Wow, the first review for the Alissa! Full busts represent! Actually this was a cup size or two too small for me, but it was what was available on Amazon, so here we go!
The review on Breakout Bras says the Alissa would be good for soft tissue. I absolutely concur! The first adjective I would use for this bra is "sturdy." It has a four-part cup construction with a side-support panel, all 2-ply, non-stretch powermesh throughout with a small, subtle polka dot pattern. The top cups are embellished with a floral embroidery pattern and there is a very thin band of elastic topping the edge. Containment is the ...name of the game with this one: tall wires and high wings keep everything battened down on the sides. If you find Jasmine's stretch lace doesn't keep your boobs still enough in the cups, this one is for you! If you're looking for something to luxuriate in, move along.
Alissa gives a very pleasing shape - good projection, but rounder and wider than Jasmine, while still not being east-west. More like the Tango, I think, and deeper with more forward projection than the Clara.
Downsides: Short ladies, beware! These wires gonna poke you! These are longer than even other long Panache wires. These wires hit my armpits before I can even get the bottoms up into my IMF. With that and the high wings, it's a no for me, even in the 34J and 34JJ. But if you have a lengthier torso and are looking for great support, check this one out! Read more 152 more words
It looks great on you, too bad about the tall wires. I wish I could find this bra somewhere to try it. On the other side I don't get along with it's predecessor panache Ariza at my current size. (I have a love-hate relationship with Ariza… a difficult bra but I wonder if they changed it's flaws on Alissa for the better.)
alisa, thanks! I do wish Panache would come out with a line for the under 5'5" crowd, haha.
I never saw Ariza, but apparently this one is like the Penny and Hepburn? (Never saw those either.) It's actually on sale now on @breakoutbras.
Here are the full and very useful comments by Melissa on the Breakout Bras site:
"Alissa was designed with the same body as the "Penny" and the "Hepburn" styles from a few seasons back, just with different material. The new iteration is double-lined GG to K cups for better shaping and control. Alissa offers more forward shaping than Tango because of the side support panel. This style works best for women with full but squishy breast tissue. If you have very full, plump breasts, this bra is probably going to create pressure along the neckline."
Pinniped I'm 5''6 and Ariza wires are too tall for me too. Ariza in the correct size, the wires poke me badly if I size down 1-2 sizes it's bearable but then I don't swoop and scoop, so technically there would be quadboob if I did not "scoop from top" which you should not do. :S
Ariza was discontinued in 2013 already. Back in the day it was quite popular here (I played a role in that too) because it gave a better shape than Tango and the support was just extreme. It was the most sturdy bra ever. But it's so hard to fit... I never had a Hepburn or Penny but I think they have the same cut.
Have you tried any Bravissimo bras? Wires are as sturdy and the bras are as supportive as the best Panache bras but many of them don't have these extreme tall wires under the arms.
I haven't tried Bravissimo, but I have been curious about them. They have free returns, yes? That would help. I've been limiting myself pretty much to Amazon while I'm working out my size, but if they have free returns as well that would open up the possibility to try some. Are they pretty TTS? Are there any styles you could recommend for fob and shortish roots?
Pinniped I think returns are free if you are in the UK. Outside of the UK there is no free shipping and returns sadly… The bands are true to size, on the firmer side. Cups run a bit small and a bit closed on top imo, but I'm full on top so I have to size up 1-2 cup sizes to my normal size.
I would try more of their bras (everything that Comes in my size) if it weren't for shipping and return Costs + custom fees ugh! Also there is their balconette style - the basic model is "Alana". Many balconettes are the same cut. Then their full cup cut: "Darcy" "Lacey" "Melrose" but it already starts here that Bravissimo says these have the same cut, but imo they don't and they differ quite significantly in fit. So I can't talk for all their bras only those I tried.
The bras are more supportive than Panache in the size range, wires are less painful. For example Jasmine did not much for me, the lace felt to flimsy but I really like 32JJ - Bravissimo » Lulu Bra (LN581) with the stretchy lace.
Thanks, alisa! I will check them out! The Lulu looks fantastic on you!
Thanks,Pinniped :) I also think that you would not have to size up at all with fob boobs. Bravissimo customer service is great too if you tell them which sizes your wear in other brands they can recommend a good starting size. I would not size down in band either choose your normal size or the bigger if between sizes. (I take 32 bands, 31 Inch underbust)
just found this super cheap on amazon - i wonder why its so cheap?
The fabric is amazing; it's soft, pretty, and supportive. Well-made, as you would expect from Panache. Good projection, rounded shape (on me). The seams don't show TOO much once you've worn it a bit; the most obvious seam is the horizontal one. The straps are set a bit wide, as with most balconnets, but wasn't quite a problem for me. The band rolls out a bit in front under the wires - normal for me because I'm short-waisted and my stomach sticks out. I think overlapping the gore and putting shorter wires in will solve the most urgent fit issues for me.
I have wide roots and even, full all over boobs that are close at the top and splayed at bottom. This bra pushes all the fullness of my boobs out to the sides making me look very bulky and matronly.. I hate it https://d28qt14g3opchh.cloudfront.net/smileys/icon_sad.gif" alt=":(" /> the only good things are that it’s a good looking bra, feels sturdy and well made and in profile makes my bust look rather perky but yet somehow still low and heavy :/ Anyway stupidly I bought this bra because I doubted myself and listened to others who criticised my preference for having my boobs pushed together.. don’t let anyone tell you what bra to buy or what is acceptable or not.. the only way to know what you like is to try different bras and stick to what you believe looks and feels good, you are the one wearing it.
I think all the Panache Black series (which I think this was originally part of) were very shallow. I saw some online 'expert' saying that most women with larger boobs WANT them flattened (so they fit in clothing better). I dont really get it.
Really? I don’t want them flattened at all lol! Minimised sometimes can be good but not flat smh.. some expert
This was my first bra when I finally got a real fitting and realized I wasn't a 38DDD but a 36H. panache makes very comfortable bras, but I had some trouble with the wires poking/rubbing me, particularly between my breasts. This is only because the wires come up too high for how close my breasts are. I initially had to adjust to how far back and how high up the wire came under my arm, but I got used to it rather quickly. It hasn't stretched out much, I've only had to move over maybe one hook. The cup is seamless lace, but the band is smooth material, and the straps are fully adjustable. Overall, it is very supportive and I never fall out of it, but it isn't something you want to wear with low cut tops or dresses, as with any full cup bra. It's a good bra for breasts set far apart, but not something I will probably buy again for my breast type.
This bra is very supportive. It has stretch lace across the top of the cup that is nice around that time of the month when your boobs decide to grow. I am a little dcared that the lace might rip, it seems pretty fragile. I've decided that if that happens i will find some light teal lace to replace it.
I like this one for work. It's nice and supportive. At the end of the day day the gore digs in a little bit. Not painful but a bit uncomfortable.
I think it's pretty sexy! I never buy the matching panty but I found that the black lace matches pretty well with a couple pairs of undies that I already own. It's a multi-tasking bra!
I read about this bra on Bras I Hate and ordered it because the author of that blog said that it was a great bra for women with breasts that are full on top. She was absolutely right. This bra gives me a very uplifted round shape. My breasts look curved on top without the top of the bra cutting in at all.
In typical Panache fashion, the underwires come up too high under my underarms, but I will take my trusty Dremel tool to them and shorten them by about an inch or so, as I did with my Cleo Lucy.
Even with the underwire issue, this is my favorite bra!
From day to day, this bra seems to feel good or bad. I think I'm still trying to find the right way to adjust everything -- the straps need to be shortened, for one thing -- but I'm pretty sure the band is a little on the big side because I have to wear it in the middle of the three columns of hooks. It hasn't stretched, as I've only owned it for a couple of weeks. The material is very comfortable, but the underwire sometimes pokes me in the armpits and the last time I wore it, suddenly it was poking me in the sternum (a first for me). I guess it somehow bent, even though I only hand-wash my bras. Maybe I need to go down a band size and up a cup size. It's a pretty bra, which seldom happens in my size. I bought it on eBay and can't return it.
I found the overall fit to be drastically better than my usual bras. The gore tacked perfectly and the cup fit my breast tissue easily. The lace was a worry I had since lace typically makes me itch but the lace across the top of the cup was very soft. I absolutely loved the cup feeling. However the band was extremely snug, and I had to buy a bra extender to ease some of the pain. The tight band also contributed to the wide underwire settling hard into my armpits. I have discovered that I am not a wide root, I am narrow because of this bra shape. ...The underwire falls too far past my Tail of Spence and pushes very painfully into my underarm. Adjusting my straps did not ease the pain and rubbing. As for the straps, they are too wide for me. The fabric is thick and too coarse so it rubbed right into the small squish of fat over the front of the armpit areas on both sides. One 8 hour wear of use left my skin reddened and scrubbed raw. I had to actually apply lotion afterwards.. I love the bra overall, don't get me wrong. But it doesn't fit my body very well. Read more 101 more words
I really want to keep this bra, but don't think I can unless I swap out the wires (something I've never done before and don't know how to start- do I just take them from an old smaller bra???) and remove the elastic trim from the edge of the cup.
The cup material is brilliant. Stretchy supportive lace that makes it feel unlined and lined at the same time. I LOVE the cup material. Gave some nipple coverage. Decently smooth under clothes. Band was comfortable. Gore good height and narrow enough for my close set breasts. It's a balconnet so the straps are too wide for my narrow sloped ...shoulders. The bra also tends to ride down and give me a sad shape- not enough projection for me? Not sure. The wires come up way too high for my petite body and jab me in the underarm-especially if I sit down suddenly- I get stabbed. I want to ignore it because otherwise it's pretty comfortable but between the straps slipping off, the wires stabbing my underarm, and the cups quadding and riding down so I have to hike and shimmy, I don't think this is the bra for me. It appears to be the right size, but maybe just not the right shape.
I am considering trying a 34H and just planning on carefully removing the cup elastic trim BUT I'm not sure the cups have enough give to stretch to accommodate my fullness if I go down a band AND cup size.
I'm so happy for the woman who can fit this bra though because man oh man it's so close to being comfortable. And it feels like it would be a great everyday bra where the lace is sturdy enough that I would *consider* washing it in a lingerie bag on a delicate cycle and laying flat to dry. Read more 201 more words
So I ended up with two of this bra, in different colors and from different retailers, expecting to return the more expensive one, but oddly, this one is much less supportive than the other. The measurements are the same, but the band is much looser, the cups have no support, and I spill/fall out the top, with no bounce control and some empty space at the sides. My breasts just want to push this straight out, and they more or less succeed, with very little compression or stability. The bottom of the cups just kind of buckles and fold down over itself.
I sister-sized to a 36H because it ...doesn't seem to go up to a HH and I assumed that a 34 in a Panache bra would be too uncomfortably tight for me anyway, but I'd actually like this to be snugger. It's amazing just how much looser it is than the other one in the same size. I wonder if it might have been damaged in transit or the way it was stored because this one arrived crushed in a bag and with one foam cup inverted into the other, while the other one arrived flat in a box and felt firmer and less squishy. The only other difference is that a little paper tag on the strap says "B-J" (not indicated anywhere else, label still showing 36H), while the same tag on the other bra says "B-H".
I don't know if it comes down to different colors/batches being slightly different or if it's the retailers (Amazon for this, Nordstrom for the other), but the difference is pretty remarkable.
The J-hook is nice, though.
Update: I decided to keep it after all because the other one is just way too small for when my breasts fluctuate. I'm not really getting a ton of support, but for casual wear, it's okay. The cups are absolutely collapsing, though, and I can definitely feel it in my shoulders. I can't use the J hook because then the strap digs into my tail of Spence, which is a bummer because it did alleviate some of the strain on my shoulders. Read more 247 more words
This bra isn't the right bra for me. The band feels tight but wearable. However, I find the fabric rough and scratchy - it's not satiny at all. The color is a very pale ivory, almost white. There is a lot of extra fabric at the top of the cups while the bottom of the cups are very full. Actually, I think the cups aren't deep enough for me as this bra gives my breasts a strange almost square shape. I will be returning this bra.
Nice black strapless bra, but it was not supportive (which was kind of expected). The cup shape is nice and it is well constructed. The band size seems to stretch a little more than usual for a 36. Pretty comfortable for a busty strapless bra.
This bra fit terribly on me. It was gaping at the top and also gaping at the bottom. Straps were wide. Band was a little tight. The measurements for this bra seem a little on the extreme side compared to others in the same size.
Very nice black lace bra. Felt supportive and straps were well placed. Stretch lace helps fit multiple shapes. I did have some strange folding at the bottom, but I think it is more due to me than the bra.
Tango is a really tough fit for many shapes. I would really recommend trying a different bra (that's not a tango cut) before giving up on Panache!
wild_muses I'm surprised to hear you say that. A Tango in 36 or 38 G was my first Bra That Fit. I suppose I could go down to a 36GG, but that's waaaaay smaller than the 34HH I wear in most brands. Generally speaking, Panache is my brand - I love the colors, the patterns, the cuts...but I have a really hard time finding the right size.
Yeah, it's one of the first full bust bras a lot of people are introduced to, but the full cup shape isn't great for most people with large busts because it's very closed on top and tall. You'd probably have more luck with a balconette shape like Georgia or Cleo Marcie.
RollsAndCurves Wow! Thank you for all this advice. I suppose I will try it in a 36GG. I fill out my Panache Envy in a 36GG pretty well, with a little bit of spillage from wear & tear and weight gain - plus it's a different style, obviously.
It looks great on you, too bad about the tall wires. I wish I could find this bra somewhere to try it. On the other side I don't get along with it's predecessor panache Ariza at my current size. (I have a love-hate relationship with Ariza… a difficult bra but I wonder if they changed it's flaws on Alissa for the better.)