As I previously mentioned in my post about Cleo Hettie, Cleo and I have not always been best of friends at least not when it came to unlined bras. It wasn't that they didn't fit, but I was unsure of the look under clothes (I'm not sure if the bras changed or my opinion changed). However after my success with Hettie, I decided to try Blake.
I had read some reviews on Blake, and I was attracted to the design (a bit bond girl esque), and the vibrant color options Cerise (kind of a raspberry/ pink) and Turquoise. I was able to find the Cerise on Amazon in 32E for around $15 and decided to give it a try. I knew Blake was a sister cut to Marcie, which had worked well for me fit wise, but again had been a bra I was unsure about the appearance it gave under clothes.
The Blake arrived and the color was somewhat different than I had expected, I guess I thought it would be a brighter pink, but it is a more deep, but still somewhat bright pink. Regardless of what I expected I am still happy with the color. I think my photos are fairly close to the true color.
In my reviews of Cleo Hettie and Mimi I had mentioned that the bands were quite stretchy and ran large. This had been the opposite of my prior Cleo experience of bands that ran quite firm and smaller than their labeled sizes. I am pleased to say that Blake does have the same issue with running large as the Hettie and Mimi, my 30E stretches to 32in at full stretch with some wire distortion and 31 with no wire distortion. I'm about 30.5 underbust, so a stretchy 30 works pretty well for me though it is possible I could have done a 28 with a bit of an extender. If you are on the smaller end of you usual band size I would advise sizing down.
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| Band is mostly level, but I'm between a 30/32 |
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| Here you can see the bit of pressing in I get from the trim. |
Despite the pressing in the cups are otherwise a very good fit. The wires are nice and narrow (about 5.2in) and the cups are nicely projected with a good amount of immediate depth. The wires follow my roots well, and stay in my IMF all day.
Blake is made out of two layers of mesh fabric, which is surprisingly very soft. I do find Blake to feel a bit more supportive than Hettie, probably because the top is more closed off than Hettie. With Hettie the lace section was just a bit too open for me, still a great fit, but if it were a bit more closed off it would feel a bit more supportive. I went hiking in Blake and had very little movement, not that I'm running or anything, but it did a great job.
The straps on Blake attach in more of a triangle shape, this attachment type can cause a bit of irritation for me, especially in brands with already wide set straps (Ewa Michalak SF Trapez comes to mind). While I don't think the straps are wide set the attachment point is a kind of wide. For the most part I'm not really bothered by it, but I did have some prominent marks after the first wear from it. After several wears, I no longer get any marks from the strap attachment area, so for me at least it went away with just a couple wears.
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| I have the straps angled a bit, but you can see where they come in fairly close to armpits |
Overall I would highly recommend Blake, though if you are very FOT or have very tall roots you might want to size up. I don't think I could size up and get a better fit, in a larger cup I would probably have a lot of gaping. Since I only get some slight pressing in I think I'm better off in 30E.
Also if you want to see more of "My Thoughts" I have started another blog for topics other than bras. My Thoughts on More... Than Just Bras!!!
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