Sunday 2 December 2012

Bravissimo Rococo Charm (Ivory/Ice Pink) Review

Recently, I've been on a epic journey to try to find a perfect (or at least passable) skin-toned bra. For my coloring, the best color would be a pale shade of beige-toned pink, but I was also willing to settle for the yellowish beige color that is typically marketed as "nude".

I've had quite a few failures and bras that didn't quite do, but I was pretty convinced that Bravissimo's Rococo Charm bra in Ivory/Ice Pink was going to be The One. Unfortunately, it wasn't--at all.

I ordered it in a 30H, since that was the size I had tried in the Pistachio version of the Rococo Charm. The green version had fit me well in that size, but the Ivory/Ice Pink runs smaller.

From the front, it looks pretty good:

But from the side, you can see that the cup does not have enough volume.


To begin with, half-cup bras like this (and especially the ones from Bravissimo) do not have much depth in the cups, but that is not usually an issue for me since I have very little volume in the bottom of my breasts. (I should have been more clear in the past that in addition to having a lot of upper fullness, I have much very little lower fullness. So I need bras that are cut open on the top, and shallow on the bottom.) So typically the shape of the Rococo Charm would work for my boobs, but this one is just a size too small. A friend who's tried a lot of Bravissimo half-cups tells me that they have been getting smaller and smaller since the Demi Diva--so the Parisian Plume was slightly smaller, the Rococo Charm slightly smaller again, and the Tanzania Stripe ran very small. I haven't tried all of them right in a row, but unfortunately I don't find this Incredible Shrinking Bra Syndrome hard to believe. It's the same thing that has happened to the Curvy Kate Showgirl Bras over the years. (I fit perfectly in a 30H in the Coral/Black Tease Me from a few years back, but would need a 30J to fit into the current colors.)

A half-cup bra (high center gore and vertical seams going up the cups) will typically give a square shape if it is too small. That's what happened with this bra.


Even when I loosened the straps so much that they fell right off the shoulders, the fit was still slightly too small, and with the straps so loose, it didn't really support me at all.


I might have returned the Rococo Charm in favor of a 30HH, but I was dissatisfied for other reasons too. The overall structure just does not seem as strong as I would expect from Bravissimo bras. In these photos you can see how much the underwire stretches:



This is in spite of the fact that the band is NOT too tight on me (I wear a 30 band but measure 28'' around my underbust). What's more, the Rococo Charm has not one but TWO features that are meant to PREVENT distortion of the underwire: the full band that continues underneath the underwires in front, and the non-stretch panel in between the underwire and the stretchy part of the band. Yet these factors didn't prevent the underwire from distorting hugely. I don't mind wide underwires, but no underwire should distort this much--it changes the fit of the cups when the wire stretches.

My quest for a suitable flesh-toned bra will unfortunately need to continue because the Rococo Charm won't do it for me. I'm going to start listing the bras I want to sell on Bratabase, so when I have that set up, I'll add a link to it here.

9 comments:

  1. good to know I'm not the only one who's noticed the 'Incredible Shrinking Bra Syndrome' of the CK Showgirl collection :P

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  2. Too bad this didn't work out for you, but I'm really glad you posted a thorough review as I've been curious about this bra for quite some time! The colour of this bra actually looks pale enough for my skin, so I may still give it a shot in the future. Thanks for the review, I never would have known about the "shrinking bra phenomenon" otherwise!

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  3. Sorry to read that it didn't work.
    It was too pale besides fit issues anyway (slightly darker then your skin tone can't be seen through, but slightly lighter always does, not as much as white, but still).
    Malica

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  4. I'm sad to report that Cleo suffers from size oscilations too - this years models Natasha and especially Zia seem to be much smaller than say Alexa and Meg :/
    But then again those models ran bigger than previous models o.O
    Anyway, thank you for explaining your boob shape - there was a debate on bratabase among your Blog fans on are you wearing too small bras or is it the smaller lower boob secion that determines the fit :) thank you for clearing that up :)
    So if I get this right - you try to fit the lower section of boobs? I ask because I have a similar problem, if the bra fits along the wires and lower part, I get the quad boob. If It fits in the upper part I get empty fabric in the bottom and on the sides :/

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  5. I understand your disappointment about the Rococo Charm's wires stretching so much. You said it changes the fit of the cups. My question is, would the wires stretch to an acceptable distance if you went up a cup size? I think you can only know if you try the 30HH. I know the 30 band is not too tight a band for your 28" underbust. But the other part of the underwire-stretching-too-far-under-the-arms equation is cup size being too small.

    Maybe my eyes deceive me, but the profile when the straps are off your shoulders looks nicely rounded, as much as the Masquerade Rhea you tried on at Bravissimo? I think it'd be a shame to write off this bra, especially when you can still try it in 30HH. Shipping to the U.K. costs too much and requires standing at the post office or UPS or someplace like that. But you did get it on sale, and I think it'd still work as a nude bra, at least when you're not tanned. And half cups are a great shape on you.

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  6. I will definitely AGREE that Bravissimo's half cup styles are getting smaller! I have TWO Rococo Charms and one Demi Diva all in the same size which fit like a dream (30GG). I went to order the two newest ones, Tanzania and Mademoiselle, thinking they would be a safe bet. Oh, how very wrong I was! I sent them back for the next size up, which was still too small. Ideally I would need about three or four sizes up in the newest ones, which is impossible since they stop at HH! I still can't get over the difference in these bras which are meant to be the same.

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  7. Hi....it fits u so well and perfect i believe but i wanna know one thing...
    band is ridding up from back? what it is?

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  8. Hi! I just ran into the size and was wondering if you have any advise for me...first of all congratulations because your page is awesome from the couple of posts I've seen. 2nd of all, do you recommend any bra that will lift AND separate to form the kind of cleavage in your pictures? Every bra I wear gives me a squished cleavage that makes me look chunky (I am 5"4 and weight 120). Is it the kind of bra or boobs that I have? Do you think there's still hope for me or am I doomed to have a butt crack on my chest?

    Sorry and thank you for your time! :)

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  9. It looks sooo different than the picture that you posted earlier- almost white! Not nude...

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