Weirdly Shaped and Well Photographed

Gentle Readers, it’s time for me to be back.  The holidays are over, I’ve been sick but am better enough to at least type a bit, and I have a few reviews that are months overdue.  In the interest of getting them up and on the ol’ brog, I’m afraid I’m going to be a bit more brief than I usually am.  I hope you’ll forgive me, but business must be done, mustn’t it?  With that in mind, I give you one of my absolute favorite dresses, the Mimosa Dress by DD Atelier.  If you recall my review of DD Atelier’s Amazonia Dress, then you know what a fan I am of this clothing company based in Russia that caters to slim figures with big busts.  The Mimosa dress is drastically different in style, but no less beloved.  I have worn it as often as I could without fearing it would seem that I just wore the same dress all the time.  At home, to go to a play, on the boardwalk in Atlantic City (see below!) and anywhere else that called for a bit of cheer and loveliness.

My first time shooting a crossbow! Granted it was from like ten feet away and the guy was sort of helping me (not that I wanted him to), but whatever. Victory!

When I got this dress, I was absolutely delighted and wanted to photograph it right away, but sadly my photographers were all otherwise engaged.  I finally had a day planned to shoot it and the perfect setup – a sunny day in the park with my lovely little dog, Milo, and a friend and her adorable son, playing, running about, and generally having a good time.  Unfortunately, while I had been trying to schedule the shoot, I hadn’t noticed that the season had changed, and it therefore didn’t occur to me that I would be completely out of daylight by late in the afternoon.  After much hand-wringing and lamenting of circumstances, though, I realized that I am relatively nocturnal and should have been well aware from the start that there’s just as much fun to be had by night as by day.  Sure, the lighting made shooting a challenge, but there’s a certain charm to looking at things in an unexpected way, and I hope that you’ll enjoy this scene in the park at night as much as I enjoyed being a part of it.

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Gentle Readers, I haven’t been around much lately, but I have something to say about it for once that isn’t pitiful groveling.  If you have been following the brog for a while, you know that I am a musician by day and an intrepid blogger only by night (and generally late, late night at that).  So I suppose you can imagine what the holidays entail for me: SUDDEN WORK INSANITY.  Nearly more than I can manage.  So this time, I’ve gotta say – you really must forgive my absence.  There was nothing else to be done.  And for that matter, you’re probably going to find that every year around the end of November, I will mysteriously disappear for a few weeks.  I’d say “it’s not you, it’s me,” but it really isn’t.  It’s the holidays.  However, this doesn’t mean I don’t think of you!  I do.  Always.  In light of this, I thought I would let you in on another thing that happens Chez Miss Shapen in December.  I’m not religious, but I identify as a Bacon Jew for most of the year (shows both my level of observance and my great love of bacon, which is unending).  Sometime in early December, however, a mysterious transformation takes place, and a new Miss Shapen emerges as The Christmas Jew.  This year’s holiday season was incredibly hectic – more than usual, even – and a bit rough, and it was beginning to look like The Christmas Jew was going to sit this one out, but lo!  Come Christmas Eve, she showed up, enthusiastic as ever, and she wanted to share some of that cheer and (c)ho (c)ho chutzpah with all of you.  Since this is a Brog, not just a blog, some lingerie had to be involved.  So without further ado, here is Christmas With Miss Shapen, just for you.

I started out with an all red ensemble, mostly because my robe is red and cozy.
But then the robe got too restrictive for the massive amount of cheer radiating out of my pores, so I shed it. Continue Reading →

Hello Gentle Readers!

As you know, I don’t generally post short informational posts here, as I save them for the Tumbrog, etc., but I really wanted to share something with you today as time is of the essence and I think it’s more than worthwhile.  So here you go!

Hong Kong based company Braologie makes custom-sized bras and posture-contour, and I am a HUGE fan of their stuff, especially their posture contour mini-vests, which I wear nearly every day.  They have recently come out with an updated version of the mini-vests, now called Bracies, and they are having a sale from now until November 25th – Bracies are $25.99 with free worldwide shipping (rather than the usual cost of $39.99 + $15 shipping)!  I am planning on doing a full review and discussion of Braologie’s products in the future, but I wanted to do a short post now so you can benefit from the sale.  Enter the promotion code “BRACIE2013” when checking out at their online store.

-EDIT!  I FORGOT TO ADD SOMETHING IMPORTANT!-

From Braologie, regarding the ordering process: “** Entering the promotion code is tricky! when checking out, customer goes to paypal.com right away, where Paypal collects her shipping and billing addresses. After that, the customer returns to Shopify where she picks a shipping rate, types in a discount code, the price is updated accordingly and, on that same page, your customer gets to finalize his transaction.”

Okay, back to the rest of the post.

Here’s a stock photo of one:

Here’s a picture of me wearing one of mine:

I love these vests because I find that they relieve pressure from having large boobs in a number of different areas.  For one, I often get pain in my ribcage due to wires digging in under the weight of my breasts, especially if my straps aren’t tight enough (either because they are too long overall or because they have loosened over the course of the day).  The Bracie both helps support the breasts from below and through the side-slings, and also disperses the pressure over a wider area underneath the cups.  It has been a big relief to me, and, as I said, I now wear one nearly every day.

On the reverse, the mini-vest greatly widens the area of the back that takes the weight of the breasts, rather than leaving it to a single thin strip under the band (and we all know longlines in 28KK are impossible to find at this point, so it’s really the only option for this).  As someone who has struggled with back pain for years, this is a huge help.

The last feature of the Bracie is one that I don’t necessarily need, but that many women enjoy: it amps up the cleavage a bit.  Ta-da!  Heheh.

To find out more about the mini-vests, check out their Tumblr post about it here, and to purchase, check out the pages in their shops here and here and remember to use the code”BRACIE2013″ on checkout.  The sale is on till November 25th, and I highly encourage any women with posture or pain issues due to breast size to consider picking one up to try it.  I’ve tried similar garments, but none have worked for me as well as Braologie’s have.

If you want a second opinion, here’s a quote from the blogger behind Dressing Curves, with whom I was discussing this the other day.

“…definitely help for my shoulders, shoulder blades and upper back. And ribs. Plus my boobs look bigger. :S”

So there you have it.  Let me know if you end up ordering and how it works out for you if you do.  I am hoping this can be as big a boon to all of you as it’s been to me and is now starting to be for my friend at Dressing Curves (note: you should be following that blog; she may not post often, but when she does they are really worth reading, especially when she writes about bra fit and alterations).  As for this brog, there are more actual reviews and some handy dandy informational posts coming soon. In the meantime…

You know I adore you all, right?

I do, Gentle Readers.  I do.