Review: Claudette Paramour

This is the 2nd Claudette I've tried. The first, an all-cotton balconette with one vertical seam, did not go well: hugely loose band, very high wires, and a baggy, unsupportive cup. 

Well, the Paramour is a different beastie entirely. I was intrigued enough by the mention that it ran large in the cup, to give the brand another go. This is the review I'm talking about, by this rather fabulous blogger who happens to share my coloring, which is super helpful when figuring out if a color will work for me. Spoiler: it's about the jewel tones. Always.  Paramour review by SweetNothings

Note: anyone who has read this blog already knows not to expect anything like those truly divine photos. Nope. You will instead find truly awful pics like these, taken here in my c.1930s cocoon of comfort bathroom, amid 6 hours of daylight in the rainforest islands of the Alaskan wilderness.

Beauty & Fit

• Fabric:  That lower cup is a whole lotta satiny-stretchy goodness. The upper cup is fine mesh which is fairly soft and very stretchy. 

• Sizing:  The cup runs really large: a full cup size worth. Perhaps 2. This is an extremely full-on-top friendly style, unlike the now-iconic Dessous. Ditto the Fishnet, where the sharp V-shaped cup cuts into even the model's upper fullness. But the Paramour can accommodate the FOT ladies, I'm here to tell you. I could actually go down to an FF in this - and I can't even remember when I last said that.

• Band:  The band is firm and runs quite snug. It is nothing at all like the cotton style. This is as snug as I, personally, would want to wear my band. It's a 38 and stretches to 37-1/2"; I measure 36".

• Wires:  Narrow and low. Which is really great for me, personally.  I'm not into side containment, and I do not want wires anywhere near my armpits. However, the gore is fairly wide, which gives a broader look to the boobs from the front, though the profile is natural/rounded. The gore does tack well.
• Style: It's lovely; elegant in an unfussy, clean-lined way. The play of satin against matte gives a subtle tuxedo effect. The deep garnet red is far lovelier imho, but wasn't available in my size.

Comfort
I am an unabashed fan of stretchy cups, both the entire cup, or just the top 1/2 of the cup, where for a FOT shape, some stretch is the most vital. However, if there's too much stretch, that results in more bounce and sometimes less comfort. The Paramour is definitely a 'soft control' bra. This would never be a go-to for a 'locked & loaded' fit. But for average wear, and a more natural shape, I found the level of support to be just fine. 

Compromises
Band.   Because it runs snug, I did get some of that elastic edging dig-in, and because the band is average mesh, it's not the most comfy fabric to begin with. 

Gore.  It's a bit wide for me; I prefer my boobs to be allowed to sit closer together. A narrower gore also solves the issue of the outside of my boobs brushing against my arms, something this bra does cause. It's unusual for me to experience this with narrow wires, but because the cup fabric is so stretchy, the wider gore pushes my boobs outward a bit. But the gore does not hard tack, so doesn't dig in the way Panache does, and this is more a shape preference than anything else.

Fabric.  I found myself wishing the whole bra was made of the same soft stretch satin used for the lower cup. But alas, the other 70% of the bra is mesh. 

When Do I Wear It?   This is a 4-6 hour bra for me. So, on weekends, with soft knit cardigans and jeans.
Size:  38G (UK) Runs one cup size large