Introducing Bolero Beachwear – Dresses for Busty Pinup Gals!

I love reviewing lingerie – it’s my passion, obviously – but I do have a great love affair with pretty dresses as well. The thing with pretty dresses though is, that not every dress I try fits me that well – not even half of them! I can rarely zip up UK size 10 past my boobs which is why I usually result in buying a size up and then cinching the waists with a belt. When I heard about Bolero Beachwear and saw some lovely fellow bloggers rocking their dresses, I decided to chat to Patricia, the owner of this lovely brand.

Bolero Beachwear started out when the recession hit the USA in late 00’s – many women were left without jobs and so was Patricia, as the beachwear company she was working for had to close down because of the owner’s cancer and customers closing down their own businesses. Patricia, the wonder woman behind Bolero, decided to start a business of her own and so she ended up founding Bolero Beachwear and designing her very own beach cover-ups. After consulting with a busty customer, Patricia decided to make additional dresses and other items for us well-endowed women, as she wanted to accommodate her customers’ needs. Today I am reviewing two of her DD+ clothing collection dresses – Erica and Carmen! *These dresses were gifted to me by Bolero Beachwear. All opinions are my own! Photos were taken by Nina Tulilahti Photography. *

The Erica dress – named after Erica from the fabulous “Sophisticated Pair”!

Patricia was super excited to send me the dresses as she knew how much I would enjoy styling them with my pinup way! Both of the dresses are full circle style with deep pockets (!!!) so they can definitely be worn with or without a petticoat (I am wearing them with one in each pic), whatever suits your personal style the best. I really enjoyed both of the styles and opted them in basic colours, black and white, which makes them both perfect staples in my wardrobe.

The Erica dress is a 1/2 sleeved wrap-dress style which I loved the most of all Bolero dresses. It comes in a sweet polka dot print, but also in basic black and another, more modern monochrome print. I haven’t owned any polka dots in years which is why I wanted to be a bit nostalgic and try to style them to my current taste. Patricia was so kind to send a couple of different sashes along my dresses, and I paired the Erica with the classic red sash you can see in the pictures. I think it goes perfectly with some red lipstick and a hair flower (from Sophisticated Lady Hairflowers) which look quite Christmassy together!

Carmen dress + the signature black bolero!

The Carmen is a more feisty little number which could easily work as the little black dress in any woman’s wardrobe, especially in the summer. As I live in Finland, I need a cover-up for this particular dress as it’s sleeveless, but luckily Patricia had included a lovely little black bolero in my parcel as well – the perfect pairing with anything sleeveless or even strapless! I rarely wear any boleros actually but find this style particularly flattering and simple enough to please me.

When it comes to the style of Carmen, I would prefer it with some small cap sleeves even, as I am a bit self-conscious about my arms. It’s probably a bit silly as I have worked hard for my biceps (lol!) but I do find them a bit masculine with my pretty dresses. So to conclude, I do like my dresses with sleeves as they soften out my features a bit. However, I can imagine this dress being perfect for anyone who lives in a warmer climate and does not like her armpits getting damp!

When it comes to sizing, I found the dresses to run fairly true-to-size in the waist area. I went for my regular non-vintage-reproduction size (as repro usually runs smaller than high street) Small and was very happy with the result. The Small is perfect for my 28-29″ waist and even though the bust is meant for 36″, I can easily fit my 40″ boobs into it without any fabric pulling or distorting the polka dot print. Both dresses fit similarly and are really easy to get over your head and wear casually. The sleeves of the Erica dress are also roomy enough for my big guns (hehe) and the fabric is overall wonderfully stretchy. As a huge plus,s these dresses feature a reinforced back (an extra layer of fabric at the back part of the dress), meaning your bra bands are less likely to show through (I wore a tight Polish band in the shoot so you need to excuse me!).

What I wear my Bolero dresses most for, is everyday situations when I don’t want the hassle of closing a difficult back zipper or I know that I might get messy at some point. These dresses are really easy to clean, as you can just toss them in a washing machine and even if you spill something over yourself (don’t get me started on ketchup!), these materials are super easy to just rinse clean. I would say, if you work with kids and still want to stay fancy – you really need these dresses in your life! Another upside is that Bolero dresses don’t wrinkle whatsoever, so they are perfect for those active days, even while travelling.

All in all I am very happy with my new Bolero dresses and regard them as a lovely option for anyone with a fuller bust and interest in a more casual pinup style. The Bolero garments are designed and manufactured in USA which adds up the awesomeness of the brand even more.

If you are interested in getting something from Bolero, they are having a sale right at this moment so go and snatch up a lovely wardrobe staple of your own! You can get free shipping and 20% off with a code HOLIDAY20. The Erica dress is now on sale for $140 and the Carmen dress for $120.

What are your go-to clothing brands for a fuller busted figure? Let me know, I am always open to any good tips on how to dress my boobs! xx

D+ Clothing Review: Koperta Krótka Dress by Urkye + DISCOUNT CODE

When it comes to buying dresses I am a complete hoarder and sucker for anything pinup-esque. However, there is always the problem of le boobs – last week, I had to return two lovely dresses to their warehouses as they just wouldn’t go over my chest. This is when the boob-friendly clothing companies come in to play and they have never disappointed me yet. When the Polish curvy clothing brand Urkye offered to send me their brand new Koperta dress to review, I was instantly smitten to have something to fit my curves properly. All of the pics are by the lovely Tiina from a Finnish blog called Kissanpäiväkimara.

The Koperta is a classic stretchy cotton-blend wrap dress. It hits me just above the knee which is very flattering length on almost anyone, unless you are super petite. I fell in love with the Tuba dress last summer and the Koperta is growing to be my next new favourite for this spring. As the Tuba is definitely more of a summer style, the Koperta sports short sleeves and a more flare-y skirt part which makes it great for layering up with a cardi and thicker tights as well. I chose to style the dress with a rather traditional pinup way – a vintage scarf, mid heel pumps, hair flowers and and a skinny belt to cinch the waist in.

The Kopertowka dress comes in three different colours for this spring season: Black, Red and Forget-Me-Not Blue. Obviously the special name of the blue one drew me in and I decided to opt for it as I already owned a few black and red dresses in similar styles. The decision was definitely right – I got so many compliments wearing this dress to a pub on Friday night and it seems to flatter my eye colour and skin tone very well.

Sorry for the weird-ass ribs! I know they are super prominent but what can you do…

When it comes to sizing and fit, I must say I was very pleased with both. The size chart would put me at 38ooo but as I had worn the Tuba dress successfully in size 36o/oo (click for the review!) I decided to just go up with the bust size, to a 36oo/ooo. These dresses have a lot of stretch to them so I would say it really depends on how you like your fit to be – tight or loose – and then go with that. I like a tighter fit to accentuate my curves and a little less coverage on the bust so the oo/ooo was a good option. However, the neckline is pulled quite low in the pictures and if you wish, you could opt to wear it higher for a more modest look. For reference, I wear a 32G Gossard Retrolution bra under the dress.

The sizing with Urkye works in such way that you will opt a certain bust size in addition to your regular European dress size. The sizes go from o/oo to ooo with the first fitting someone moderately busty and the ooo fitting an extremely busty figure. My bust is rather full but I do fine with both of the smaller sizes rather than ooo as I don’t like a lot of coverage over my chest. The dress size itself is regular European sizing in which I’m usually 36-38 (or UK 10-12).

If you gals want to get this dress for yourself I must say it’s a bargain for such great quality! The blue colourway is sold for 145 Polish Zloty which is about 35 euros – not bad, huh?! The shipping costs are reasonable too, depending on your parcel weight of course. How do you like the dress and have you ever tried anything from Urkye? Did you like how I styled it? Let me know in the comments! :)

EDIT: If anyone of you my dear readers is still interested in getting their own Koperta, Urkye has offered you a code to get 10% off both their short and long-sleeved Koperta dresses! Use the code 2CAKES at the checkout to claim your discount. The code is valid until 10th of April 2015.

DD+ Clothing Review: “Vivi” Dress by Lindy Bop

 
Hiya lovelies! It’s Father’s Day in Finland today and while spending it with my dad and little sister, we decided to take some pics for the blog. My dad had gotten me this dress for my grandpa’s funeral so I wanted to review it for you as well; sorry about the picture quality though, I don’t know how to use my camera yet so it wasn’t focusing properly and it was quite dark outside too. These are the only decent pics and even they are slightly blurry.

But onto the dress! I saw the “Vivi“ dress on Lindy Bop’s Facebook page about a week ago and decided it would be a good choice for my black dress, as I would be needing one very soon in the future. The dress cost only a very affordable £34,99 so it was a no-brainer as I new the delivery would be fast and the dress quite curve-friendly. I was a bit hesitant about the neckline as the bust section was meant for someone with a 34″ bust and mine was about 5″ more than that. I decided to go for size 10 anyway and was happy that I did! The dress was very VERY hard to zip up at first, but after the side zip had loosened up a bit, I could easily zip it up after a few wears.

The waist of the dress fits me perfectly but as I guessed, the bust area was a bit snug and so were the sleeves. I am quite muscular when it comes to my arms so it’s sometimes a bit of hit and miss when it comes to sleeved items – this however, has just the right amount of space even though feeling a bit restrictive at first. Also, you can see a glimpse of my bra from the neckline, as it’s forced to be quite revealing on me. However, I feel like my Ewa Michalak “SM Mgielka” is doing a pretty good job and makes my boobs look nice with the dress style.

With my Vivi dress I’m wearing an old petticoat (quite a pathetic one though…), some hair flowers from H&M and my new Dresslily ankle boots. I am not much of a black-wearing person so I decided add colour with some red shoes and a matching lipstick as they brighten up any outfit. What do you think of the ensemble? xx