What Bra components I use

Like many of you December seems the busiest yet shortest month, and with deadlines looming that I hope to smash by Christmas, todays blog is I hope information that will help you start designing. This week I'm looking at the different components I use when making a bra - there are so many out there, and this is one of the questions which I get asked quite a bit. 

What bra components to use

UNDERWIRE

The most important part of the bra, and what I design around, for past Vanjo and future Vanjo for under wire bras I use the MS20 wire. Personally I love this wire, it's great for the bigger cup as the wires don't come that high up in the Centre front, which eliminates he pressure and pain of when wires dig into the sternum especially when dealing with 28" backs. Previously I've gotten my wire from Prym Intimates  although each wire had the minimum of about 1,200.

ELASTICS

For the top and bottom of the wing I usually use the same width of brushed back elastic, although come companies use a narrower elastic for the top wing, the reason I use the same is that in some of the lingerie that has had a narrower elastic at the top of the wing, when it's been stretched around the body it's gotten too thin and caused irritation and marks on the body. On the cup I usually use a narrow khola, it's lighter than brushed back elastic and usually comes in a prettier version. In the past for the I've used Moll elastic, and bought it by the 500m roll. 

HOOK & EYES

My personal favourite is to use a 38mm hook and eye, it's a 2x3 (2 hooks and 3 rows of them) hook and eye, so not too chunky but offers more support that the 32mm version (who'd have thought 6mm could make such a difference?) I also quite like the 55mm (3x3) but some women seems to have an aversion to have such a big hook and eye on their bra, or that is my experience when selling the lingerie.

STRAPPING

I like to use 12mm strapping, 10mm seems to narrow for the larger sizes and 15mm is like the wide hook and eye, some women don't want the larger strap, although when I relaunch I am sampling up wider bra styles to see how that goes. In the past I used fancy bra straps, although that is harder to adjust your bra strap, but at the moment I'm loving the plain preferably matt style of the straps.

RINGS & SLIDES

For the slides you have to use the same width as your strap, but can go down a size for the rings, although don't go too small or your strap will curve around the ring. I always use metal based rings and slides, plastic ones don't cut it for me. they have a tendency to break.

If you have any questions about any of the components then drop me a line. The book "Anatomy of the bra" covers the components in greater detail.