Small bust, big heart

The La Sylphide bra, $72, from Lailides: looks gorgeously grown-up & stylish

Lailides looks like a saviour for small-cupped women: a lingerie brand that caters exclusively for women with a AA cup to B cup bra size. Sounds fishy. What’s the catch? Are you imagining a collection of the plainest bras imaginable, in the typical AA-cup tricolors: black, white and nude?

Hallelujah, say I, browsing the newly refreshed Lailides online store. The petite size collection, designed by Jennifer Shepard, is no plain Jane.

Shepard was frequently unimpressed by the paltry offering for the AA-cup to B-cup bra category in department stores and boutiques (I hear you!).

Adamant that a woman should be beautifully dressed beneath her clothes, she set about creating simple, elegant bras and knickers in delicate stretch laces. She wanted her designs to be feminine, comfortable and flattering.

On looking at the site, it certainly seems that Shepard’s AA-cup bras (or size 1) are designed for sophisticated women not teens — rest assured, none are referred to as ‘training’ bras.

So, bookmarks at the ready: I’m told by Shepard that Lailides‘ new site is regularly updated with new products.  I also like neat features such as the “wishlist” function, ideal for shoppers like me who enjoy stalking their purchases before taking the plunge.

It’s also great to be able to zoom in on every item, so you can see the quality of the fabric and finishing up close. And customers are invited to review the products they buy, which I guess is a good sign of Lailides‘ confidence in what they do.

I will be road-testing a Lailides bra soon, so I’ll keep you posted.

Tags: AA-cup, bra

Don't try this look at home!

There are some fashion trends that seem to be dreamt up to make fools of us. I imagine fashion designers cackling maniacally as they scheme to make hideous styles popular through the mass hysteria of hype.

Harem pants, for example. As far as I’m concerned “Hammer Time” was over and should have stayed so. Shoulder pads, too, were a fashion crime of the 80′s, and yet came back to shame another generation.

This season, watch out for jeans with low crotches that make women look like Linford “The Lunchbox” Christie. The look is not good, but I would lay money on designers converting fashion victims and victims spreading the fashion virus amongst the masses… that sock-down-the-trouser look will be The Emperor’s New Clothes of 2010.

Along with, wait for it, wearing your bra ON TOP OF your T-shirt. You’ve probably already heard that lingerie-inspired outerwear is big for S/S 2010. That’s cool, I thought, imagining a glimpse of lacy bra beneath a crisp shirt, or a lacy camisole or body worn as a top. I’m not shy… and once wore a sheer, stretch-lace slip for a night out clubbing.

But, if Vogue’s March issue is to be believed, one of this year’s incarnations of the underwear-as-outerwear theme is a bit more literal. Think Superman with his kegs on over his tights. Except, this time, it’s all about bras over T-shirts. London designer Louise Gray, a fan of the bra top, says, “I wear them all the time. Always over a white T-shirt or vest.”

Can you hear it now? That shrill laugh at the conception of this brilliant idea and the thought of millions of innocents giving it a go: Mwah ha ha haaaa!

Let me know if wearing bras superhero stylee comes to a high street near you.

Tags: bra, cami, lingerie