A true Valentine’s bra: the Freya Fancies longline in chilli red! I’ve loved the Freya Fancies range since I first saw them a couple of years ago – I love the fact that tops and bottoms throughout the range, and Freya’s other collections, can be mixed and matched, and I also love that they have a bralette that works brilliantly for large cup sizes. But it’s always been the lacey longline that has been my true lingerie lust. I declared AW16 to be the season of the lace longline, and the chilli red Freya Fancies longline bra featured as part of this as one that we spotted at Moda.
Fortunately Figleaves offered to send me the Freya Fancies longline bra in chilli red in 28GG along with the matching briefs in a size medium for Valentine’s Day, so I finally got to try this beautiful set 2 years later than when I first spotted it!
The Freya Fancies longline bra is available in sizes 28-30 D-H, 32 C-H, 34-38 B-H for £30 at Figleaves, however it will be 30% off to just £21 in the Valentine’s sale starting on Monday 5th February. The matching brazilian briefs are available in sizes XS to L for £13 at Figleaves, but 30% off to £9.10 for Valentine’s!
Shape & Appearance
The first thing to note about the Freya Fancies longline bra is the stunning colour – its name “chilli red” truly describes it perfectly. It’s a happy, bright shade of fire truck red – like I said, perfect for Valentine’s Day, if that’s your thing.
The second thing is that it’s a longline in a D+ cup and sub-32 band – not all that easy to find! I have to add that I don’t find it to be a “true” longline as the band only extends a little way further than a normal bra band would do, especially if you compare it to the Cleo Piper. I’ve actually reviewed a Freya longline in the past before – the Daydreamer – and found the same, that the band isn’t quite as long as other longlines, although I think the Fancies band is still slightly longer than the Daydreamer.
I do love that this bra has the scalloped lace continuing throughout the entire set, including the bottom edge of the band (which gives it the appearance of being slightly longer), the top edge of the cup and the leg edges of the briefs. It makes it look very delicate and pretty – a great contrast to the bold red shade.
The cups are lightly padded, made out of a soft foam. They’re split into 4 parts – the lower cup is split with 2 vertical seams, then there’s a horizontal seam separated the upper cup.
The wires in this bra are pretty wide on me – as is standard in Freya bras in my size range. This did actually bother me more than it has done in the past, I think because I tend to wear a lot of Polish bras nowadays (Ewa Michalak, Comexim, Avocado) and these have much narrower wires.
I find that the cup is a slightly shallow shape on me. I’d call my shape quite projected and between even and full on top. The shape this bra gives is fairly rounded with a slight push up, but the shallowness of the cup sort of flattens the apex a little as you can see in the side view. This isn’t at all obvious under clothes, but I just noticed it in the photos!
The bra fastens with 2 sets (rather than the usual 3) of 5 sets of hooks and eyes. The straps are fully adjustable.
The briefs are a Brazilian shape which have a satin elastic waistband and all over stretch lace fabric for the main part.
Size, fit & comfort
I picked my usual size, a 28GG, in the Freya Fancies longline bra. This size is pretty ideal for me here, aside from the wires being on the wide side. The cups fit really well with no spillage or gaping, and the band also fits really well on the loosest hooks.
The only slight discomfort in this bra is that the wires do just feel too wide on me. It’s not uncomfortable as such, more that I just occasionally notice throughout the day that I can feel the wires in a different place to the usual. I’d love if Freya could make their wires a smidge narrower in larger cup, smaller band sizes!
When I wore this bra for a full day, I did notice that the longline part had ridden up throughout the day. It wasn’t until later on that I realised – when I went to take it off – so it can’t have been uncomfortable, but it wasn’t in place on my ribcage where I’d left it!
The briefs are a good fit for me in a size medium – I don’t experience any digging from the elastic and they sit at a good level on my hips. I’m not always a big fan of the brazilian shape of briefs since they occasionally ride up a little – wedgie, much?! – but they do look a good shape!
Overall, this is a super fun set to wear – I love the bold colour and the longline shape. It’s a really easy everyday bra to wear (as long as you’re not wearing something that it’ll show through!), plus it looks awesome with a Minnie Mouse bow cushion ;D
Lovely blog! You have such a nice style- of writing and taste in clothing- and I so enjoy finding out about brands that may or may not work for me.
Just wanted to say, I’ve had trouble finding cups too shallow and wires too wide for some time now. And I’ve found a glorious hack that has transformed some old bras into ones that fit, and saving me the expense and trouble of finding the right Polish bras, for instance (I’m in the US). I get wires (the Bliss wires- size 42) from Emerald Erin, and replace the wires of RTW bras that are basically the right cup volume but a bit shallow and wide. And amazingly, it works!! The narrowness of the Bliss wires (which I use for the Harriet bra pattern) pulls the cup in slightly, adding a touch more projection as well. Thought I’d share my tip! Cheers!
Hi Erica, thank you! And that’s a brilliant idea! I actually have a few Bliss wires from Erin as I also make bras but I’ve never even thought to replace the wires in my existing bras – it seems such an obvious solution now!! I’ll give it a go sometime, thank you 🙂