Pinup perfection! The Heidi dress by Pinup Girl Clothing

Amongst the many dresses my curvy pals have tried, there is one that stands out above the rest. One that seems to enchant every woman who's tried it, whether they are a size 6 or a size 20. That dress, ladies and gentlemen is the Heidi by Pinup Girl Clothing!

A few months ago I finally caved in to my desires and bought a Heidi dress in leopard print from buy-unlike. After a lot of comparing measurements with other Heidi fans, I bought the dress in a small, and much to my delight it fitted perfectly, as though it was made for me! I paid £47 for it in the sale, and sadly they don't stock it any more but it can be found on Pinup Girl Clothing for £60 (plus shipping).

The neckline is quite daring and somewhat lower than I'd usually wear, but boy do I feel good in it! It's sweetheart shape is complimented by a black trim which is also echoed around the cap sleeves. Included is a high quality skinny fabric belt in black. Here I teamed it with a wide bow belt from Primark, spike heelless shoes from my local market (can also be found on ebay) and the 'Lola Puffy' petticoat from Collectif.

A close up on my shoes because I think they're amazing! I admit I've not worn them yet but I couldn't face taking them back for a refund because they're so different.

I'm glad I caved in as this dress is gorgeous, fits like a glove and is available in plenty of other colours should I get bored of this one. I've already go my eye on the cherry print Heidi.

The Heidi might cost a bit more than other dresses I've tried, but it's totally worth it as the quality, fit and rockabilly styling are perfect. I'd be hard pushed to find something off the rack that fits as well as the Heidi. It's quite simply perfect!

The Ahh Bra...The Marmite of bras?

*Firstly, I'd like to say that I was sent the following items to review by the company in question. I blog honestly and will not lie about a product just because it was sent free of charge.*

We've all seen those late night shopping channels advertising miracle products that you simply can't live without, right? Sometimes they can grab your attention...

"Tired of hooks, wires straps and underwires?" Sounds interesting, go on..."Say goodbye to the barbaric torture of traditional bras and hello to technology made perfect!" Riiiiight...."The Ahh Bra...." Oh, that thing...

Like I said in the title, to me the Ahh Bra (affectionately know as the Argh Bra by some bloggers!) is like Marmite; you either love it or hate it. I'm a firm believer in the need for wires, hooks, straps and a solid band to support the breasts, so I'm in the 'hate it' camp. So when a representative of Rhonda Shear contacted me to see if if I'd like to review the Ahh Bra, I was reluctant but in the interests of my blog, thought it would be an ideal product to try.

Rhonda Shear, the designer of the Ahh Bra is undoubtedly a passionate and inspirational businesswoman, having won numerous entrepreneurial awards since the launch of the Ahh Bra 2002. Rhonda was an all-American beauty pageant kind of girl, later posing for Playboy, then moving onto TV, movies and stand-up comedy. Wanting a new project, Rhonda decided to embark upon designing a revolutionary new bra; and the Ahh Bra was born! Rhonda's range has since expanded to include nightwear, outerwear such as leggings and secret support vests, dresses and shapewear, which I was hoping I'd get to try out.

The ever glamorous Rhonda Shear (photo courtesy of Up All Night)

The Ahh Bra has no hooks, wires or adjustable straps and comes in sizes XS-2XL without the 'need' for cup sizes. It's supposedly guaranteed to fit perfectly. We'll see about that...!

Beautifully presented. But never judge a book by it's cover...

I was sent four items from Rhonda's 2012 collection; the original Ahh Bra, an Ahh Bra with removable pads, the 'Sweet Tart' butterknit gown and the 'Pin Up' bra.

The Original Ahh Bra: 

I received this in the Raspberry colour, in a size medium, based on my overbust measurement of 36" (I think). The underbust measurement isn't taken into account therefore I found it a little loose in the band.. The other major problem is that the straps aren't adjustable, and needed to be about 4 inches shorter. You can see in the picture below how the fit of the Ahh Bra is improved simply by shortening the straps, which also encased the 'armpit boobs' I was experiencing, an issue the Ahh Bra boasts to eliminate. Even then it's not something I'd be comfortable wearing outside the house.

I can't argue that the construction of the Ahh Bra isn't well designed, with it's tight knit in place of traditional wires, and looser knit to accommodate the bust. This is not an exclusive design though, as there are other bras on the market that sport a similar construction. 

The Original Ahh Bra is unsuitable or use as a functional  bra in my opinion, as it does not support the bust in a way that a wired and adjustable bra can. I'd only suggest the Ahh Bra to be worn as a sleep bra or for slobbing out on the sofa.

The Ahh Generation Bra (with removable pads):

This one is virtually the same (looks and fit) as the Original Ahh Bra, except it has removable pads and is in the Blush colour. The fit in this one was...interesting, the pads far too small for my GG cups. However much I tried, I couldn't get my boobs NOT to look wonky, so I don't really have much to say on this one that I haven't said already. Er....enjoy? 

The Pin-Up lace metallic leisure bra:

I so badly wanted this to work as I hadn't had much luck with the first two. But the only positive thing I can find to say about this non-wired, soft cup bra is that it has LOADS of hooks and eyes, see? I wish other bra makers would follow suit, although they were quite fiddly to fasten, so maybe not.

This bra was a Small yet the band stretched right up to 40". Yes, the fabric is that stretchy. Bearing in mind my underbust measurement is 28", you can see why this particular style doesn't work for me. Again, the straps were far too long and coupled with the very loose band, the bra offered no support whatsoever. Yes, that's my natural shape in the first picture. Also, check out the HUGE arm holes! 

The Sweet Tart butterknit shelf gown:

Possibly the most disappointing of them all. I was hoping to at least salvage this to sleep in, and on unwrapping it, it was instantly my favourite of the package. The nylon/spandex mix is beautifully soft and stretchy, and the black lace over nude is a nice touch. Although the straps are adjustable, I didn't find this helped at all, since they are very thin and flimsy, completely unsuitable for supporting GG cup boobs!

Again, this is a small and again the band was extremely stretchy, offering no support, so my boobs sit as though I'm not wearing a bra at all. I think the pictures speak for themselves:

All in all, I wouldn't recommend any of the products I've reviewed if you have a fuller bust. They might work okay for a woman with a smaller bust than myself I guess, but since you're reading fuller bust blog, then I can't say I'd be able to guess. Apparently, the Ahh Bra is hugely popular and has sold millions of units, so I guess a lot of women have had success with them. What works for one might not work for another, so who am I to argue?!

Have you tried an Ahh Bra? What did you think?

Lady V London Revisited...and I'm in LOVE!

Back in April, you may remember my post about a newly discovered company, specialising in Vintage reproduction dresses called Lady Vintage London. The dress I bought from them is absolutely beautiful, but didn't fit in a size 10 sadly. However, I couldn't bear to return it as I'd fell deeply in love with it, so I asked my mum to tailor it to fit and she did it brilliantly! After much hassling via twitter and Facebook, Lady Vintage finally announced that they would add size 8's to their range! I was delighted at this, but couldn't choose a dress until I finally caved last week and ordered three beautiful dresses. Without further ado, here they are!

Black & White Polka Dot Hepburn Dress. At the moment, it has £10 off, making it £30. Be quick if you want one! This is a size 8 and sadly too big. I mean sadly, because I wanted this dress to wear for work. It's eye-catching without being sexy and I love the high neckline (supposedly a no-no for a big bust) and the huge amount of fabric in the skirt. The dress comes with a thin black patent belt, as seen in the first two photos. It would easily work for a day in the office, night out, wedding or even as a day dress, it's so adaptable! My only other criticism in the length. At 5'2", it's a little bit too long, but when I slipped on my petticoat (details at the bottom of the post), it looked much better. My advice; Size down in this, but it's WELL worth it.

If only this came in a size 6...

My next choice is a fairly new addition to Lady Vintage, in a size 8, the Beautiful Cat Print Shawl Collar 50's Dress, £35. As soon as I tried this on, I knew it was something special! The fabric is so soft and floaty,and the print is adorable! Just look at the little kitty! I love the Peter Pan collar and the matching fabric tie belt too. The bust is just about big enough for me, so if you're reading this because you have big boobs, bear it in mind that I'm a 28GG. Again I tried this with and without a petticoat and with various belts. With the petticoat I felt a little like a lampshade, but with a less full petticoat, I'm sure it would look much better. It's very slightly see through, but this can be tackled by wearing nude underwear. Here, I'm wearing blue and you can see it showing through a little, but not too badly.

Lastly, the dress I was most looking forward to trying after my campaign to get size 8's made; the Vintage Blue Floral Summer Swing Dress, £40. I really didn't want to fall in love with this as I've still not worn my other Lady Vintage swing dress, but boy have I fallen for it! Firstly, the fit is so perfect it's as though it was made for me! I was spoilt for choice at which swing dress to try because admittedly, I wasn't overly keen on any of the patterns, and even when I first slipped this dress on I wasn't so sure. With my nude belt and shoes, it's safe and understated, but a little 'meh'. Then I went and tried it with red. WOW. Who'd have thought that red would be the most complimentary colour for this dress?! I thought I'd be buying the cat dress but this one has me smitten so I'm going to have to make a tough decision...

So as I mentioned at the start of this post, my mum altered the dress I'd previously bought from Lady Vintage, and here it is. I'm sure you'll agree that she did an amazing job! Unfortunately this colour dress is no longer available but you can still get it in black and red, £30 or in black and pink, £30.

...and here's what I was wearing underneath. for the square necklines, it's best to wear a balconette bra like this one; Tease Me in blue by Curvy Kate, £29. My petticoat is from Collectif, and is the Lola Puffy in red, £38.

You might also want to check out Lady Vintage fans and bloggers Miss Kathryn's Misstakes,  Big Girl's Browse and  Fuller Figure Fuller Bust. They all look amazing in their Lady Vintage dresses!

So all that's left to do is decide which dress I'm keeping. Thanks for reading!

By the way...I WON!

Totally forgot to thank you all for voting for me in Brastop's Cover Girl competition. I won! 

If you're a Brastop customer, you have probably already received your copy of their magazine with me on the front and an exclusive interview inside! Eek! Exciting stuff! If you're not a customer, you can read the magazine online here, but (at the time of writing this), 'my' issue is not online to view yet.

So here's what the finished product looks like, along with the postcard that was sent out to customers for my Model Of The Month win back in January.

Thanks again, I wouldn't have won without your support :)

Boux Avenue. A boob of a bra fitting.

So it seems the latest initiation to the world of lingerie blogging is to go for a fitting in either Victoria's Secret or Boux Avenue. Today I opted for the latter due to a lack of the former.

The Boux Avenue store in question is the Trafford Centre store which opened a little over a year ago. The store itself is beautifully laid out, with drawers under each rack of bras containing each back size and multiple cup sizes. Boux Avenue stock bras from a 30 band and cups up to H, sizing me and my 28GG's out from the offset. But me being me, I thought I'd play devil's advocate and go for a fitting so see what they came up with. 

I went in wearing my 30G Freya Deco that rides up at the back and just about encases my boobs and made sure it looked worse by jiggling my boobs to the point of being close to spillage. I grabbed a 30G red gingham bra I liked from one of the drawers and ask for a fitting. The girl who fitted me was as lovely as fitters always are, but I didn't hold out much hope for her from reading the experiences of Cheryl and Becky from investinyourchest and Georgina from Fullerfigurefullerbust. She came armed with a tape measure, whcih she wrapped around me VERY tightly and told me I'm measuring up at a 30 back. Now I know this not to be true because I'd measured myself a few nights before and came up at 27" meaning I should be in a 28 band. She told me that the G cup I was wearing was clearly too small and that I should be wearing a 30GG. After a few fails, the fitter suggested I try a 32G to get the correct cup size. A 32 band is a massive 5 inches larger than my actual band size!

Here is the first bra I tried, a red gingham number in a 30G. I'm a sucker for red gingham! As you can see, it's too big in the band. The fitter agreed that it didn't fit, but didn't seem to notice how big the band was.

The next two are both 30GG's and both fitted much better than the last, but still were too big on the band. When I fastened them I used the loosest hooks and then adjusted the straps to fit. The fitter told me this is wrong and that I need to create a 'perfect circle' around my back. She then apologised for using training talk and explained that the band should sit parallel around your back and not ride up. Correct. She told me the way to do this is to fasten the bra on the tightest hook and THEN adjust the straps. This way the band won't ride up. Erm...what? 

In this coral 'Poppy' bra, there was a little extra fabric above the top seam which made it not sit flat, and he correctly said this is because my boobs are bottom heavy, but she didn't suggest I try a smaller cup. The fit in this was isn't too far off, but the gore didn't sit flat and the band was too big when I pulled it away from my body.

In this floral 'Taliah' bra, the shape was all wrong, and didn't completely encase all my breast tissue like it should have, so she fetched a 30H for me to try, which was of course, far too big. The band wasn't sitting parallel as you can see, so I wasn't getting the support I needed.

Finally, the fitters' stab in the dark. Two 32G's. The fitter said that the central gore was sitting away from my chest because the cup isn't big enough. Now this interested me, as I was told the same thing by a customer service representative when I rang Bravissimo once. I'm almost certain this is not the case, and it's all down to band size as normal.  Check out the length of the fully adjusted straps in this electric blue 'Chloe' bra!

The fitter said that I need a wider central gore to prevent spillage, and chose the 'Loretta', a black silk bra for me to try, saying it runs smaller in the band than their normal range as it doesn't have a lot of stretch. This was not the case...

As lovely as the fitter was, I expected more from a self-proclaimed 'Fitting Ambassador'. After she realised none of the bras weren't going to be suitable for me, she asked if I'd heard of Curvy Kate. This made me pretty happy because it's nice to know they're becoming well known. She also suggested Caprice's range, available from Littlewoods, but again, my real size of 28GG is not catered for.

While Boux Avenue have some really pretty bras and a store interior to die for, I wouldn't suggest you go to them for an accurate fitting. I still haven't found a decent fitting outside Bravissimo sadly! 

Have you had a fitting at Boux Avenue? How did they do?

Kelly Brook for New Look

Today I ventured into a shop I don't normally go into; New Look. I initially went in to drool over their shoes, as they're always amazing, but found myself with four dresses from Kelly Brook's new collaboration with New Look that I wanted to try on!

I'll bang through these quickly as I don't want to bore you!

Dress number one, the Orange Poppy Peplum Dress, £39.99. I tried this in my usual size 8, and it was quite a struggle to squeeze into. I didn't hold much hope of it looking nice, or fitting my the bust, but lo and behold, it doesn't look too bad, and fits like a glove. A rather snug glove. I have a feeling the size 10 would probably be too big, particularly on my waist. The peplum seems to be a bit too long for me, and makes my butt looks even bigger than it really is! I think this is one for the less curvy women out there...Anyway, here it is;

Dress number two, the Bardot Scenic Print Dress, £39.99. Again, a size 8, this time an even worse fit! You can't tell from the photo but I couldn't get this zipped up over my bust. AT ALL. It would probably be perfect in a 10, but I'm not that keen on the neckline as it means I'd have to wear a strapless bra with it, and quite frankly, strapless bras are always uncomfortable! 

Dress number three, the Blue Belted Dress, £34.99. A size and a MASSIVE fail! It fits perfectly on the waist and zips right up, but the bust was, as expected, a terrible fit. It has cup details stitched in, so the chances of it fitting a lot of women is very slim as the 'cups' are quite small and very wide set. No hope for me and my 28GG's! I knew this dress wouldn't fit but I was curious since Kelly Brook has a sizeable rack, so I hoped for a better fit. On the plus side, the dress is a nice colour for me and my red hair, has a matching belt and a cute keyhole detail on the back. Please excuse my bra being shown so badly, it's the wrong size and rides up my back.

Last but not least in any sense of the word, my favourite of them all, the White Floral Bow Shoulder Dress, £39.99. This time, the size 8 fitted as though it was made for me! Perfect! Again, excuse the badly fitting bra. If I wore my real size it wouldn't be seen. I love the bow details on the shoulders and the keyhole in the back, it makes a difference to everything else out there at the moment. I won't be buying this dress as I have too many already, but I can highly recommend this one from the Kelly Brook range.

So what do you think of the Kelly Brook collection? Will you be buying anything from the range? 

Bye for now :)

Help me WIN! (And see me in pants again!)

Back in January you may recall me winning Brastop's Model Of The Month competition for December. On May 4th I attended a professional photo shoot for the overall Covergirl competition with 4 other Model Of The Month winners. The winner gets to feature on the front cover of Brastop's summer issue of their magazine.

As I knocked on the door of the London house, I could hear lots of girly giggling! I was greeted by Becky Mount, one of Brastop's resident bloggers, with a huge hug! Firstly the hair stylist got to work on my stubborn hair, setting it in large rollers...

Arrgh! No make up!!

Then I had lots of free time to roam around the unbelievable £5 million house(!), so I took a few shots, naturally:

Then, after snacking on cake, crisps, etc, I was whisked into make-up. Soon after that I got to try out my first lingerie set of the day, the Freya Erin. I loved this set but sadly it's not availible in my size. All 5 of us girls were then asked to do some fun shots, such as all five of us piling into a wardrobe, using kid's toy cakes as makeshift boobies, that kind of thing! We had such a laugh, I had tears running down my face!

All five of us all glammed up and ready to rock! Good luck girls!

I must admit, being around these 4 gorgeous girls (and they really are stunning) made me feel so old! I think I managed to hide my 30 years though. Or should I say, the make up artist did! After the fun shots I was asked to change into three different sets for my individual shots. The photographer was he lovely Alison Webster, the same one I'd met last year for the Curvy Kate Star In A Bra 2011 top 10 shoot. A fun (and manic) day was had by all, and the 5 hours I was there flew by way too fast! I could have stayed in that house for a long time just exploring each floor!

Here are a few of my shots from the day:

Curvy Kate Emily in Lavender

Curvy Kate Princess in Pink

So....Now the important part. Time for your input! 

All I need you to do is CLICK HERE and LIKE my photo. This photo in fact:

Freya Flamingo Bikini

Voting ends on Friday 18th May 2012, So if you'd like to see me on the front of Brastop's magazine, please take a few seconds to vote for me. I'd really appreciate it if you could also share the link after you've voted to help me even more! Since I missed out on winning Star In A Bra last year and id't get chosen this year, I'd love to win this competition.

All the gorgeous lingerie featured in this post is available from Brastop.

Please cross all fingers and toes for me, and VOTE VOTE VOTE! Thank you! <3

xxx