BiuBiu "Amargos" Review

I ordered this lovely BiuBiu top over a month ago and somehow neglected to write a review. This is the 36BB/BBB.

I love the pattern of this top. It’s somewhat unusual but not quite as out-there as some of the BiuBiu patterns (as Fuller Figure Fuller Bust points out here).

The fit definitely runs a little smaller than most of the BiuBiu tops. I’m actually okay with this because I feel the Amargos is well suited to being a little tighter and sexier. It’s low-cut in the front, which worried me at first because I don’t like showing cleavage. But it works well with my Thea plunge bra (second to last bra in this post), which doesn’t show too much cleavage. I still wouldn’t wear it to a babysitting job, a church picnic, or a luncheon with my senator, but I think it’s fine for most other casual situations.

Due to the tightness, it does ride up a bit when I move around, not to the point where I have to constantly readjust, but to the point where I’d probably be annoyed if I was still living in Edinburgh and walking four miles a day just to get around.

My favorite thing about the Amargos is the back detail.

Isn’t that cute? A little mini V-neck in the back!

The more I wear BiuBiu tops the more I do like them and the more I see their value as a clothing company. I used to think that there was really no difference between their clothes and the high street, other than the tailored shirts, because I never struggled to find clothes that fit me in normal stores. But every time I wear something from BiuBiu, I get so many compliments that it sends me right back to their website to see what else they have to offer. I guess maybe others can see the crucial differences in fit where I wasn’t able to. But I’m definitely starting to appreciate it now. 

Urkye, At Last, With Some Very Blurry Photos

You might remember from my last post that I mailed my Urkye order to my parents’ house and wasn’t sure when I’d be able to get it. Well, I asked my mom to send it to me and it arrived yesterday.

Unfortunately, I don’t have a camera right now—my old one broke and a new one is in the mail on the way to me—so all I have is my webcam. And I’m basically living in the woods right now so in addition to the lack of internet, there is also a severe lack of indoor light. So these photos are inexcusably horrible. But I thought maybe you guys would like to see a blurry first view and at least hear my thoughts. Hopefully it will be helpful if you’re trying to make an order yourself!

I ordered the Urkye dress (I’m not clear on the name of the dress from the website, but it’s currently the only dress they have) in a 36ooo. Here it is!

Overall a rousing success! The quality of the dress is really nice. The jersey fabric is thick and forgiving and the pockets in front give it a really satisfying heaviness.

I found that it was also extremely flattering to my shape from the back…

…and especially the side.

I am becoming more and more convinced that the pockets on this dress are utter genius. The location and construction means that they completely solve the problem a lot of other jersey dresses have—the awkward thing where they cling back in under one’s little chubby belly and end up highlighting it. The pockets on Urkye’s dress completely smooth and camouflage this section, so it looks like I don’t have a little chubby belly at all, but trust me, I do. So if you usually skip jersey dresses because you’re afraid they won’t flatter, try this one! I bet you’ll be impressed!

One thing I didn’t like was the puff on the shoulder of the sleeve. I felt like it sort of distracted attention from the rest of the dress, which is so simple and adorable. It also made my shoulders seem wider, which isn’t necessarily a bad thing in itself, but I can’t say it is something I seek out. I do wonder, though, if perhaps the puff sleeves were added to draw the eyes to various places other than the boobs and thus balance the figure?

The only other small problem I had with the dress was that the princess seams that come down over the boobs didn’t lie flat—the seam binding switched sides halfway through which created a bump. But this would be solved with a simple ironing so I can’t say I’m too bothered by it.

On to the sizing. The 36ooo is a pretty good fit, just about perfect in the body. I do wonder if I could have maybe downsized to an oo for my boobs. In this photo, you can see that there is a very faint line where the fabric is hanging down slightly over my boobs:

I take this as a cue that there is a little bit of extra fabric in that area. I think this is good news. In the BiuBiu items I’ve tried, I definitely needed a BBB, which means that women with bigger boobs than me wouldn’t have a bigger size to wear. For at least this one item, it does seem that Urkye has a little more wiggle room and could fit those with bigger boobs than me. I wouldn’t necessarily recommend sizing down, however. I think it comes down to shape more than anything. I figure that Urkye’s clothes are designed for Polish bras, like Ewa Michalak or Comexim, which tend to give a more upfront/uplifted shape. I tend to wear Panache and Cleo bras, which give a more minimized, rounded shape. (You can read more about that here.) So I think I would have the ability to size down to the oo while someone else who wears an H/HH/J cup in different bra styles might prefer the ooo.

My biggest piece of advice on sizing is to email Urkye if you are confused about which size to order! I didn’t do that myself, but she suggested it in a comment on my last post, and I’ve heard from several people that she is very helpful and speaks English.

Overall, I would highly recommend this dress! I love it lots and lots.

P.S. I don’t mean to sound as though I am insulting/abandoning BiuBiu. I also recently received a BiuBiu order and those photos/reviews will be up next week.  

My Urkye Order

Some of you may have heard of the new big-busted clothing line that has just launched, Urkye. Like BiuBiu, it is located in Poland and is similar to BiuBiu and Pepperberry in that each clothing size also has three options for "curviness" sizes. The sizing isn't as similar as I'd expected, though. I read on Urkye's sewing blog that she decided to use a different number of inches between sizes to hopefully get a better fit for more people. I guess I'm one of the people for whom that won't be true, because although my measurements are smack in the middle of a BiuBiu 36BBB, I found that I was weirdly between sizes in every way on the Urkye sizing charts, which look like this:

I ultimately decided to go with a 36ooo but I have to say I felt like I was taking a shot in the dark and have no idea how that size is going to fit me. I'm worried it will be too big.... or too small. But despite this, I made an order anyway, selecting this dress:

The only thing cuter than this dress is this dress paired with the tights this model is wearing. Actually, even cuter than that is the item description:

"This dress is not a serious one... :) We added funny pockets that can hide your treasures."

It can hide my treasures! I'm so ready for this! Unlike most of the items I look over and reject on the Pepperberry website, I saw this dress and knew that I HAD to have it. Like my life would have no meaning if I didn't buy it RIGHT THEN. This reaction makes me happy for so many reasons. When I look at clothes on the Pepperberry website, and even sometimes BiuBiu, I often feel like the only reason I would buy clothes like that is BECAUSE they are designed for big boobs. I usually don't find anything I like but still can't kick the feeling that I am "supposed" to like the clothes because they are "made for my body type" and blah blah depressing. I often find myself considering making a Pepperberry order for this sole reason, but I always stop myself when I realize that I wouldn't even be considering if if I didn't feel like I was supposed to want to.

This dress on Urkye's website is nothing like that! It is all that I want and more! I will wear it obsessively, probably every other day for three months (I have a disturbing tendency to do this) if it fits. It has POCKETS! FRONT POCKETS! I almost ordered it in both the teal and the raspberry color, but then I didn't... but I sort of wish I had.

The one thing driving me crazy is that the dress has been delivered already, but I don't know if it fits me yet! That's because I had the bright idea to mail it to my parents' house instead of where I'm living now at my summer job. I'm not sure when I'm going to make it home to try it on, but I guess I just want my readers to be as psyched about it as I am.

What To Do With Your Hideous Work Uniform

In case you’ve been wondering what I’ve been doing the past two weeks I haven’t posted, I started my summer job at the beginning of June and have been CRAZY busy. I work in the office at a summer resort, and since I am the only returning staff member, I had to train the five new people joining my department. In addition to this, we host weddings in the early season, which can be very chaotic and difficult to keep organized. Since I didn’t wanted to leave the new girls alone with anything too complicated until they were ready, I was working loads of extra hours. Throw in a really slow internet connection and that should hopefully explain my two-week absence. Anyway, I’m here now.

My job requires everyone to wear a uniform, and for the office, that means a navy blue polo shirt. For some reason, the sizing for these polo shirts is just crazy. I also choose an Extra-Small, but even men’s sizing doesn’t explain the sheer vastness of this Extra-Small:

It’s not like I am a particularly tiny person; I typically wear a women’s size Medium. This “Extra-Small” is comparable to a normal Men’s Medium or Large. This leads to a conundrum. The whole point of having a uniform is so that we look presentable in the office. But wearing a tent-like polo is the opposite of presentable. So I have to take matters into my own hands.

The alteration I’m going to describe is really simple. It hardly even deserves a tutorial. But I think the pictures speak for themselves in terms of the amazing difference a simple alteration can make. You can do this alteration by hand or by machine, so anyone who has a basic idea of how to sew can do it. It’s obviously a lot faster on a machine but of course not everyone has access to one. I used to do this alteration by hand all the time before I had my own sewing machine.

First, turn the shirt you are altering inside out. Make sure that it is lying flat with no wrinkles, and pull it so that the side seams are all on the side (most shirts have a seam along each side, but if the shirt you’re altering doesn’t have one, just make your best guess for where the sides should lie). Now, select a shirt you already own that fits you well and has a similar level of stretch to the shirt you are altering. Turn that one inside out too and arrange the side seams so they are perfectly on the sides. Lay it on top of the shirt you’re altering, making sure that the shoulders are at the same level.

Now, trace the edges of the smaller shirt onto the larger one. 

I use a special white crayon/pen that supposedly can write on anything, but you can use a regular pencil for a light-colored shirt, or for a dark-colored shirt, you can use any light or bright shade of eyeliner. (Buying a $1 white or lavender-colored eyeliner pencil made by NYC at your local pharmacy, supermarket or Wal-Mart is probably cheaper than finding the same kind of marks-anything crayon/pen that I have, which I stole from my mom seven years ago.) Don’t use a pen or marker because that will permanently mark the shirt and the ink can bleed, while cheap eyeliner tends to evaporate or come off in the wash.

There are various schools of thought on what to do with the armpits. I tend to take the lazy route and just flare out to where the armpit seams lie.

If the shirt you are altering also has massive sleeves, though, you can also take in the sleeves by simply tracing the smaller sleeves of the shirt that fits. It wasn't necessary to do that for this polo, though, so here are the lines I traced:

Now, just sew a simple seam right along the lines you’ve traced. When you’re done, try on the shirt. Keep in mind you are going to have a lot of extra fabric bunched up inside where you took it in, so the fit will be a little looser once you’ve cut that off. With that in mind, decide if the shirt is too big, too small, or just right. If it’s not right, make adjustments; you can take out the seam you’ve put in with a seam ripper or with a pair of scissors and a lot of patience. If the fit is correct, turn the shirt inside out again and just cut off the extra fabric. I usually leave about half an inch between the seam I sewed and where I cut to prevent fraying. If you are altering something especially nice and you’re feeling nervous, you don’t have to cut the extra fabric off at all. But I’ve found the alteration isn’t much use if I don’t cut off the extra, because then all the fabric bunching up inside ruins the look anyway. But do whatever you feel most comfortable with.

And here’s the result:

Before and after:

From frumpy to polished in a ten-minute alteration! I do this alteration to all kinds of clothes. I do it with dresses, tank tops, and even sweaters. I did it to every single thing I owned one time when I lost weight. I can’t even guess at how many  hundreds of dollars this has saved me over the years.

Pepperberry Has Problems

Pepperberry is probably the biggest and most mainstream brand purporting to make clothes for bigger busts. But they honestly drive me crazy with a lot of their designs. Half the time it seems like they just expand the breast area on clothing by adding pleats...

...or cinch in the waist by adding belts...

...or cover up excessive cleavage by adding a fake cami at the neckline (!?)...

...all without understanding what actually works for a curvy figure, or why. Pleats can be a decent way to add space for a bust but they also can add become bulky and add volume where volume is not needed. Waist belts can be cute--but they look best when they aren't necessary to draw in the waist of a garment, when they are just an accessory. When I do need to use a belt to draw in a top or dress without enough waist definition, I personally always feel annoyed about it. As for camis under low-cut tops--well those are just a solution we use when there are no options available other than trying to wear normal mainstream clothing that isn't cut for a big bust. I feel that Pepperberry should do better than that, since their prices are so high and their whole purpose is catering to a full bust.

I think this is going to be an ongoing series so I will just go over one item that is annoying me currently, and compare to a similar BiuBiu item that I feel is made better.

Check out Pepperberry’s gray Tie Shirt Dress.

Now, in general I like the idea of this: it’s a good color, it’s nice to have something shorter, and a shirt dress is an item that is hard to buy on the high street if you have big boobs, so it makes sense for Pepperberry to sell it.

I hate how it’s constructed though! The ‘boob space’ is added by those lumpy pleats at the neckline. 

The waist definition depends solely on the belt-like item that ties at the back—and as you can see, even on the model, there is tons of extra fabric in the back.

This is exactly what it would look like in the back if you simply belted a large men’s shirt—except with bumpy neckline pleats in the front. Now, I’m not saying this dress is hideous. I’ve seen it looking great on some people (though I've also seen it looking unflattering on other people); if you own it, I trust that you bought it because you know that it looks nice on you. I just feel like Pepperberry ought to have the know-how at this point to construct a garment like this without neckline pleats and waist ties.

To see what I mean, compare to BiuBiu’s Montparnasse gray shirt dress.

The construction here is totally different. The boob space is achieved by the seams down the front of the bodice—a much subtler, more flattering, and less lazy construction. There are no pleats to add bulk, the dress is just cut to have space where space is needed. The waist definition also comes from this seam pattern. 

The belt shown in the photo isn’t nipping in the dress at the waist—it is sitting a bit loose and not even on the waist, it is just there as an accessory. The waist of the dress itself is doing the nipping in! The dress would look good on its own, even without the belt, because it is constructed to fit and flatter an hourglass figure. 

I also find it hilarious how happy the BiuBiu model looks, in comparison to how miserable the Pepperberry model looks! I know that is just styling, but still...

BiuBiu "Etna" Review

I’ve known about BiuBiu ever since Thin and Curvy wrote her original post about their clothing, and I’ve also seen glowing reviews from FullerFigureFullerBust and Sophia Jenner. I’ve often looked at BiuBiu's website and lusted over the adorable styles, especially their tops.

But I never tried BiuBiu before because, strange as it may sound, I actually don’t struggle that much to find clothes I can wear in normal stores. I think that’s mostly due to the fact that I don’t mind showing off my lumps and bumps in stretchy knit clothes—it’s woven styles, and fancier or more professional looks, that are often harder to find for curvy bodies on the high street. I’ll do more posts in the future, though, on my tricks for finagling a fit in mainstream stores.

I decided to try BiuBiu, though, when I saw their Etna top. It’s an empire-waist babydoll top, which means it is one of the several styles that I would never be able to find in normal stores: the “designated boob room” top. I loved the Etna, so I followed the size chart on their website and ordered it in a 36 BB/BBB. Behold:

BiuBiu Etna

BiuBiu Etna side view with belt

I love the ¾ length sleeves—I consider it one of the most flattering sleeve lengths, because it draws the eye to the waist. I also really like the colors and the neckline is a perfect depth—as low-cut as it could be without becoming too cleavage-y.

One thing to know, though, is that you probably will need to wear a waist belt with the Etna top. A few people I know who have tried it said that without a belt, it bagged over their stomach, giving them a pregnant look. I actually found that mine mostly bagged in the back, but either way a belt really helps make the look more flattering. Although it looks fine from the front for a more relaxed, casual style, I think the belt makes a big difference to the side view.

Etna without a belt.

I actually hardly ever wear waist belts—because I have SUCH a short torso, they often end up showing off the wideness of my hips, rather than the narrowness of my waist (plus my waist doesn’t look that narrow from the front anyway). But, because of the more relaxed cut of the bottom part of the Etna, I found the waist belt was very flattering. Unfortunately, I’ve found I need to pull the top down a lot because the empire seam keeps moving up to show above the belt, a look that isn’t ideal. I’m going to need to find a way to secure the belt to the top; perhaps a snap affixing it to the back of the top. However, I should clarify that this isn’t a fault with the top; it’s because the boob section is a TINY bit too small for me. I knew when I ordered that I was a little bit outside the listed measurements for 36BBB, but it’s still a good fit; it’s just that the top doesn’t QUITE have enough space to traverse my boobs and reach where the belt should be. I’m hopefully that adding the snap will fix this minor issue. Even if it doesn’t,  I like the top enough that I don’t mind pulling it down every hour.

I’m not used to wearing clothes that are cut for my bust (like BiuBiu or Pepperberry) so when I do, I’m often startled at how they show off my boobs. That is, they make my boobs look the size they are: big. It’s a bit of an adjustment but hey, I can’t ALWAYS hide my shape in high street clothes. I did find that when I first tried the Etna, my boobs visibly hung over the waist belt. You can see that more in this photo.

The effect was lessened by changing into my 28HH Cleo Lucy, which gives me more lift than any of my other unpadded bras. It also worked well with a Curvy Kate Tease Me, but unfortunately the ribbons showed through the top, as seen below, so that may not be a feasible option. (I continue to long for a nude lace Tease Me. Ultimate Dream.)

In my opinion, it looks longer on the model on the website than it is in real life—I was expecting it to be nearing dress-length on my short torso. But I actually prefer this length, because it’s long enough to wear with leggings, but short enough to wear with a short skirt in the summer.

My only other annoyance with this top is that I wish they hadn’t continued the yellow spots on the upper section. On my right side, the shape they form makes it look a bit like pincers are groping my boob from below. From what I can tell though, the shape the pattern takes on the upper part of the top is more or less random, so not everyone will have this issue.

For me, the greatest measure of whether I like an item is whether I am willing to overlook its small flaws. As you might have noticed from my blog, I am pretty picky and small details can really ruin my opinion of a garment! But with my Etna top, I find I am really happy with it, even though there are a few details that could be better. BiuBiu really impresses me as a company, I would recommend their clothes to a friend, and I will most likely order from them many more times in the future.