“You know, I have prominent breasts so I need a padded or semi-padded bra. A soft one will not suit at all”
This is quite a common belief among women with larger breasts, especially those who have never enjoyed a well-fitting soft bra. And really, note the “well-fitting” condition here. Because the above misbelief did not appear from nowhere. Often bad experiences with some soft bra, having either too small cups or too loose band, or even both have caused reluctance toward other bra designs.
But let’s start from the very beginning. Who does not like some nice mesh, lace, embroidery or transparency? Surely most of us (of course you’ll always hear someone arguing – “but not me, I swear!”) dreams of a cozy bra that warmly covers our breasts. For some women their bra plays a very special role as a key element which emphasizes her own body shape. Other prefers wearing soft cup with wire only occasionally. Instead, for everyday use they’d rather wear bras fully made out of foam or with molded bowls.
An owner of prominent breasts may say “I’d love to wear all those nice looking meshes but I fear such fine material won’t manage to maintain my prominent breasts well, it will not be kept in place and it may hurt. A padded cup at least firmly covers the breasts and keeps it from moving sideways.”
It is obvious that nowadays the world seems to light speed ahead almost every direction we look at. Same with lingerie. Not only does the size range resemble an alphabet, manufacturers are hungry and eager to design new cuts all the time, they create hybrids of old and new cuts and they seem to reach the sky limit in using novel fabrics. In our business for a long time one have been noticing not only new design philosophies, achieving both a fantastic breasts-lifting and gathering effects at the same time, but also new applications of already known fabrics (popular otherwise, but rather in swimwear), which they introduced to us as “simplex“.
Simplex
This fabric has truly become a gateway to the hearts and minds of even skeptic women fallen in love with three-layer foam. Exactly those women who affirm that “good support equals padded bra”. Also for those ladies who love soft bras, but their breasts do not get along well with embroidery (‘all that itching’).
We already know from our experience that the mentioned simplex actually “does the job”. It does not stretch too much in any direction. And even strong use of force should not make any harm. Confirmed by myself upon challenging the strength of my spouse’s arms. The fabric did not even bend. To convince you, I have added a short video evidencing this ‘trial’. I have also included a video of the test of the foam (laminate) challenging the same arms.
This sign with a letter ‘P’ is for ‘PASSED’ – a positive outcome of the test!
Another fabric material we talk about here is the corsetry laminate or more commonly ‘foam’. The laminate consists of a layer made of polyurethane foam, covered on its two sides with textile fabric. One of the sides is covered with cotton and the other with a delicate synthetic knit.
Beloved little semisoft 🙂
We all know well that the foam bras have gained a lot of supporters because of its soft and well laid out nature, making it fit the body perfectly. I’m not going to say anything against the foam. My goal, however, is to show that soft bra is actually equally good in supporting role, and by some women even prefers it over more padded bras.
It is certainly difficult to resist habits and definitely even less easy when a woman is used to wear a certain type of some bra for many years. It happens sometime that our attempts to change those habits bring no effect whatsoever. Although we know that one may agree when we argue about the convenience, another one might be convinced by the functionality and appearance, yet another will be turned over by solid science and the test results. The comfort is difficult o be shown, one just needs to experience it, but it may be good to demonstrate the case of two models wearing to differently sized lingerie.
I was wondering whether to put my own comments and observations here at all. I have been expecting every reader to come to his own conclusions. But after all I decided to just ask my models about their opinion.
Agnieszka:
“Until I went to college I had no idea what brafitting actually means. I only wore padded bras since I wasn’t even aware that there are soft ones in my size. I doubted that they can support my breasts. Now I prefer soft bras. Ava Full Cup shown in the photo is my current number one. Only for a while probably, since right now I am just shocked by that bra as it is still fairly new one for me”.
Before we step further, let’s take a look at one more comparison.
The second model is Gosia: size UK-38G (EU 85I), firm breasts (predominantly adipose tissue, relatively light overall).
Captions to pictures:
- Nessa Hera Semisoft 85I
- Audelle Lexi Plunge 38G
- Sculptresse Chi Chi 38G
- Scantilly Surrender 38G
Gosia also shared her opinion with me:
“It seemed to me that a soft bra would not suit and will fail to support my breasts adequately. I thought soft ones are only good if you have not very prominent breast. As I now see it, at that time I just did not have any padded bra in which I would feel comfortable. Now after a few years of wearing soft bras I cannot imagine wearing anything different as a daily bra”.
Well, let’s make a short summary:
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habits sometimes may be changed
-
prominent breasts can be perfectly supported by non-padded bras
-
popular simplex fabric can give excellent support
-
my testing at home indicated that the foam is slightly worse here, stretches some more and is less elastic
-
a greater preference for padded bras often results from a lack of experience with underwired soft bras
-
EVERYBODY HAD HIS/HER PREFERENCES AND WE OUGHT TO RESPECT THAT! 🙂
And how about your customers? Which kinds of bra they prefer? And which one is best for you and why?
Disclaimer: the photos used in the article come from my own collection. They were not sponsored by any of the companies.
Research? Testing?
So I asked our manufacturers if any testing or validation were being done in our country which could illustrate the strength of the foam and the simplex. Would it be possible to compare fabrics, the foam and the simplex? For those who like data and numbers, and being skeptics about some subjective impressions of mine.
In response to this inquiry, it turned out that no one is actually doing any comparative testing of both fabrics against each other. However, I have received a very reliable report from the Product Director of Samanta Lingerie – Ms. Dorota Sarlej. I kindly appreciate her assistance in providing me with the information.
According to this data, both foam and simplex feature high levels of flexibility and elasticity. In practice, that means that when the tensile force stops acting on them, they return to their original shapes and dimensions.
In general, the most important features of fabric include:
– tenseness,
– thickness,
– weight,
– surface finishing.
Samanta shared with me the fact that SIMPLEX fabric used by the brand comers from a well known British manufacturer and is a stable high-density (230g/m2) knitted fabric. It is delicate and pleasant to touch. The composition of this fabric is 100% polyester, which results in good mechanical properties. It combines high durability and wash resistance with very good elasticity.
Interestingly, I have leant that the this fabric’s manufacturer has performed testing by the method of Marks & Spencer (M&S), which came as a new fact to me. And what is it anyway? The testing method focuses on checking the color persistence, including that caused by sweating, the susceptibility to dimension change as an effect of laundry, and finally the check of weight and stability. The fabric which is used by Samanta passed all these tests positively!
If you’d like to go a bit deeper into some technical specs, you can see these results below: