Full-Bust Pinup Fashion Haul

I love fashion. Sometimes, as you may have heard me say it, fashion does not love me. I am in a constant struggle to find clothes that actually fit me. And I am not talking about t-shirts and jeans. You know, I am not a t-shirt and jeans kinda girl! Even if there are a few brands out there that make full-bust appropriate fashion, I have to say not many of them explore some more structured styles as they are a bit trickier to make. Don’t get me wrong – I love simple stretchy dresses as well since they are great for days when you just want to be comfy, but I do like to wear some pretty extravagant tailored pieces as well.

Along the way I have tried many clothing styles – I was one of those weird kids who wanted to be all at once and I do have quite a few style regrets as well. I mean, who thought it was a great idea to put on a tiny doll hat on your head? Apparently, I did. Even though I did have some phases of ridiculous clothing choices, I became infatuated with vintage styling years and years ago. I think I was probably 14 when I told my mom I wanted to look like Dita Von Teese and I still remember what she replied: “Darling, it’s only a crap loads of slap and hair dye.” Which is kind of true, I guess (hehe).

I finally became dedicated to the pinup / vintage style about a year ago – actually when I first started my Instagram (which is btw a great source for some awesome pinup inspiration)! I started to order more clothes online where I could actually see the measurements in a size chart to determine if something would even remotely fit me. Rule of thumb is that if the size chart says 34″ in the bust section, then it most likely will not fit (hehe)! A girl can dream though… However, I have stumbled across some brands that cater for fuller busts as well, so here’s a little clothing haul for you gals that struggle to find nice fitted clothes for you boobies!

Pinup Girl Clothing: Bella Donna Dress in Italian Landscape (+ Forever 21 cardigan + Face Stockholm glasses + Sophisticated Lady hair flowers)

To warn you right off the bat, most of these dresses are Pinup Girl Clothing aka PUG. Why? Because their sizing just usually works for me and I don’t have to worry if I can zip these dresses past my boobs. The first dress I ordered from PUG was their Evelyn (which I could perhaps review later?) and then came the long-sleeved Heidi. However, it’s been a while since I got them so I wanted to introduce you to my latest purchases.

I decided to buy the Bella Donna dress (now sold-out in this print) in Medium with some gift money I had and as it was in the PUG final sale section, I knew I had to get it for my upcoming bday in November. The dress finally came, about a month before my big party and to my shock horror, it was too small. I was devastated and had a horrible tantrum over it as I had checked the measurements before clicking the dress into my cart. After I had tried it on, I knew I had to measure it to make sure – and surprisingly enough, the dress DID come up too small for the size chart. It measured about 13″ flat at the waist, meaning it was probably sized like a normal PUG Small. Well, I ain’t Small in their size chart, so no wonder it didn’t fit.

However, when you engage in the pinup community, you usually learn all sorts of tips and tricks, so I had heard that some of the PUG dresses could be ironed through and stretched, so the fabric would stretch to meet the size chart measurements. I did this to my Bella Donna and after that it fitted VERY SNUGLY but fitted anyway, so I could finally zip it up (and I also went on a more healty diet but didn’t lose an inch lol). The boob department is boned with this particular dress and it’s great for girls who are a bit more well-endowed. I am a 30H so quite busty and it fits me but does quad-boob a bit, so not the most modest of dresses on me at least. However, I can wear it with no bra on which is great and liberating!

What I really like about this dress is that its straps are fully-adjustable so you can make it fit your body a bit better than most dresses with regular spaghetti straps. I have loosened them up a bit as I am long-torsoed and this dress is made for short-torsoed girls especially. I find that the waistline of the dress still comes up a bit high for me, but I am not super fussy about it as I think it looks great anyway!

Pinup Girl Clothing: Jenny Dress in White Harlequin Print (+H&M cardigan + home-made swan brooch +  a vintage scarf)

The Jenny dress is the original version of the PUG Bella Donna and it features a lower waist line, thinner straps and a more simplistic styling without the ruffles. It comes in so many prints and colours and is regarded as the basic pinup girl wardrobe staple every PUG lover should own. I got this dress as a birthday present from my boyfriend and even though he cringed a bit at the print first, he did love it when he saw it on me.

The Jenny dress also features the same boning as the Bella Donna and thus I can easily wear it without a bra. This dress was advertised to me as specifically bust-friendly but with this print, I have to disagree. I mean, if you would be like, say 30FF, I would be quite fine but 30H is another thing. Also, the size Medium is very small with this style as well – so I would advise to size up with Jenny’s if you are not interested to iron and stretch them! Mine measured again 13-13,5″ at the waist, laid flat, so I had to stretch it a bit to match my 28″ waist. Not horribly inconvenient but a bit of a hassle anyway. As I live in Finland, exchanges are not really possible for me so I need to make everything work as they are. (I have to say though that my Evelyn and Heidi fit more true-to-size and no need to stretch them at all!)

Pinup Girl Clothing: Jenny Dress in Orange Border Print (+ Bolero Beachwear bolero + Sophisticated Lady hair flowers)

I know it’s a bit boring to review two of the same dresses in the same post but let me tell you, there is a difference between two of these! I got this Orange Border Jenny from Retro Glam (a Canadian pinup retailer) at the Black Friday sale and even though it did add up a bit with the taxes and custom fees, I am super glad I got this dress as I have been drooling over it for months.

The Orange Border Jenny was almost as tight as the Harlequin one so I did stretch it a bit but not as much as the Harlequin. The waist zipped up even before stretching but I did some work on the torso to make it more comfortable and now it fits really well! The bust department of this particular Jenny is much better though than with the Harlequin one, as it seems a lot higher and thus can contain a lot more boob. I am not sure why this is, but no clothing brand is completely consistent with their sizing. I also like the orange belt that came with the dress as it makes the ensemble a bit more unique than most other Jenny dresses.

Lady Vintage London: Swing Dress in Red Lips Print (+ Poinsettia hair flowers from Sophisticated Lady)

I had been wanting to order from Lady V London for a while and when about two months back they had one of my favourite prints (this gorgeous Red Lips one!) on sale + free shipping, I could not resist the temptation. Usually Lady V dresses are around £45-55 which is not a very high price, but as I need to pay for international shipping and the Euro/Pound conversion rate is crap at the moment, it really adds up and I didn’t want to pay that much for a dress I did not know would even fit me. When the price of the dress went as low £19 I was ready to take the plunge and ordered this beautiful dress in their swing style.

What I was really afraid of, was the sizing of the dress. I had heard Lady V dresses were quite bust-friendly, but when their size chart stated that UK size 10 had bust room for 34″ boobies, I almost lost my hope. However, I crossed my fingers and hoped for the best as I did not want my waist to be swimming in the dress – and it worked! This dress is amazing for my boobs – my only gripe with the fit is that the waist line is a bit too high for my body/taste but then again, I am a long-torsoed gal. The material is lovely stretch cotton and the zipper is good quality, meaning no broken zippers for trying to yank the the zipper past my boobs. If I would have to say one bad thing about the quality of this dress, it would be that unfortunately the colours run a bit in the wash and you might end up having red-ish spots on your dress unless you wash it with a colour catcher.

This would be my autumn/winter haul and I will get back to any new bust-friendly dresses as I get to buy some more! Which one of these was your personal favourite? Let me know in the comments below! Lots of kisses and happy holidays to everyone! xx

Shopping For My Hourglass Figure – Let’s Talk About Size Charts

I am so sorry for neglecting you loves for a few days now – my grandpa just passed away and I wanted to take a moment to just grieve and also give myself a little me-time. However, now I am back and want to keep posting more regularly. Today, I wanted to tackle the topic of women’s sizing these days and talk a little bit about what we mean when we say that something is true-to-size.

I know sizing can be a difficult topic to discuss – it always raises an battle of wills and opinions as we all think differently about sizes and also have different emotional bonds to our dress size. When you used to fit into say, size 8 and then need a 12 with some random piece of clothing, it will stir maybe some swear words or even tears. I used wear a size 6 but have now gone up to 10, even after I slimmed down a couple of inches on my waist. I have battled the fear of sizes above 8 since I got ill with anorexia even though each brand fits differently and your dress size doesn’t actually MEAN anything special.

I was never very small when I was child – just a regular sized kid with a fuller bust that made me feel fat at a very young age. I developed breasts at age eleven and I got teased for it quite a bit as I was not supposed to be curvy when others still looked like children. At age 16 I started to develop disordered eating habits and thoughts regarding my body – just because I felt so isolated from other teenage girls. I was not flat, I was not sporty and I definitely wasn’t slim in my opinion. However, I was never above UK size 10-12 so my weight wasn’t a problem at any point – but still, it was a big issue for me. I never got my boobs to fit into anything that was less than a size 10 and I was frustrated as I felt so big compared to others.

In the above picture I am not at my smallest but at a point where I started to recover from anorexia and was breaking up from my ex at the same time. I was gaining weight and shimmed myself into my old size 8 Oasis dress which dramatically ripped from its back seam at that very occasion (my sister’s matriculation party). I was devastated as I felt that I couldn’t live up to that size 8 standard anymore. Damn Oasis! Damn my old dress which had been a bit loose about a year ago.

I took a look at Oasis size chart today and currently their size 8 is meant for a 25,6″ waist and a size 10 for a 27,6″. With British sizing, dress sizes usually escalate the way that each dress size accommodates a two inch larger waist than the previous one. However, most brands have very different size charts to each other and I find a lot of people using the terms “true-to-size” and variations of it while describing brand sizing. To me, this seams odd since every blogger and consumer seems to have a different opinion on what “true-to-size” means.

True-to-size compared to what? With bras, there is a more solid ground to compare the sizing – some well-established brands can be compared to as they usually fit very similarly. By well-established I mean eg Eveden brands and Panache. Also there are less brands in the business which makes the comparison easier. However, with regular clothing the sizes vary so much that it’s actually pretty hard to come up with some kind of standard fit to compare brands to. I have found that many brands’ size 10 fit about 28″ waist but I have also seen a few bloggers call those brands to run big. As dress size is a rather sensitive topic, I feel a bit “meh” about this kind of categorizing as it gives you the impression that some brands and their size charts are more or less right or wrong.

Besides being inconsistent from brand to brand, sizing can also be inconsistent inside a certain brand. I am wearing a Dorothy Perkins size 8 in the picture above though their size chart would put me somewhere near size 12. After trying a few styles in-store, I realized they fitted very inconsistently and I would definitely not dare to order from them online because the sizing is so hit-and-miss.

Pic by the lovely Tania (see the squished boob – not attractive!)

I also find the different body part measurements a bit tricky. For instance, some brands might both measure 28″ at waist with size 10 but then measure 34″ or 36″ at bust. This is why talking about something being “true-to-size” doesn’t make sense – which one of the measurements fits true-to-size; bust, waist or hips, all or none? Also some brands come up with measurements that seem super unfair to me – but this is just my subjective view on the matter. Let’s take some very common measurements for UK size 10: 34-28-38. Does this seem realistic to you? My answer would be yes, to some body types. When I see 36″ instead of 34″ I jump with joy as the 34″ bust measurement is a far cry from my 39-40″ bust and with 36″ I might be able squeeze myself into a dress that is still a bit too snug.

I am all for making clothes for every body type – pears, apples, hourglasses, and lollipops etc. but there is far too little choices for people who actually don’t fit the 34-28-38 frame. I myself am about 39-28-38 which means I have very hard time finding clothing that would look and feel good, not to mention getting the zipper past my upper torso. So many brands are favouring girls with a pear shaped or straight body type and it saddens me cause I can never live up to that standard.

This was it for this time but I would love to extend the conversation to the comment box – how do you feel about today’s sizing standards and where do you usually find clothes to suit your body type? xx