Emily, Ella, and Romance. The cups are quite close together, not wide, and the wires are narrow-medium width in all three sizes I tried.
The main problem with me and the Dreamcatcher are the cups being too deep overall and too closed along the cup edge in all three sizes I've tried. The 28E was a mess of epic proportion: the cups wrinkled like no tomorrow, and no adjusting of the straps or band could fix it. The 28DD was a wrinkly mess of biblical proportions, and the 28D was simply a wrinkly mess, with cutting in at the top. Of course, me being conical plays it part, but the wrinkling presented itself in such ways that my shape on the sides hardly mattered with everything else going on.
Size | |||||||||
73.0 | 54.5 | 19.8 | 11.8 | 20.0 | 6.0 | 5.0 | 2.0 | 2.0 | |
73.5 | 55.9 | 20.5 | 12.6 | 20.3 | 5.8 | 5.0 | 2.0 | 1.6 | |
73.1 | 54.8 | 22.4 | 12.3 | 21.4 | 5.8 | 5.5 | 2.1 | 1.5 |
As you can see from the bratabase comparison, the wires in the smaller size range actually aren't really that wide: my three different sizes were very close together in measurement when it comes to cup width and wire length. The cups are very deep for their respective sizes, even just going by the measurements. I know depth measurements aren't the clearest indicator on how a bra is built or how/if the bra will fit, but for comparisons sake: the 28E Dreamcatcher's depth is close to the Thrill Me in 28G's depth - ouch.
Now that my blog is older, now that I've tried numerous bras and brands, I can reflect more clearly when it comes to bra fit. I'm ashamed to admit, but I did sometimes delude myself into thinking a bra didn't actually fit that bad, simply because I liked the looks of it too much or another silly reason.
I've tried several non-padded Curvy Kate models other than the Dreamcatcher, and the results were dreadful. The pre-SS13 Criss Cross I dug out of my "for sale bag" just for this post, and boy is it an awful fit on me, especially after loosening up the straps a little. The top of the cup doesn't even touch my chest, and there's heavy with wrinkling near the nipple. The pre-SS13 Princess, which has been sold in the meantime, had the same wrinkling issues along with cutting in at the top edge of the cups, thanks to the heavy embroidery. I did have a pseudo-positive experience with the Portia, as I was able to make it shallow by tying the cups together. It's not exactly ideal though, and it's of course not the way the bra is meant to be worn.
As for the padded models I tried: their padded half cups stab me painfully in the sternum, but other than that, a fine fit on my shallow breasts. I own(ed) the Entice, Fleurty, and Tease Me. I tried the latter in 28E ages ago and returned it because it was too big, I currently own it in 28DD. The Daily Boost, which I thought at the time to be an okay fit, was actually a bad fit a la the Freya Deco: a projected mess. The Desire is still a good fit, and I tried the Elegance ages ago before I started blogging - I don't remember much of it, but I remember it fit well enough, but I disliked how it looked underneath clothing. I haven't tried any of their other plunges.
The Bondi Breeze was a plunge cut, and I think it was based on the Tempt Me (the only plunge CK offered back in SS12). The fit wasn't bad or anything, I simply didn't like how little it covered. Although I do recall I found it to run big for a 28DD, but that may have had something to do with the stretchy fabric - other reviews indicate it to be shallow, and it fit Denocte of Kurven Diskussionen well when she wore this size. I've yet to review the Moonlight Padded Bikini Top in 28DD and Paradise Moulded Bikini in 28DD. The Moonlight, based on the Daily Boost is still too projected for me, and the cup fabric wrinkles where my breasts aren't round. The Paradise fits me exactly the same as the Smoothie, although the cups seem the tiniest bit more open, making it a slightly better fit.
I've tried several non-padded Curvy Kate models other than the Dreamcatcher, and the results were dreadful. The pre-SS13 Criss Cross I dug out of my "for sale bag" just for this post, and boy is it an awful fit on me, especially after loosening up the straps a little. The top of the cup doesn't even touch my chest, and there's heavy with wrinkling near the nipple. The pre-SS13 Princess, which has been sold in the meantime, had the same wrinkling issues along with cutting in at the top edge of the cups, thanks to the heavy embroidery. I did have a pseudo-positive experience with the Portia, as I was able to make it shallow by tying the cups together. It's not exactly ideal though, and it's of course not the way the bra is meant to be worn.
As for the padded models I tried: their padded half cups stab me painfully in the sternum, but other than that, a fine fit on my shallow breasts. I own(ed) the Entice, Fleurty, and Tease Me. I tried the latter in 28E ages ago and returned it because it was too big, I currently own it in 28DD. The Daily Boost, which I thought at the time to be an okay fit, was actually a bad fit a la the Freya Deco: a projected mess. The Desire is still a good fit, and I tried the Elegance ages ago before I started blogging - I don't remember much of it, but I remember it fit well enough, but I disliked how it looked underneath clothing. I haven't tried any of their other plunges.
The Bondi Breeze was a plunge cut, and I think it was based on the Tempt Me (the only plunge CK offered back in SS12). The fit wasn't bad or anything, I simply didn't like how little it covered. Although I do recall I found it to run big for a 28DD, but that may have had something to do with the stretchy fabric - other reviews indicate it to be shallow, and it fit Denocte of Kurven Diskussionen well when she wore this size. I've yet to review the Moonlight Padded Bikini Top in 28DD and Paradise Moulded Bikini in 28DD. The Moonlight, based on the Daily Boost is still too projected for me, and the cup fabric wrinkles where my breasts aren't round. The Paradise fits me exactly the same as the Smoothie, although the cups seem the tiniest bit more open, making it a slightly better fit.
So, all in all, Curvy Kate's non-padded offerings were a disaster on me, and their padded offerings worked mostly positive on me. I know I'm not the only one who experiences their models like this, and especially when it comes to my fit issues with the non-padded Curvy Kate bras - numerous reviews and fit checks tell me I'm not unique in experiencing a profound shape mismatch.
Is the Dreamcatcher, and by proxy the CK balconette, a bad bra? No, but it is thoroughly unsuitable for small, shallow breasts. This bra is made with full on top and projected breasts in mind, and with the recent trend of various redesigns making the cups even more narrow and deeper, I can't help but think that they should discontinue their smaller sizes in non-padded models.
They're on the right track with most their padded models, but the fact that little of their successful-on-shallow-breasts models are continuity styles is bothersome. Sure, you can still find the SS13 Entice if you dig around a bit, but in a year or so it'll be as good as gone. The Fleurty and Thrill Me's have virtually disappeared, safe for Ebay and a few outlet sites. A continuity style half cup in the vein of the Entice or the Ritzy would be an excellent addition to Curvy Kate's diverse continuity collection - perhaps even with a lower gore, as complaints of gore stabbing are common in the lower size range (again, in my opinion).
What Can Kate Do?
Is the Dreamcatcher, and by proxy the CK balconette, a bad bra? No, but it is thoroughly unsuitable for small, shallow breasts. This bra is made with full on top and projected breasts in mind, and with the recent trend of various redesigns making the cups even more narrow and deeper, I can't help but think that they should discontinue their smaller sizes in non-padded models.
I know I shouldn't think like that - projected breasts in this size range do exist, and it's wrong from me to assume otherwise, and deny those with projected breasts within this size range a choice of bras. Then again, I don't want those with shallow breasts to be disappointed, and with the current trend being "narrower and deeper cups", I'm not particularly hopeful for the future.
So, what can Curvy Kate do about this? They're not obligated to do anything of course, but in my opinion, the perfect solution would be the introduction of a non-padded style with vertical seams, such as a half cup. This style nearly always works well for shallow breasts, and as an added bonus is it's also a style that generally works well with all other shapes and sizes. Another solution would be to make different designs for different size ranges, like Ewa Michalak does with the 3D(M) and S(M) ranges - but I cannot say whether this would be a feasible undertaking, especially sales wise.
So, what can Curvy Kate do about this? They're not obligated to do anything of course, but in my opinion, the perfect solution would be the introduction of a non-padded style with vertical seams, such as a half cup. This style nearly always works well for shallow breasts, and as an added bonus is it's also a style that generally works well with all other shapes and sizes. Another solution would be to make different designs for different size ranges, like Ewa Michalak does with the 3D(M) and S(M) ranges - but I cannot say whether this would be a feasible undertaking, especially sales wise.
They're on the right track with most their padded models, but the fact that little of their successful-on-shallow-breasts models are continuity styles is bothersome. Sure, you can still find the SS13 Entice if you dig around a bit, but in a year or so it'll be as good as gone. The Fleurty and Thrill Me's have virtually disappeared, safe for Ebay and a few outlet sites. A continuity style half cup in the vein of the Entice or the Ritzy would be an excellent addition to Curvy Kate's diverse continuity collection - perhaps even with a lower gore, as complaints of gore stabbing are common in the lower size range (again, in my opinion).
