First up is the Emily.
Images courtesy of Curvy Kate
Such a pretty bra! And the grape/black is a truly beautiful colour and even better in real life - perhaps slightly more pinky than this stock photo suggests.
When my bras arrived, I was impressed with the softness of the lace and the quality of materials used - it's a very tactile style. The cups are completely unpadded and have double lining on the lower half for extra support. Purple sheer mesh is embroidered with delicate purple and black stitching and it's clear to see that great effort has gone into the design of this bra.
There are cute little bows on the central gore and at the point where the straps meet the cups. The straps are fully adjustable, are thinner than the old Freyas I used to wear and have limited stretch. The band is not particularly stretchy and has three rows of three hooks.
Sadly, the Emily was not a good fit on me. I ordered a range of sizes from Debenhams but unfortunately none were quite right.
First, the 32JJ black:
This was the best fit of all the sizes I tried in this style but sadly it was still a little too small in the cup.
Unfortunately when I ordered from Debenhams not every size I wanted to try was in stock (ideally I would have gone for the 32K next) so instead I tried the 30K black:
The band on this one was definitely too small for me and interestingly so was the cup, despite this being in theory the same volume cup as the 32JJ.
Not wishing to be defeated, I tried the purple, first of all in 30K:
It fitted fairly similarly to the 30K black, so again it was too tight in the band and too small in the cup. However, overall the 30K black was a snugger fit than the purple, which I often find with black items of clothing. I once read somewhere online that it's something to do with the dye used that makes black fabrics tighter than that of other colours.
Finally, I tried the 32K purple:
Hmm. This fitted better but gave me a slightly 'square' shape from the side, which I wasn't keen on. But the colour!!!
I found with all these sizes that the wires went much too far around my sides and I was left with empty space at the side of the cups. Somehow this seemed to pull on the part of the cup that was at the front, giving the resulting odd shape that can be seen in most of the pictures above. I fear that Curvy Kate's wires may be too wide for me, like Panache and Cleo are. It makes me very sad to think there could be yet another brand that does not suit me...but I won't give up just yet!
I won't be keeping any of the Emily bras as I think I need to try the 34 band. I am hoping that with a slightly looser band there will be less stretch across the cup and therefore the bra will give a better fit. I don't think the 34 will be too loose a band for me as the 30 was definitely too tight and the 32 was fairly snug. I will update as soon as I have further news.
Despite the fact I haven't found my correct size yet, this is a truly beautiful bra and I would highly recommend it to those who prefer their wires to be on the wider side.
