What's inside the revolutionary designs changing the way full-busted women get dressed.
As word spreads about Embrago's revolutionary hybrid designs, we get a lot of questions from first-time visitors.
Some of the same questions come up frequently, so we'll start answering them here in the blog. Let's start with one of the most common ones about our best seller, Embrago's signature Full Support Bra-Free Top:
It Looks Like a Tank Top. What Makes It So Special?
A picture is worth a thousand words, but it can't ever tell the whole story of what it's like to see yourself transformed when you try on Embrago's signature bra-free support. (That's what blogs are for, lol.)
Embrago's flagship Full Support Bra-Free Top may look simple and minimalist, but it has an extraordinary secret: a hidden network of more than 20 curved shaping seams, anchor points, and support panels. This secret web of interconnected systems does the hard work -- gently and invisibly -- of securing, lifting, and shaping your bust without any wires and without any of the typical 'bra cheats' of other wirefree options (like elastic bands, foam pads, or compressive nylon).
Beneath its understated appearance, this top's patented construction lifts and holds your full bust as securely as an underwire bra. Without the underwire, and without the bra. Read on to see what it takes to make Embrago so very different from anything else on the market.
Other Tank Tops
To give you a sense of what goes into an Embrago top that's different, let’s first consider the typical tank tops you might find mainstream stores.
Ready-to-wear tank tops in department stores are generally made from two pieces of inexpensive cotton or polyester fabric (front and back) joined by two straight seams down the sides. They're not shaped or fitted. They are cut for average frames, and they fit tight in some places, loose in others.
If you go to a luxury department store, you will find higher-end designer tank tops in better fabrics, like the designer poly/rayon style below that retails for $200. It has two sewn-on straps in addition to the two straight side seams:
Most brands, including the options above, use standard patterns that are fast and easy to sew, and standard fabrics that are relatively lightweight. These simple patterns use the industry standard B-cup bra size, since less fabric and smaller curves = simpler, faster, and cheaper. These tanks are not cut to accommodate fuller bust curves, nor to flatter them. Needless to say, you need to wear a bra underneath these tops becuase the tops are essentially shapeless.
The fuller your bust, the worse these tanks will fit. So you have to go through a musical-chairs-bra game of trying to figure out which of your bras will fit best under the tank without showing, gapping, or pulling, and while still giving you a decent shape that isn't either flatttened and slouchy or exaggerated and distracting.
The Embrago Difference
Embrago's ultimate top does all the work of providing (beautiful) support and shaping for you. The patented design engineering works with your natural shape to lift and contour without any bra required. You don't have to do any work -- no figuring out which bra or foundation garment works best underneath, no buying special shapewear, no discomfort from strapping yourself in and wearing constrictive undergarments.
While its silhouette may look simple, Embrago’s signature Full Support Bra-Free top has numerous important differences from standard tanks or camis. Extensive thought and care has gone into every detail of the design and construction of our unique hybrid crossover pieces to ensure optimal bra-free comfort, support, and style.
Fabric: Embrago starts with the highest quality, premium certified STANDARD 100 by OEKO-TEX® organic cotton fabric for breathability. Its generous heft provides secure coverage with just enough stretch to offer superior comfort, an absolute must for the fuller busted woman who has concerns about chafing, sweat, and skin sensitivity. Next, we add strategic smart textile panels to provide security and to stabilize key anchor points of the design. We demand overall softness even from the thread we use -- it's so gentle, it's the same kind used for newborn infants' clothing. And we finish each piece by hand, silk-screening size and care information directly onto the fabric in order to avoid using any itchy or scratchy labels or tags.
Couture Construction: The magic happens in the careful design and assembly of each style. More than a dozen carefully measured and cut panels are meticulously hand-sewn by experienced stitchers here in the USA. They use more than 20 complex multi-join curved seams to create the patented built-in support structure that empowers this top to do the job of a full-support bra and sleek designer top in one piece. Every seam is bound and smoothed outside and inside for a luxurious feel and finish.
Because of the complex design and precision sewing techniques involved, and each piece takes more than 15 times longer to create than a standard designer tank top. Nothing is machine-automated, all cutting, sewing, and finishing is done by hand. Sizes must adhere to the strictest seam tolerances and quality standards. We add custom engineering features to accommodate differences in body frames and breast volume. Finished products are triple inspected to ensure perfect fit and support as well as durable construction quality so that they last through years of wear and washing.
Shaping: We worked tirelessly to get the position and shape of the breasts just right for larger busts: avoiding the squished-and-wide profile of a minimizer bra, and also preventing any extreme frontal projection. After years of R & D, we perfected a just-right profile of separated, lifted, and shaped. We use absolutely no added padding. We know from personal experience that the last thing full busted women want or need is more bulk. It's just you, naturally positioned, in the most flattering possible way.
Multi-function straps: Embrago's distinctive cross straps aren’t just for decoration. They’re also part of the genius of the design. Because our bodies are not the same every day, the straps are designed to move so they always provide secure and forgiving coverage even as our bodies change. They float along the chest line, adapting to a woman's breast volume as it naturally fluctuates daily, weekly, and monthly. The straps provide just the right amount of hold with a three-point support line that anchors securely where you need stability, skims softly over the shoulders to gently distribute weight, and shapes and holds the breasts, separating and positioning them up, in, and forward, for a lifted and appealing profile from both the front and side.
The styling bonus of the cross straps is that they work as versatile accessories you can position in different ways -- laid flat for a subtle and understated look, crossed higher on the chest to show some skin for an edgier look, or accessorized with some bling to express your personal style.
What You Should Know About Shapewear, Shelf Bras, and Support Camis
A lot of brands are now selling cami-shapewear tops or camisoles with built-in bust support. Don't be fooled. These mass-manufactured products involve a lot of compromise -- from Pain and Discomfort on the one hand to No Real Support on the other.
Shapewear/Compression Tops - From the ubiquitous brands we all know to the aggressive new online advertisers, these options are about one thing and one thing only: squeezing. They force your soft, vulnerable body into unforgiving, sweat-inducing machine-knit nylon tubes, contrary to the "comfort" they advertise. These tops are constrictive, uncomfortable, and can even be unhealthy. Far from a compassionate, body positive solution, they perpetuate the idea that women with fuller busts are 'too big' and therefore 'wrong'.
Shelf Bra Camis - There are a thousand and one variations on the theme of the shelf bra cami. As every full-busted woman or mature-busted woman knows, these tops don't actually solve any problems. They rely on uncomfortably tight elastic around the rib cage and still offer a total lack of any real security, support, or shaping. Think heartburn combined with boob sagging and slippage, uniboob, and side boob.
Built-in Bra Tops - Most of these options rely on inserted foam pads which don't provide actual support, or they sew an entire bra right into the garment, retaining all the hardware like hooks, band, and straps. These options may be wirefree, but they're either not supportive or not actually bra-free. You're still dealing with hot and bulky layers of extra fabric and foam pads, painful metal hardware and wire hooks, tight chest bands, or metal strap hardware.
While these shapewear and cami styles each have their place in the panoply of lingerie choices for women across the size spectrum, they simply don't solve the problem of painful, constrictive bras for women who need more coverage and support.
Let Your Clothes Do the Work
Embrago believes your clothes should work harder for you and make your life easier. So our flagship style not only serves as a full-support workhorse, it is also the most comfortable support you've ever worn. All the heavy lifting is done (literally and figuratively) by the couture-quality seaming and bodice engineering, so the weight of your bust is evenly distributed across your whole torso instead of being concentrated in typical bra pain points like tight chest bands and digging shoulder straps.
We take your comfort so seriously that we think about the details, too, ensuring that there is nothing on this garment that digs, squeezes, pokes, irritates, chafes, or otherwise bothers you in any way. It's so soft and comfortable, you can sleep in it.
Bottom line: what's revolutionary about our styles is that they give you a truly new choice that you've never had before: flattering, feminine coverage and full bust support while you enjoy the comfort of going braless with sophisticated style. Embrago empowers you to be comfortably bra-free while still beautifully supported and tastefully dressed. So easy!
The Secret's Out
We hope that all the information we've provided here helps you to understand how much love and care goes into our styles. We also hope you are encouraged, knowing that we are working tirelessly against prevailing trends because of our belief that full-busted women deserve truly bra-free choices that don't cause pain or add bulk, that feel secure and make them look amazing.
Oh, and we think those choices should be versatile, sophisticated, lifestyle-friendly, and stylish, with made-to-wear, made-to-last quality, too.
Is that so much to ask? We don't think so. And we're willing to go the extra mile to make sure women like us can have it. Cheers!
