The Dotty Spot from Bravissimo is one of my all-time favourite bras, which I have previously reviewed in both the Black/Café and Aqua/Red colourways. This will be a fairly short post, as I covered the bra in-depth in my first review. The design disappeared for a few seasons, but it returned this summer in a wonderful Red/Ivory colourway (eep)! I adore polka dots, and the combination of red and white never fails to make me feel like a sexy Minnie Mouse. On that note…
…Okay, I just wanted to throw in one of my holiday snaps 😛 This is one of the sets I wore while at Disneyland, featuring the wonderful Dotty Spot, some semi-matching La Senza knickers and the obligatory Minnie ears. At the moment, my usual size is 30K (30KK in Bravissimo Alana, 30JJ in Panache Jasmine), but the Dotty Spot runs slightly larger than most other Bravissimo balconettes by about half a cup. My older Dotty Spots fit about half a cup small, so I decided to try this colourway in a 30K, expecting it to be perhaps half a cup big. My sizing guess was right – I get some slight wrinkling along the upper seam in this size, but not enough to size down without getting overspill. If you are between cup sizes, you may find you need your smaller cup size in this bra.
I do find that I’m slightly too full-on-top and centre-heavy for most Bravissimo balconettes, as they are more suited to those with more outer/bottom-heavy breasts. This means I get slight wrinkling at the bottom and overspill at the centre, but these are really just minor issues with the shape. I think it would be best suited to those with a mid-width root, a lot of projection, and even to bottom heavy breasts.
I was happy to find that this colourway retains all the wonderful qualities of the previous ones. The cups are constructed of a gorgeous polka-dot laminate material, which is very secure and supportive. This bra definitely brings you up and centre, with a lot of projection and a beautifully retro pointed shape. The pointiness may not be to everyone’s tastes, but I am personally a big fan, as I find it to be quite youthful under clothes. The straps are fully adjustable, and the true-to-size band fastens with 3 sets of hooks and eyes. I did find that the first eye I fasten the band onto has already started coming loose, something which shouldn’t happen, however, in my experience, Bravissimo will return or exchange any bras that start doing this. The wires are fairly standard for Bravissimo, so fairly mid-width with a narrow but high gore – I could personally do with slightly narrower wires and a lower gore, as they are about a thumb too wide at the sides and can irritate in the middle due to me being close-set. I didn’t have any issues with the sides being too high, which was a huge relief to me. Overall I found this bra to be great, both in terms of comfort and appearance, and I would definitely recommend trying it if you like the style.
The Dotty Spot is currently available for £29 at Bravissimo, with a size range of 28 E-J, 30-38 DD-K.
Bras and Body Image 