Pepperberry & Bravissimo S/S '14

I kind of have a love/hate relationship with Pepperberry & Bravissimo.  In theory, these companies should be perfect for me, a one-stop shop with clothing that will actually fit over my boobs & bras that go up to & beyond my size.  But my 3 closest stores are equally a 3 hour round trip for me to get there & I always seem slightly disappointed with the stores when I get there.

I usually use the Edinburgh store but I've found that since they merged the Pepperberry & Bravissimo stores, they don't have a great deal of stock - or maybe I've always been unlucky when I've visited?!  The catalogue holds many styles of bras in my size but I'd be lucky if they have one or two in stock, likewise with the items of clothing I always want to try.  Also, the last 2 Bravissimo brand bras I bought fitted me perfectly the day I purchased them but after only 2 handwashes, they'd stretched out of shape that much that the cups looked many sizes too big for me, so disappointing.

However, I bought my first item of clothing from Pepperberry a couple of years ago & I loved everything about it.  It was a gorgeous tea-dress in the thickest jersey fabric I've known & it fitted like a glove.  I still wear it now regularly & it still looks like new - all good - but last year I felt most of the styles were really old-fashioned & frumpy.  The sizing can also be a tad strange on me too.  Anything in a stretch fabric fits perfectly but if it's non-stretch, forget it.  Even sizing up won't make it fit over my boobs, meh!

Hmmm, I didn't & don't intend this post to be bashing these shops, far from it as when they do get it right, they get it really right!  Which leads me to say that when the new spring/summer catalogue dropped through my door the other day, they had some great dresses back in again, yay!

Here's what I'm hoping to get for summer & I pray that the sizing hasn't changed at all & they fit as well as my other dress!

Red stripe dress

Navy stripe maxi dress

Cross front dress

Hmmm, just from a few days of writing this post & saving it in draft form to actually finishing it for publishing, I've noticed that 2 of these are now out of stock & one is low stock, arrrghhhhh!!!!  Maybe it just wasn't meant to be Pepperberry.........yet again :-(

Boobs, bangers, baps, breasts......

.......call 'em what you will, for some they're wonderful jiggling fun-bags, for others, they're a right royal pain in the ass!!  I fall into the latter group.

 

I have been blessed (or cursed, however you look at it!) with rather large bangers, they started to really grow when I was around 15 & haven't seemed to stop since.  Don't get me wrong, I'd much rather have something going on in the boob region rather than be flat-chested but uughhh, clothes shopping has become a total bitch for me!

 

I know after nearly 40 years what clothes suit me & my voluptuous figure but trying to find them is becoming a bore quite frankly.  I know that wrap tops in lovely draping fabrics are the most flattering for my size & boobs but trying to find one that doesn't finish just underneath my navel is becoming nigh on impossible!  I'm sorry, but if you have large breasts, short tops just aren't flattering (IMO of course!)  Ideally, I want my tops to cover my arse, the extra length helps to balance out the top-heaviness & makes the overall outfit look a little less about the chest area.  If the top has a belt, it want it to fall on my waist, not right underneath my boobs.  And peplum tops, although can look great, they again are far too short in the body if you have boobs.  The seam from where the peplum kicks out is not supposed to start from the bottom of your boobs & the overall lengths of them, again are far too short which in turn, only makes your bangers look larger.

 

Maybe I'm not looking in the right shops, I don't know but this week I want to tear my hair out!  I thought I'd found the perfect outfit for my brother's wedding in August, trousers from Next & a beautiful top from Zara.  Well, I say top, it's actually a dress but if I wore it as a dress, it'd barely cover my vajayjay.....never gonna happen!!!  I ordered the top/dress in an XL hoping it'd be big enough to drape over my boobs so was gutted when it arrived & it squashed them into oblivion!!  It's just so beautiful (& perfect colour) too but with all the boob hoicking in the world, it was not a good look!  And then to add insult to injury, I went to order my trousers & they've now bloody sold out!  I've ordered the next size up & hopefully with a couple of darts sewed into the waist, they'll be ok.

 

Last year a friend recommended I try Pepperberry, a shop with clothes designed around not only your dress size, but your boob size too.  I found a fabulous jersey dress in there & it became one of my favourite & most worn dresses of last year.  I'm heading to Edinburgh for the day on Monday so a visit there is a must but having looked on their website, I'm finding their summer styles a bit dated, sadly.  Hopefully this will not be the case & something in store will catch my eye as it truly is the best fitting item of clothing I own!

 

When I was having my Zara top rant (PMT didn't help either!) to my hubby, I mentioned that I wished I could find a dressmaker to just make me exactly what I want as I can see the design of it in my head.  By total coincidence, Mr F is doing work for a fashion designer/stay-at-home-mum at the minute & having had a quick conversation with her this morning, she's agreed to make me the top I want, yay!!!  If this works out, I feel she could be having a lot of work coming her way!

 

So sorry about the rant folks but hey, it happens sometimes!  If anyone can give me the name of any other companies for clothes with big boobs in mind, as long as they're not geared just towards teenagers that is, please let me know who they are!!

 

Bon week-end à tous!