Since I first discovered Comexim, I’ve desperately wanted to try the Florence plunge bra. I love the name and the pretty floral pattern. The finish looked different from other styles in the stock photos on the website. Strangely, I never did see too many review of this bra in my size range. After finding my best fit in my custom 60HH Victoria Plunge, I requested the same size and alterations from Anna for Florence.

Appearance

I talked a little bit about my Italian grandmother in my review of Gorsenia Margo. If Margo was my maternal grandmother to a T, then Florence is my other grandma’s style match, even though she’s not from Florence!

The bold, colorful floral print on black satin with contrasting green ribbon detail on the cups is so unique among designs to me. I believe it’s been in the Comexim catalog for quite some time. At least it was there quiet a while before I discovered the brand. Yet at the same time, I see few reviews or photos of it, so I think it’s somewhat underappreciated. I especially like the touchably smooth satin finish on the outer materials.

The entire front of the bra including the center gore/cradle feature the floral print, while the wings, back, straps, and interior of the cups are black fabric. I like how this showcases the floral pattern.

Along the top edge of the cups, the green ribbon trim is fairly thick and meets at a flat folded bow detail at the center gore. I’ll be honest and say that normally I ask Anna to remove cup edge trimmings. This is likely a psychological remnant from having poorly fitting bra cups that stuck out at the edge under my shirt! But I love flat ribbon details and it’s my absolute favorite shade of green, so this one stays. And it’s one of the most adorable features, in my opinion.

The straps are Comexim’s usual textured embroidered ones. Sometimes my skin can be a little sensitive to textured straps, but they definitely keep the adjusters in place perfectly. The cup structure itself is the usual Comexim 3-part lightly padded plunge, with a single vertical seam at the bottom and one horizontal panel at the top.

As usual, the bra is delightfully soft, with comfortable, lightweight materials, and finished impeccably.

Size & Fit

It took a long time to get here, but after finally getting a successful fit in my custom Victoria 60HH, I requested the following alterations from Anna: Straps moved in 2cm (to make them sit narrower), overlapping gore, cup height reduced by 2cm, and narrower wires (specifically, wires from a 60H with the cup depth of a 60HH). This was my perfect fit combination in Victoria, arrived at after much trial and error. Florence was part of a larger order with a few more bras made to the same specifications. Unfortunately, out of all the altered 60HH plunges, Florence was the worst fit.

I’m always reviewing for fit, but I’m going to explore this here in more detail since it’s my umpteenth Comexim plunge and I’ve written about my textbook fit criteria before. On top of that, it’s one of the risks with ordering custom, hand-made bras from artisans like Comexim, and for that reason need not be considered a fault with a bra or indeed with bra sizing from a such a brand. It can be disappointing when you think you have found your perfect fit combination, but many factors are at play including the margin of error of custom workmanship that mean no two 60HH custom plunges can’t ever really be “the same”.

First, it is common for some 60-bands to be tighter than others. Variations in materials, dye color, and fabric tension are just some considerations here. As it happens, Florence stretched to only 26” (more like a 55). My tight underbust measurement is closer to 27” and I prefer a 28″ band for comfort. So in this case, the materials plus the variation in sewing meant that this 60 was pretty much unwearable for me without a full extender on the band.

My other fit issue with Florence was that the cups seemed much smaller and shallower than my other 60HHs. For example, my 60HH Victoria was almost half an inch deeper at the cup’s deepest point and Florence had a slightly taller gore. Those things combined meant that the cup just did not sit as comfortably on me, which is sad, because she’s a beautiful bra. That said, when I went to measure the bra for Bratabase, the difference in cup depth wasn’t immediately obvious. I had to be sure I was measuring at the deepest part of the cup. Visually, side by side it looked a full size smaller. This was pushing the margin of error for two bras of the same size, but is not entirely unusual for the reasons mentioned above, combined with all the alterations that I had requested.

Next, reflecting on fit with this particular bra, while objectively she fit very differently from my other Comexims, I also acquired Florence during a period of weightloss that was somewhat hastened due to personal events in my life. Shortly after, my weight more or less stabilized, and I discovered that some of the fit issues I encountered with Florence were due to changes in my weight, boobs, and body shape in general.

An issue that I noticed very prominently with Florence was that I had some indentations in the sides of the cups just below the straps. Even though the cups were reduced and my breast tissue was filling them well, it was still denting. I believe that this was largely due to the density of my bust changing with weightloss. My Comexim plunges fit me better when my boobs were overall more full, especially on top, and able to prop up the top section of the cup. Even now, when I’m a few pounds heavier, or perhaps bloated during my monthly cycle, my Comexim plunges fit better. All of these factors can make a difference when you’ve ditched your ill-fitting department store bras and have lingerie that literally fits like a glove. Just a half a centimeter here or there can shift the fit.

These side-cup indentations made me more aware of this happening with some of my other bras post-weightloss, including Victoria and Ingrid, and I began to realize that in my new size range, the narrower wires alteration I requested was perhaps becoming a hindrance to fit. I’ve mentioned before here that my ribcage has a flare and is fairly bony. This can be an impediment to underwires sitting flat and staying in place. That combined with weightloss, and pendulous, deflated tissue, can make it appear that my roots are much narrower than they are. In fact, going less than 5” wide in a cup is not ideal for me. The second issue was the tightness of the band. Yes, it happened to be cut tighter than usual, but after losing weight around my ribs, I find that a large 28″ or even 30” band can be more comfortable since I have less “squish” than I used to.

If I were to order Florence again (or another Comexim plunge), I would no longer request narrower wires. It’s counter-intuitive that I feel like I need wider wires after weightloss because my roots haven’t gotten wider exactly; but our bodies change.

The indenting in the cups and my current lack of upper fullness also make me think that it may be time to try a 3HC (3-part half cup) again. The half cup cut has a slightly wider cup shape and slightly shallower fit at the apex, which may alleviate some of the problems I had filling the top of the cup. For long-term readers of my blog, you may appreciate the irony of this, since my first ever foray into Comexim was a 65J Victoria 3HC that was a fit disaster. Funny how things go.

Comfort

When fit is poor, it becomes difficult to rate a bra on comfort. I couldn’t get the cups to lie right and overall this bra was not only too small, but the cups were the wrong shape for me. That said, the materials on this bra are exquisite. I don’t know if any of Anna’s new designs will have this satin finish, but it’s so sumptuous and touchably soft.

Quality

Despite the margin of error with handmade goods, I can’t speak highly enough for the quality of this bra, like all of my Comexims.

Final Thoughts

I wish that this bra had fit. Next stop, 3HC!

Measurements