How to use Balkonetka’s catalogue?

You probably remember one of the Polish portals about brafitting – Balkonetka, I described it once. Today I’d like to give you some instructions how to use its catalogue – add your own photos etc.  It’s amazing how big it became over this year or so. And how all the women there are really friendly, tolerant and kind to  each other. We know nobody’s perfect, so nobody’s body/boobs gets criticized, we tend to limit their comments to the bras that are shown. And even if somebody’s body/breasts gets a comment, it’s a good one. We don’t allow criticizing just for the sake of criticizing and getting somebody upset about it.  I’d really like you to be able to  share this atmosphere and use this great tool of catalogue too. Can Balkonetka’s catalogue become international?  It’s up to you…

How to Register:

Whenever you open the homesite of Balkonetka there’s a log in/register field to click on in the right top corner – after you click register you get the above picture. Just fill in, accept the regulations (they get fairly adequately translated by Live Search, in my opinion they are understandable, if in doubt write to mauzonka@gazeta.pl or ask on Balkonetka’s Facebook site). After registration you get an email from Balkonetka with a link to click to confirm your registration. If you are already registered and just come back to the website, just click log in and you get this:

Straightforward enough so far?

Ok. After you register you can fill in your profile:

Next to the position “how many babies have you nursed” there are options: Nie karmilam (didn’t nurse any) and numbers, you just choose whichever refers to you. A bit lower there’s also a question if you’re a man (mężczyzna) or a woman (kobieta)… Btw, I don’t think there are any man at Balkonetka… It’s not as they could find much of interest for themselves on the website. The breasts that are shown in the catalogue are dressed in bras, photographs are anonymous as you don’t show your face… You can change your settings in the profile with an edit function, change the password or even remove the account at all.

We are getting close to one of the most important functions – adding your bra purchases to the catalogue. To do it, you just need to click onto Twoja Szuflada (Your drawer) on the black menu on the top of the page. Your drawer will contain all your uploaded purchases, it will be visible to anybody who chooses to click onto your nickname. You click Twoja Szuflada and you get this view:

After that you click “Add a new item to the catalogue (Dodaj nowa rzecz do katalogu):

You upload a photo – mind you, one only so it’s better to put several together in Photoshop, Paint, Gimp or whatever other graphic programme, fill in the required fields, click Dodaj (Add) – and done:)  Other Balkonetka users can see what you bought and comment or advise you about it. I suggest using English in your descriptions. It seems to be the most popular and you’ll probably get the biggest feedback… I don’t guarantee you’ll get many responses in other ones…

Sorry for the quality of the images. I haven’t mastered Print Screen yet and I was forced to make photogaphs of the screen… That’s why it doesn’t look as good as it should…

Update:  I was just browsing through Eternal Voyager’s blog. It seems she bit me to writing about Balkonetka’s catalogue… The article’s available  here…

Curvy Kate – Emily Flame

Today I’d like to write about a bra from the brand that I already mentioned in this blog twice – when I was decribing their spring/summer and autumn/winter collections. I just received a package with some bras from the current collection – I have been waiting for them very long, since summer. Curvy Kate website was announcing that the collection was going to be available from August… Well, it wasn’t:( And I just wanted an orange bra… And a few others… Finally, when they started to be available in Lovebras, I purchased them at once. So, ladies, today here’s my very first consumer review:

CURVY KATE EMILY FLAME 32GG

For the sake of order, I’m going to follow the review layout used by kasica of Stanikomania. Kasica, don’t beat!

BEAUTY  (4,5 out of 5)

When I removed the bra from the package I must admit a was a bit disappointed. Flame for me means orange. I was axpecting a fiery bra. I got one that is reddish/coral/ strawberry/raspberry (whatever you decide to call this colour) with an orange embroidery. However, the embroidery is very detailed and cute, the flowers are very well done. There are some nice ribbons at the centre gore and at the apex. Moreover the match of both colours gives a kind of enexpected effect. I had never seen a red and orange bra before…

FIT (5 0ut of 5)

Fiery Emily has quite a tight band. For my 29 inches of chest measurement a 32 was enough and feels stable. Actually, other soft bras from CK that I ordered alos feel snug enough. It’s kind of good that it’s not necessary to go down the size of the band so much anymore – smaller band with a recalculated cup means a bigger letter – in this case H – I’d rather not check out if that size is much more built up than 32GG …

SHAPE AND UPLIFT (5 out of 5)

This model seems to be really compatible with my breast giving them a nice round shape. Which unfortunately I cannot say about another of the bras that I ordered…:( The breast in Emily are elevated to the proper level. This may become one of my favourite bras for the dark and dull season that has just begun.

COMFORT (5 out of 5)

I’m giving a 5 – the bra is comfortable. At least it seems to be so, I haven’t had the chance to wear it for a longer period of time yet, so I can’t say anything more definite yet… For the several minutes that I was wearing and photographing it, I dind’t feel any potential discomforts – wires poking into the armpits or drilling holes into the sternum, or scratching straps, or whatever else. However, I may change my mind. For now, I’m giving the highest mark – it may change…

If you like sets of lingerie, panties are cute too:

 Here you can see the bra on “unphotoshopped” breasts.

Boob friendly brands – Effuniak/Ewa Michalak

Recently, when I was browsing through Thirty Two D forum I came across a post about new discoveries that mentioned Ewa Michalak website and her plunge bras in all sizes. This is one of the reasons I decided to write about Ewa and her designs, the other ones being the fact that at this moment her bra constructions are the absolute best that are available on the market (even though they still are not compatible with every pair of breasts and the designs may not be to everybody’s liking).

To start with – who’s Ewa Michalak? She’s been a lingerie designer for 15 years and during that time she cooperated with Polish lingerie brands such as Corin, Kris Line (you can often find their bras on Brastop), Kinga, Konrad . As she says herself in the interview for Balkonetka: “I came across the Lobby Biusciastych through “The bra alphabet doesn’t end at D”  article written by Kasica of Stanikomania and Butters77 – the founder of the Lobby. It was kind of funny as a magazine with it had been lying in my place for almost two months and I was just going to throw it away but then I decided to cut out some pics for inspiration. It was then that I found this article, I read it and I opened the Lobby website. And my first thought was “Oh my god, I’m so stupid and I know so little’. And when the Lobby brafitters calculated a bra size for me I almost dropped dead.” Ewa, who chose a nickname Effuniak, stayed on the forum and started to design and construct bras for bigger and smaller breasts. The lobbyists started to test these constructions. These bras were really beautiful and girls who got to test them were really kind of lucky ones – that’s how the rest of us perceived it. You can see some of Effuniak bras from that period here . Weren’t they cute? A lot of them were half cups, even for  large breasts (over HH cups). You can just imagine this long virtual queue of women waiting to get one of their own. And unfortunately, few got one:( The designs were unique and mostly unrepeatable, and  at that stage it was impossible for Ewa to start a mass production of lacy bras mainly because of costs.

Later on, last summer, Ewa opened an impromptue shop on her blog. It wasn’t yet a real shop,  yet it was better than nothing. Still you had hundreds of women waiting for new batches of plunges to appear there, and when they did appear they were selling immediately – sometimes almost everything got sold in just one evening. Just like nude bras, or other colourful ones (banana, watercolour, ladybird, peaches ) or even “cow” plunge or “cat” plunge (however controversial they were).

Finally, last autumn Ewa opened a real internet shop. Finally  all of us could buy plunges – auberine, chilli, denim , that were soon followed by sea moss, red moss , pleated bras and quite a few others. What’s more, in autmn collection  the construction of big cups got improved. Before the cup was made from 3 pieces of fabric, now it’s made of four.  This spring and summer brought more designs, among them my personal favourite – powder dots. What this bra does to my breasts is absolutely astonishing. I must admit I got into a kind of self admiration after putting it on – couldn’t stop staring at my tits in the mirror:) Recently Ewa introduced a strapless bra too – although only smaller cups:( to start with. There’s also a photo of a girl testing Ewa’s halfcup on Balkonetka – so maybe this autumn we’ll finally  be able to buy them too.

What is exactly so unique about Effuniaks? Why were all those women so frantic to get them? The answer is – the CONSTRUCTION. I already mentioned it at the beginning – Effuniaks at the moment are the best constructed bras on the market. H+ cups (or even G+) of other brands often have a construction error -  their producers assume that big breasted women have breast under their armpits instead of having them on their front. This problem of “triangular women” is described in Kasica’s article on Stanikomania ( I really suggest Google Translate, or any other “engine translate”, as the article is very interesting). If you’re a G+ you can try an experiment – just fasten your bra in front of you and see what shape it gets – if it’s a cradle, it’s bad…:( In case of Effuniak bras, this error is not there. The cups are fully on the front of the bra. The other thing is underwires – G+ often have very wide ones, wider than it’s really necessary (it’s also conneted with this first error I mentioned) and also very high – can poke into your armpit. Effuniaks have quite narrow and relatively low underwires even in big sizes. Another thing that makes them so unique is the lift – they were even nicknamed -” elevators for the breasts“.  Just look at this  uplift.  The girl from the second link is also shown without a bra (but wearing a t-shirt) to show the elevation.  Isn’t it amazing?  What more can I say??? Well, recently there’s been another survey on Stanikomania, this time for  “The most comfortable bra”.. Effuniaks won (though not unanimously)…

To cap it off, some practical advice on how to choose a size of an Effuniak bra if you decide to order one. These bras have very tight bands, so if your frame is say 75cm(30inches), in most cases you will be well off in a 75(34) band. In case of Effuniak strapless, you may even need an 80(36). Anyway you have a calculator on the website – you have to take two measurements of your frame – first one  very tight, the second one without squeezing. As for the cup – there’s also a special way to measure for it. Bend down, so that your torso is horizontal,  make sure the tape is vertical and then measure your breasts. Type in your measurements into the calculator (first the measurement of your frame tight, then loosely, then around your breasts), click “jaki mam rozmiar” and you get the answer. But the answer from the calculator is only the starting point, as usual… According to  Ewa  you have to consider the shape of your breasts too, if they look like:

UU – most probably the cup indicated by the calculator will be fine;

00 – the cup indicated may fit but you may need a cup size bigger one; 

OO – you definitely will need a bigger cup size by one or two cups;

VV – the indicated cup may fit, but you may need a smaller one;

W - the indicated cup will be too big, you’ll need one smaller by 2 or 3 cups; 

^^ – breasts that are long and narrow at  the base ending with a kind of a ball - just like a pear - you should take  2 or even 3 cups smaller size than indicated by the calculator.

I hope this will help you check out for yourselves how Effuniak bras fit and what they can do for your breasts:)

2010 autumn and winter collections – Curvy Kate

Summer’s in full swing here, the sun’s shining, everybody’s on holidays but autumn and winter collections of bras are already starting to be available. What do boob-friendly brands have in stock for us for next season? Let’s start browsing. Do you remember the spring collection of Curvy Kate? The autumn/winter one is going to be as exciting and colourful as the former one. Have a look:

I personally like at least 4 of the bras shown and I just can’t wait till they become available in any of internet shops…;)

What about you? Which ones do you like? Which ones would you buy? Well, obviously liking doesn’t necessarily mean buying (hence the second question)… As Bra Fitting Cidade is starting to think seriously about doing something more than just blogging about filling the bra – desert here, your input would be appreciated:)  Any (wanna be) lingerie shop has to make its order now (a lot of existing ones already did it in spring) to allow for future allocation of the stock from the producer:(  So I especially direct this survey to my  Portuguese readers.  Would be helpful and vote?

Photographs courtesy of Curvy Kate.

Boob-friendly brands – Avocado

I’d like to start introducing Polish lingerie brands that produce, have produced or are starting to produce full range of sizes. The brand that I’d like to begin with is Avocado,  a producer of luxerious lingerie for bigger breasted women. The company is not a newbie, they have been on the market already for several years. I remember seeing their first ads in women’s magazines 7 years ago, then visiting their website and salivating at all those beautiful bras.I wanted to have them all. They were quite different from what was available for us in normal shops. First of all, they had D+ cups (up to H), and secondly bras were made of French lace, had intricate embroidery etc They didn’t like like beige tents that we had to buy from most lingerie stores at that time. Here I must admit that a lot of Polish women still haven’t got over this trauma of beige tents – they simply refuse to buy bras in this colour (irrespective of how practical it is) as they were forced to do it for a long time. However there was a little snag too,  Avocado prices were kind of crazy… Out of reach for an average woman with an “average” Polish salary. I was really sad as I couldn’t treat myself to everything they had in the catologue:(

A bit later on (2004), I had a sudden influx of cash and I decided to pamper myself and buy 2 bra and thong sets, a white and blue Tutti Frutti and another one – black with red lace embroidery (already don’t remember its name). So I placed an order for 2 75D bras and bottoms and the waiting started – at that time internet shopping wasn’t developped that much as today, and it seemed like forever to receive my package. Finally it arrived, imagine my joy at having two new fancy bras, and the fact that actually their cups were much two small didn’t really matter to me. At that time I had no idea how a bra should fit, the Lobby of Big Boobed women didn’t exist yet and it didn’t even cross my mind that perhaps, I should have chosen a bigger cup – they were available afer all…

Time went on… The bra awereness among (some) brafitters and women started to develop, so did the size range of Avocado. 2008 collection already had bras up to J cup, now even K is available as well as smaller bands such as 60 and 65. However, Avocado’s K is not equal to a British K cup… Actually it was hard to compare it to the British sizing, because the company’s website was missing a proper size chart for along time:( This year when I decided to treat myself to some luxery again (especially due to the fact that some of the bras were on sale;)) I was really wondering what size to take, in the end I decided to take the biggest cup available with a 70 band… Of course later on I was told on the Lobby they might be too big for my British 32GG… Well, it was too late to change the order, so I waited impatiently biting my fingers when I looked at the diminishing stock of ordered bras at the website (meaning less sizes for a potential exchange). However, I had a really nice surprise when I received the parcel with Kabuki, Creole and two CanCans – two latter ones were fitting perfectly, two former were a little too big (but nothing that I small fold couldn’t solve). And the bras were stunning too – I’ve never had a bra such as Kabuki before… Creole was gorgeous either, with its metallic sheen it’s almost like wearing jewelry. CanCans are not as beautiful, but they are still one of my summer favourites.

Avocado has been enjoying positive feedback also from two other Polish bra bloggers, Kasica of Stanikomania wrote a review of Saskia, giving it a 4 out of 5 note, Mauzonka of Balkonetka did another review about Charlotte with equally positive feedback.

The above photograph (from Balkonetka) shows another model of Avocado bra.  I don’t really like beige bras, I hardly ever wear them – I have one, but I could wear a beige bra like Charlotte. What about you?

I just wonder when the size range of the brand increases even more to accommodate British J and K cups… A size chart is already on the website, so it’s easier to choose a fitting bra. Looking at it you can notice that “a jump” between cups is quite big, bigger than in British bras – where it’s 2,5cm (an inch),  Avocado’s cups grow every 4cm. It seems that the website is being reorganized too – I hope it means it will be possible to pay by credit/debit cards and PayPal. An English version of the website is being prepared too (though it’s not there yet), so non-Polish speakers will be able to order lingerie from Avocado either.

Plastic surgery – is it worth the bother?

Which of us haven’t ever done anything to improve our looks by buying cosmetics, spending fortunes on clothes or hairdressers etc? Can any of us say that she has never tried to boost her mood and self by buying a new dress or going to a beautician or whatever? But what are the limits of improving our bodies? Is having a part of your body cut off in the name of conforming to more or less realistic norm of looks really reasonable??? Shopping for clothes is fun and relaxing (for most of us) and it only drains our wallets. We can remove the make up, hair can regrow but our breasts won’t… These issues have been on and off on bra-fitting communies, and recently there have been new threads about them so I decided to share our thoughts here.

We are surrounded and constantly bombarded by images of perfect bodies, complexions, breasts. They look at us from covers of magazines. This can and does make a lot of us feel inferior, a lot of women try everything to look exactly like these models. But are these looks real? A great number of women seem to forget that these looks are achieved by photoshop. In reality nobody’s skin is unblemished, and nobody’s body or face are perfect. The same applies to breasts, yet the media and a lobby of plastic surgeons are trying to make everybody conform to some ideal shape and size by encoding in our minds the following message: your breasts are small, you have to have them enlarged because larger is sexy and nice, you have (naturally) big breasts – well, you have a big problem, it’s a pathology, you need to have them reduced”.

While it can’t be denied that a problem of having really large breasts exists – its cause is an illness called macromastia or gigantomastia, a lot of plastic surgeons overuse this reason to make their customer believe her large breasts are pathological and need to be reduced. Just like this woman  did – I found this photograph while I was googling for images of hypertophic breasts…  And the point is that her breasts before are just average, looking like 30GG-H(H) whereabouts which is quite a popular size. This is a real case of hypertrophy of breasts, in such cases a surgical intervention is necessery. Or another one – like this.  

It’s astonishing how we can be manipulated into believing that it’s our bodies that are to blame, not a wrong size or cut of bra, clothes, shoes. If only women like the one form the above link had got a proper bra-fitting (almost) all their problems associated with big breasts would have disappeared. If all of them could get their bra with a band that supports breasts and cups that are big enough, instead of believing their D(D)(D) cups with whatever band are the biggest they can get – as you already know sizes like 30J or 32K do exist. An instantaneous change in looks that a women undergoes when she finally gets a well fitting bra does wonders to self. You just suddenly stop having a complex of having big, unshapely, ugly breast – it turns into – “I have gorgeous tits – I could look at their reflection in the mirror for hours” (you remember the article about “what a proper size did for me” – if you don’t - read it again). And all this for much less money, without the risk of post operation complications.

Is it because plastic surgeons don’t want to lose a source of easy income? I got exactly this impression waching this video. A woman who used to wear an uncomfortable and unspupportive 38DDD gets fitted into a 34H, everything seems fine, it’s explained what a good bra does to the breasts etc until a man (a surgeon?) at the 5:42 starts speaking. He says: “ I think your body is telling your breasts are a little too big for the rest of your body, that’s why it’s so hard to fit.” etc. This is outrageous, how dare he he say something like that to a woman with a comletely normal and average body and breasts? Where the hell, does he see lack of proportions? How can he suggest reduction if back pain continues? As if having breasts were the only cause of having back pain! Then why men do suffer from it too? Why strenghtening of the core muscles wasn’t suggested? I sincerely wish this woman and also many others luck – ladies, don’t get taken in by this kind of talk!  Each of us is different, the world doesn’t need to be full of identical plastic barbie dolls.

To sum up and boost your mood I’ll tell you how to properly do a pencil test for your breasts, it goes like that – “stand naked in front of your naked man, if his pencil starts pointing at you, you just passed it”;) (by turzyca)

How to get yourself a beautiful and cheap bra in your correct size?

You don’t like something about your bra situation? You think the choice available to you is too small? Bras are too expensive? You can’t buy your (correct) size in the nearest lingerie shop? Face the truth: nothing will change unless you do something. Don’t just sit, act!

These are the words of Turzyca, a lobbyist, starting a new thread on the LB forum. The thread about bra lobbying, about changing a bra reality, spreading the knowledge about bra fitting. The great thread that already has gathered a lot of ways to better the bra choice and the amount of good bra shops available. Today I’d like to share them with you so you can start acting too.

SHOPS:

Ask about your new correct size at shops that you used to frequent, especially if they remember you. Let this be a signal that they are losing a costumer because of this. If they tell you that you’re just another woman who read all this nonsense in the internet, just answer:”It may be nonsense, but it works. Now my bra fits better and it’s more comfortable.” Ask about a full range of bra sizes in shops that you go to anyway. You may discover a good one…

Generally if you do your lobbying in shops it’s better to be nice and polite – you can chat with shop assistants about designs, colours and sizes and mention that you have friends who need similar sizes that you do. You can say that another shop that happens to have them, sells everything fast because its costumers share information about it online. You maybe lucky and get to talk to the shop manager…

However, sometimes you may encounter salespersons that are simply so thick-headed, stubborn and closed-minded that it’s hard not to get irrited. In such sitations, don’t let them just get rid of you – shock them, lift your top and show your perfectly fitting new bra. Show that such sizes do exist. Something like that stays in mind, they remember it better than just your words.

INTERNET AND MEDIA

Are you active online on various fora and other social networks? Try some lobbying there. Why not start a thread about bra-fitting at one of those? Especially if it’s a women’s forum… Or start your own subforum about bra fitting… However if you want to do some bra-size advising, evaluate how good your bra knowledge is before doing it… Maybe it would be better to wait and learn a bit more. Consider also how much time you can devote to it – being a mod or admin of a forum takes time…This solution may require more than one person to do it.

Alternatively you can just add a signature that is a link to a bra-fitting forum or blog about it.

You can also use the link signature in your e-correspondence, especially private one. “Break out of Bra Matrix” may not sound the best in a business letter or a job application;)

React to every bra/breast related piece of news online. And there are quite a lot of them – all these snippets of information about celebrities and their outfits and/or bras/breasts etc. If you read commentaries under them you can often find desperate girls and women who can’t find a bra for their gigantic 36/38DD. You can help them – give links to where they can find information about sizes and shops. You can also find them under more or less scientific texts about breasts – react there too. In general – pay attention to all bra related information in the media irrespective of their correctness. Just show you care, write, call, stay interested in every way so that this subject stops being treated as something not serious. Show that there are (quite) a lot of us and let them get used to this situation where the subject of bra fitting is more and more widely discussed.

Another way of spreading bra knowledge online can be starting your own blog in any language… (that’s what I did). You can also write articles to local papers, or even a school newspaper. Try to get any access to any media – press, radio, TV. Even a short note or TV/radio appearance may help.

PLACES FOR WOMEN

Print out Tips for Tits * and leave it around all types of place where women gather – fitness studios changing rooms, beauty salons and hairdressers… If your hairdresser/beautician is a sensible women talk to her and convince her to spread the knowledge too – she has a lot of time for it spending a lot of time with her clients talking about feminine things – and bras and brafitting certainly fall within this category.

Ask your ginecologist, dermatologist or GP for permission to leave Tips for Tits in the waiting room. Get them interested in the subject especially if a correct bra size influenced positively your own health and well-being – no back/neck pain, headaches or chafings. Print out info from the net – there are already some more or less scientific publications about correct sizes influencing health.

Show your new bra in a changing room in your fitness studio or a pool. Smile and admire yourself in a big mirror – this attracts attention. It’s just a pity that bra labels are so small – if only the print on them was three times bigger so that everybody could see…;) Straight up and show the world that you don’t need to adjust your bra, let everybody see that your breast stay up high and proud all day long. Prove that having bigger breasts doesn’t mean they have to be sagging down.

TEACH OTHER WOMEN YOU KNOW ABOUT BRA FITTING

How many women you know wear incorrect bra sizes? Get the information to them too. Get your mum, aunt, grandmum and girlfriends a proper bra fitting. Bring up aware consumers – teach your daugher(s) how to choose a well fitting bra. Let their breasts stay anawere of pain caused by poking in wires and shoulders be free of deep red grooves. In this way you increase the number of demanding costumers. And perhaps your daugher will teach her girlfriends…

Teach your male friends about bra-fitting too. Some of them can be more open to this kind of knowledge than some women are. And your breasts as proof that this works can convince them that it’s worth talking to their girlfriends/wifes about it. They may even recommend you as an expert.

LOBBYING AT SOURCE

Last but not the leasts write to bra manufacturers. Let them clearly see black on white what is exactly wrong with their offer, no matter if it’s the insuffcient range of sizes or bad construction on bras that don’t agree with women’s anatomy, colours, prices, whatever… Just let them know about it, they won’t change anything without such signals from you. Don’t buy almost fitting easily available sizes at shops – say, you should have 32D which they don’t have but you buy a 34B – which almost fits but… you have bulges everywhere around the rims of cups, the band rides up and your breasts generally sag down. Just don’t add to the statistics saying that avarage women’s bra size is 34B which is not true.

These are definitely not all ways that you can use to spread the bra message around. You can easily come up with other ones. Be smart and don’t let them get rid of you. They throw you out through the door? Come back though the window!

I used/quoted the following lobbyists’ advice: Turzyca, Myszka.xww, kura17, antosia.mama, sineira, malina08, roza_am, swinka-morska, madelaine.eve

* Original of Tips for Tips by butters77,  English translation by nikusz