Review: Freya Pansy

Eight years ago, when I finally gave up trying to fit into 38DD's, Freya was the first full-bust brand I tried. It was (& is) easily available on eBay and brastop. BrasIHate had not yet written her (bra)life changing post explaining full-on-top vs. full-on-bottom, with the now iconic turquoise boob silhouettes. So I was still trying - & being hugely disappointed by - all of the bras so beloved at that time: Freya Pollyanna & Jolie; Panache Lucy; Curvy Kate Princess. 

I had found my correct size (36G at that time) but nothing fit just right and I never was happy with the comfort or shape I got in any of those correctly fitting bras. Still, at a 36G, I was able to wear the 'normal' Freyas - I had no idea of the suckage that would ensue when I crept over that cup line in the sand and needed a 36GG. I went from being semi-satisfied with Freya's attractive, moderate coverage, and minimally comfortable bras....to being completely appalled at the ox-in-a-harness look (and feel) that afflicted anything above a G-cup. Then I read the post  Why I Hate Freya. And realized that the brand would never work for me. All of the balconette shapes are the same; there are no styles that suit full-on-top shapes, save the 1/2 cups. And those stop at a G-cup. Because naturally. 

I moved on to try many brands that are less, well, stodgy. For all their wacky patterns, Freya is incredibly conservative, sticking with their same old clunky 3-part balconette shape regardless of all the innovation being shown by new brands like Tutti Rouge, which offer many different cup shapes to suit many different boob shapes. Freya? Nope. They're still clinging to their frumpy shape and bizarre belief that some kind of mysterious, cataclysmic change occurs from G-to-GG necessitating epic harness-style scaffolding and 1" straps.

Fast forward 6 years and I decide to give Freya another try. Why? Because I was suckered by the hyper-realistic floral pattern trend (the proper name for that, I cannot recall right now). And Pansy was on sale. I regret my moment of optimistic weakness.

Beauty

Hmmmm. The print is actually very pretty - what you can see of it - even continuing onto those honkin-huge straps. But that awkwardly large expanse of double-lined, non-stretch lace breaks up the pattern in a clunky way and makes the bra read - and feel - very large and blocky on the body. Curvy Kate suffers from this same compulsion to expand the upper cup to ridiculous proportions as the sizes increase.

Comfort

Yeah, there really isn't much.

Band. Awful, frankly. And the bane of all Freyas. A crappy, rough mesh, with a very narrow edging of elastic - top & bottom - which is tighter than the mesh band itself and therefore cuts into the skin. Yeah, thanks for that, Freya.

Straps. These are surprising comfy. And they ought to be, as they are enormous. Wider than any other Freya straps I've encountered. The patterned material extends about 1/2 the length, and has a unusual feature: it isn't stitched down, which is usual and would render the front of the strap non-stretch; instead, the fabric floats like a soft, stretchy tube, allowing the strap to conform perfectly to the shoulder. This is only great design element I've ever seen from Freya. Though the width is really overkill - and I say this as a lover of wide straps.

Fit

Cups.  The lace lacks any stretch, rendering this the usual terrible for full-on-tops shape. Pollyanna (discontinued, naturally) had a nice stretch lace top that made if workable for FOTs as well as FOBs. Pansy doesn't. The cups are quite full coverage; I don't consider this a balconette, but a full cup.

Wires.  Above G-cup, the wires change to a wider, taller shape. Not helpful. They are also a heavier gauge, so less comfy.

Tack.  Because they also make the gore ridiculously tall and wide in the GG, I do not get the nice tack I did with a G. 

Shape.  It really doesn't appear too bad from the side:

But under clothing, the effect is just...awkward, especially from the front: pointy and splayed:

When Do I Wear It?

Yeahhhh, I no longer put up with discomfort, or the ox-in-a-harness look/feel. Or brands that simply ignore customer feedback and years of requests for a rounder shape, and better bands. It would take a serious change in their design philosophy for me to try Freya again. And the brand is nothing if not resistant to change.
Size: 38GG