Bra Review: Prima Donna Divine

I'm sure you can barely wait to hear about Black Bra Success take 2, so I'll cut to the chase.

The second bra I recently bought during my visit with Veronica is a SERIOUS outlier. Really. Y'all know I've never said a nice thing about Prima Donna. I mean, I'm not dissing the quality or questioning that the styles work for many. But every single Prima Donna I've ever tried has had a delightful combo of a) wussy wires, b) wires that are too wide and c) really centre-shallow cups. Like the gores do not tack under any circumstances cuz the shape is too wide, too shallow and effectively weak.

What a great way to start a post wherein I discuss my new Prima Donna bra!

OK, to preface the photo, allow me to say that I was not interested in trying on another PD (Veronica generally doesn't even bother with this brand for me) but I was DESPERATE. And desperate times call for, well, you know. Aren't I glad I expended a bit of effort I was almost certain would be wasted because this bra fits really well:

Prima Donna Divine

But never mind that I bought a bra by a brand I don't like. It's also molded and seamless - my other hate-ons. I suppose the only thing they could have done to make this less appealing to me is to have padded it!

V said: It's not like the other Prima Donnas. It's got a pretty narrow gore. It's quite deep. It's really firm. When I picked it up, to put it on, I wiggled the wires and they felt wussy. I was not on board. But then I tried the bra and I was amazed by the synergy of the crazily firm lace fabric, the snug band and the depth. And then I tried a cup size up (because, as I've said 8 zillion times - molded bras, those with no seams, are by nature more shallow than their counterparts with seams) and the fit was spot on.

I have only two points of unseamed / molded reference for the fit of this bra: Fantasie 4520 (about which I've written numerous times - it's my beige staple) and the Empreinte Melody (which I really tried to like but no dice). It's almost impossible to create an unpadded, unlined, seam-free shape that isn't a veritable pancake. It's even harder to do it with lace. And, to their credit, both PD and Empreinte have figured that engineering out.

But first lets talk about the detractors - as I see them - of the molded cup bra:

• I will never like the look (or fit, I suspect) of an unseamed, molded bra as much as one with seams. I love the curvature that seams produce. I much prefer the shape. I don't think boobs should look like spherical fruit. And yet I get it: there are times when a seam-free bra is really useful. Note: If you can't find one that fits - by which I mean your breast shape must conform to it, not the other way around - then I firmly advise you to give it a miss. But if you discover one that works, why not expand the catalog?

• I find them universally matronly by comparison with the seamed bras. Yeah, I'm sure this perspective is partially driven by my age and stage, but whatevs. I see a Victoria's Secret special and think ugh. The beauty of bras is in the shape distinctness provided by a myriad of fabric choices and seam placements. From this vantage point, I'm a tailor to my core.

• More to the point, the beauty of breasts is in the distinctness of the breasts. Once you compel breasts to fit the one-size/one-shape mold of a seam-free bra, what's the point?? Are we all the same? 

• Molded bras feel weird. It's like they have a life of their own - even if they're in that rare non-lined / non-padded minority. This gets back to that notion that the expectation is that breast must conform to it.

• They're almost universally on the shallow end of the spectrum, which is pretty well a non-starter if you need depth at the centre cup.

How does the PD Divine get around these issues?

• The Look: It's kind of pretty with that wacky lace motif. If you're going to make a molded bra - then damn well make it in lace. I can only imagine the technology that goes into molding the fabric (a chemical and heat process) without completely destroying it. Note: The lace of the Divine is much firmer (dare I say, less delicate, starchier-feeling) than that of its counterpart, the Empreinte Melody (which I find ugly, alas, and which is shallower for size than the Divine).

• The Vibe: I don't know that it overcomes the matronly factor. I still feel it - but the fit is very good (which never hurts the look of a bra). FWIW, my husband finds it rather sexy - though he does like the weirdest lingerie.

• The Fit Conundrum: The Divine cannot overcome the true downfall of the molded-cup bra: Your boobs are going to have to fit the shape perfectly, or the bra isn't going to fit. There's no nuance. And how many peeps have seriously round, evenly full, plump on top breasts? Well, in this bra, I do - apparently :-)

• The Feel: The seam-free lace has been molded into oblivion. It feels weird. I'm getting over it.

• The Depth: Now - this is the PURE GENIUS of the Divine - and the reason I am pleased, as a tailor, to have purchased it. The PD peeps have recognized that you cannot get narrow depth with a molded bra unless you come up with a work around. So they did something I've NEVER seen in any bra before. They added darts! Yeah, this bra is shallowly-darted on each cup in 2 places - at the under cup (about a 0.5 inch dart that's an inch long) and at the centre gore (same as the first dart). It's done expertly, so you cannot see either. The average client would never notice them, I'm sure. I mean, they do add an extra complexity to the feel of the bra against the skin. But like I said, molded fabric is weird. Note: It's not uncomfortable and it's totally invisible under clothing.

What do those darts do? Well, they act like freakin' SEAMS people. The reason this seam-free bra works is cuz it's got seamed shaping with none of the visibility of seams. I think that level of creativity almost justifies the $180 bucks (once tax is included) price tag.

Let me take a moment to delve a bit further into the cost proposition: As with Empreinte, it's pretty difficult to find inexpensive online versions of Prima Donna bras. It's not impossible, but it's rare. The reason I went to a boutique - and enlisted the services of a fitter in whom I have the utmost confidence and for whom I have total respect - is because I required her skills. She knows the brand. She's seen the style on numerous bodies. She can facilitate my trying it on in 2 cup sizes and 2 back sizes. That's value. And it's for that value that I'm paying. Yeah, if I opt to buy this bra again, will I at least try to seek it out online? Probably. But I want to ensure that fitters like Veronica continue to practice their very valuable - and undervalued - craft. You can't have it all ways. 

The shape of the Divine - for those of you who know the Empreinte Melody - is much deeper and a bit narrower. The straps are slender (unlike the comfort-wide monstrosities on the Melody). The Divine has a narrow band and 2 hooks and eyes (the Melody has 3). They're both comfortable. The Divine is more youthful and sexy. It comes in a bunch of colours, fyi, not that I'm likely to buy it in another shade. I have come to appreciate this bra increasingly with each wear - and it totally fits the black bra bill - but I'm never going to gravitate to its style. When I go colourful, I'm having my seams.

Breaking the Mold

I sense the writing's on the wall. Based on reader feedback, preliminary research and what I can deduce (though Figleaves did advise this eve, that it has a new order on the Fantasie Smoothing Underwired Balconette due to arrive in 2013), it's time to find an alternative staple basic beige bra (aka "nude" in my skin tone).

Let me recap my many needs:

• It's got to be supportive.

• It's got to be vaguely attractive in cut and material. I don't expect it to be exciting, but if I end up at the hospital or (far better, if just as unlikely) having some kind of quickie in a fancy hotel hallway, I don't want to be embarrassed by it. 

• It's got to be without seams or any embellishments having profile. No lace. No texture. Just smooth and seam-free.

• It's got to have under wire.

• It's got to be flexible (aka soft cup). Firm molded cups are not for me. We can debate what molded means, but for the purposes of my needs it means anything that has even a slight hint of built-in cup structure - foam in even the slightest amount, padding, chemical shaping etc. 

Apropos of that last bullet, practically all seam-free bras are molded. That means the fabric is chemically altered on a mold to produce a structured, seam-free shape having the appropriate cup volume or that the fabric is seared around a foam mold in the chosen shape. You know these bras - they stand up on their own. Sometimes they're padded (the ones with foam or inserts), sometimes the molding is less extreme but the bra remains somewhat breast-shaped at all times. 

I really don't know how this bra-type has become so popular because it fits most women rather poorly. Well, I'm pretty sure the reason is that it's cheap to make so it's been in the best interests of brands to market them well. No seaming means reduced labour and less intricate design. While retail stores have promoted molded bras as good options for women of different breast sizes, they nearly always gape on the smaller side. Furthermore the shape does not tailor to one's breasts. It forces the breast to conform to the mold. 

As a sewist, I can tell you that seams are magical, from a fit perspective. They mitigate gaps and puckers. They promote symbiosis between the breast (given all of the parameters of its shape and size) and the bra. Molded bras often gape at the side breast or pucker at the gore because they're a blunt instrument. They also tend to add volume with structure. Furthermore, the shape they provide seems artificial, to my eye though, in truth, I do prefer a pointed cup, which many others find just as artificial-seeming. I can spot a molded bra a mile away. (Note: for a "standard" shaped, symmetrical small chest, molded cups can work just fine. But on women of larger chests - and that's an increasing proportion of the bra-wearing population - they tend to fall flat.)

What to do? Most seamed bras, while they contribute to good fit, have seams. Most molded bras, while they often fit badly, are seam-free. Which is where the Fantasie Smoothing Underwired Balconette comes in.  It manages to give good fit in a soft cup (i.e. not molded) without seams. 

For what it's worth: Many women, while they purport to love the Smoothing Balconette, do acknowledge that the style falls down on fit in one way - it often puckers at the top of the cups if the wearer has bottom-dense breasts or one breast that's larger than the other (in that case, there's often puckering on the smaller side). As one of those women, let me tell you that it's not visible under clothing in any way and said pucker is largely correctable by repositioning of breasts in the cup and shortening the straps accordingly. This kind of proves my point, above. Without seams it's really hard to work around differences in breast sizing or asymmetry. 

OK, let's leave behind the molded bra rant. I've beat it to death, largely because it's so germane to my next step. 

We now know, beyond a shadow of a doubt, that I will not buy a bra with an inflexible molded cup. We also know that, in addition to the soft cup, I require under wires no seams - and all of this in a larger than a department store standard cup size and a smaller than department store standard back size. Gotta tell you, them pickins is slim.

Stay tuned for some options I've researched, which I'll present in my next post on this topic. And please feel free to weigh in with some options you might know and love.

But, today's question: What's your take on the molded cup? Love it? Hate it? What's your rationale?