Urkye Review - French Blue and Guilty Purse

Hello! Today I am doing a review of two articles of clothing I purchased off of the Polish clothing website, Urkye. I am reviewing them because their sizing system is curve-friendly: they take into account both your bust measurement and your waist measurement to produce clothing that sits properly and comfortably on your individual frame.

My entire order consisted of four items, but for now, I will concentrate on the French Blue shirt and the Guilty Purse dress, as they are very similar.

French Blue

The French Blue features a rounded neckline, puffed sleeves, two verticle seams curving up the front, and quite thick fabric. Overall opinion: this shirt is pretty awesome. It is very simple and versatile, I love the dark blue colour, it conforms to my shape excellently, and the thick fabric makes it fairly trans-seasonal.

Now let's get into the messy stuff. There are certain pet peeves I have about clothing that I know many women share, and I judge the quality of any item I find by how much it pisses me off by the end of the day. Well, here we go!

Free-Spirited Fabric?

The shirt does not travel very much. It gathers up in the torso a tiny bit after you've moved around enough, but it still maintains its shape very nicely!

Crafty Cleavage?

I think that the rounded neckline is amazing. It does not show noticeable cleavage from a frontal view, but is still low-cut enough to flatter a large bust. When bending over, there is obviously visible cleavage, but it is very understated compared to many necklines I've come across. I am very pleased with it.

Wasted Waist?

The shirt is obviously form-fitting. It certainly does not obscure my waist. I'd also like to note that the thick fabric seems as if it can smooth over tummy bulges, which is a bonus.

Uncomfortable?

Unfortunately, this is where the shirt does not come out totally unscathed. Don't get me wrong, it's comfortable to wear – but when it comes to putting the thing on or taking it off, that's a whole other story.

Basically, when I try to pull the waist of the shirt over my bust, is it very tight and has little elasticity, which causes it to become a bit stuck. I think that this would mainly be a problem for those who have a large difference between their bust size and waist size: those closer to the ooo on the Urkye sizing chart.

I did eventually discover how to carefully remove the shirt without as much struggle, but I still worry that the waist will eventually stretch out because of this. So far, so good, though! I will update if anything changes.

Overall, I love this shirt. It is very flattering, and I think that it can be worn in many situations –both where modesty is called for (because of the neckline), and where sexiness is called for (because of the form-fitting shape). I find that the puffed sleeves add a nice balance to the hourglass figure (though they are perhaps a bit too pointy for my taste), and that the colour is neutral enough to suit pretty much anyone. This is something you can definitely dress up or down.

Basically, it is a great purchase from Urkye!

Guilty Purse

Like I said before, I chose to review this dress and the French Blue shirt first because they have obvious similarities. Basically, the shirt and the top half of the dress are identical in cut and style: they both have the rounded neckline, the puffy/pointy shoulders (though the dress's seem a bit pointier), the vertical curving seams, the snug fit, the thick fabric, etc. It is essentially as pleasing as the shirt, save for a bit of extra fabric that tends to bunch at the sides of the bust, near the ribcage.

Then there is the skirt portion of the dress. This aspect is quite unique – I don't think I've ever owned or even seen a skirt with a cut like this. As you can see from the profile shot, it sort of flares out at the back, and at the front it bags a bit mid-way due to its pockets before tightening against the legs. It's a fairly subtle shape, making it unique but wearable.

Honestly, at first I couldn't decide if I liked the pockets. The wrinkles sort of threw me off. Then I discovered that I rather enjoyed being able to put my hands in them; made me feel super cool ;). But if you need a slightly less ridiculous reason to like them yourself, I've also read in other blogs that they are a genius solution to the issue of most Jersey dresses, which cling to and emphasize your belly. In any case, I've become fonder of the wrinkles.

But alas, the dress is even harder to take off than the shirt. When the waist gets stuck on my bust I get lost and flustered in the additional fabric (yes, I do look silly enough for you – and my boyfriend – to have a laugh at my expense). I almost returned the dress for this reason, but my friend convinced me to keep it, insisting it was too flattering and versatile to give up. Nevertheless, I really think that dresses with thicker, stiffer fabric like this in the ooo range could benefit from a zipper.

I still worry about the waist stretching, and the shoulders are, again, too pointy for my taste, but overall, I think this is a very nice dress. It is as trans-seasonal as the shirt, it's simple enough to be versatile, and I think that the colour is particularly nice for fall/winter - maybe with dark mustard tights and brown boots! I included a picture of it with a belt, which I think it looks quite nice with. I love dresses that are flattering with or without a belt! Options galore! (Well, at least two.)

For now, I'll leave off saying that I'm very happy with Urkye – and as a bonus, their customer service is fantastic! They are very prompt and helpful, but even better, the designer actually listens to her customers and makes clothes with us in mind. Check out their facebook page, and her blog.

I'll be back soon with the second half of the review!

Introduction - My Bra Experience

Hi! My name is Ally. I'm 21 years old and I'm an aspiring artist.

To be honest, I've never really blogged before, save for when I was 11 years old and my best friend and I slapped together a couple of beauty sites. Still, we ripped everything off of Cosmogirl (ahh, the days of innocence).

Ten years later, I'm taking another stab at it, except now I have both personal experience and a thorough understanding of plagiarism :P.

Let me elaborate on the personal experience: it all started in the 12th grade, when I had a localized growth spurt. Where was it, you ask? In my bra. Suddenly I was "well endowed".

I was still wearing my sister's C-cup hand-me-down bras when it became evident that something was wrong; I was uncomfortable and spilling out of them. I figured that I needed new bras that weren't stretched out, so I went to a lingerie store near my house named Change. As fate would have it, this store specialized in larger bra sizes.

When I approached the salewoman, she asked me if I knew my size. I confidently answered, "34 C". She looked me up and down, smiled with sheer amusement, and replied, "There is no way you're a 34 C, hunny". 

I ended up buying a 30 F bra that day. I was stunned - how could this have happened? Why was my size so abnormal? I had never heard of anyone having a 30 F cup in my life. What's worse, they warned me that I really needed a 28 band, which even specialty stores did not carry in my cup size. Not only was every mainstream, relatively cheap bra store like Victoria Secret or La Senza off-limits to me, but even the expensive stores that specialized in uncommon sizes could not help me.

I tried to console myself with the knowledge that my 30 F bras still fit, and that after all, it was just a number/letter - albeit an expensive one.

But soon I grew even larger, and the F cups just didn't fit anymore. I also began noticing that the 30 band didn't seem to be supportive enough for my comfort or my appearance. I began looking high and low for 28 bands in larger cup sizes, but no store seemed to carry them. I couldn't even find 30 bands in sizes larger than an F.

Desperate for a bra that - at the very least - fully encased my breasts, I bought a few 34 DD's at La Senza. Because the bands were so incredibly loose, though, the straps had to take on full responsibility for supporting the weight of my chest. Obviously this caused a number of problems, from shoulder pain to a sagging silhouette.

Feeling frustrated and isolated, I began my search for a better bra again. I ended up finding a 30 FF at a high-end specialty store, which I shelled out around 200 dollars for. The band was still too loose, but due to my lack of options, I wore the bra practically every day.

Obviously, the straps and the band quickly stretched out, and the bra looked awful on me. 200 dollars for one month's worth of a kind-of-okay bra? Screw that.

I pretty much gave up on high end stores, and ended up wearing the same stretched out bra - the only one I owned that was vaguely comfortable and flattering - practically every day for a year.

Then one day, during one of my google-browsing sessions, I came across Bravissimo. Bravissimo is a reasonably-priced bra store in England that targets women with larger busts, while also carrying smaller band sizes. I quickly ordered off of their website (they ship worldwide), and excitedly awaited my order.

Through some expensive trial and error (shipping prices there and back), I found my size: 28 G.

I was ecstatic and relieved to find cute bras (my other ones looked like the kind your great granny might give away to charity), which actually felt secure, fitted, and comfortable. I looked way better in my clothes, I felt a lot sexier in my underwear, I didn't have to worry about embarrassing pop-outs, I did not have aching, sore breasts by the end of the day, and there were no more wires scratching me.

After feeling disregarded by the lingerie industry for so long, and dealing with the consequences of ill-fitting bras, I feel it's important to help other women who are struggling with the same issues. We all deserve to feel confident, beautiful, and comfortable.

That is why I plan to write about my experiences and knowledge in this blog, which will hopefully help other women find their perfect bra.

 

Me in a my favourite bra: Deco by Freya (I was too cheap to buy the matching undies - but these pink and grey ones kinda work!)

                                              
                                             
I won't lie, it feels weird to put pictures of my body online, especially because I recently recieved some pretty nasty comments about my bust size. But the lovely, confident women of Thin and Curvy and The Curvy Kitten have inspired me to be happier in my own skin, and I'd like to do the same for others.


Stay tuned for an in-depth review of the Deco Bra!