Belle De Jour bustier - bustier and panty set discontinued by DreamGirl - review by Dame Saphir

When I first opened the Belle De Jour, I found the garment in simple plastic packaging. There are three pieces: The bustier, the thong, and thigh highs.

THIGH HIGHS
The first time I wore the thigh highs actually was not with the bustier. In a morning of panic, getting ready, I came to two realizations: the only black hosiery I had at my boyfriend's house were these and I didn't have a garter belt. Considering I was wearing an above knee-length skirt, I was a little nervous. But it was necessary to wear something over my legs, so I went ahead and pulled these thigh highs out.

I was incredibly impressed. The thigh highs do not look very sturdy in the packaging, nor do they feel so when you first put them on. They, however, lasted through the entirety of my day, and were ready for their next (and more intended) use. At the end of the day, I found not a single run. In fact, the only injury they sustained was a slight pull above my knee where I had caught my leg on the underneath of a desk.

My second concern was that I had no garter belt. These thigh highs, however, stayed up perfectly fine all day. They had a slight tendency to roll down at the top, but this was not a problem once I wore them with the garters with the bustier.

THE THONG
I ordered a size large and (as I soon learned), I should have ordered a medium. Where the rest of the pieces could have used a size down, the thong could have used several. The straps that go around your hips hardly clung to my hips at all, and had the thong been sized correctly, because of the stretchiness of the material, I have little confidence that I would have felt much more comfortable in a smaller size.

The front and back panels are made of the same lace that lays in the bodice and so it is just as see-through, and just as beautiful. The overall shape of the front panel is a very slim, downward triangle, covering more vertically than it does horizontally. The thong is a lot stronger than it looks; I held each side of the front panel in my fingers, at all points along it, and tugged only to not even hear a pop of a stitch. While it was beautiful, and very well made, because of its size, I chose to substitute it with a black lace thong that was already in my drawer when I finally brought the garment out for the boy.

THE BUSTIER
I came to a couple simple conclusions about the bustier:

"That lace looks beautiful,"
The lace is gorgeous, covering a downward triangle from the underwire, to the bottom of the garment. It's accented by subtle polka dots, and surrounded by embroidered flowers in the lace. When worn, it offers a beautiful view of the bellybutton, and comes to a point about an inch or so below the bellybutton.

"Look, two sets of hooks!"
The bustier comes with a nice, slight window of adjustability. There are two sets of eyes that run up the back of the garment for hook and eye closure. There are 10 hooks to close which can become a little tedious when putting the garment on.

"Wait, where's the boob support like in the picture?"
I ordered the Belle De Jour the same way I order any lingerie: I geared the sizing toward my breasts. I rock 34 almost DD's, to a 28" waist so a lot of times, things that fit my waist squeeze out my boobs. Lesson learned for this garment: If in doubt, go a size down. The support would have definitely been improved by a better sizing on my part, but still, the underwire seems a bit flimsy, and the cloth that forms the "cups" is simply that: cloth. The picture implies a bit more structure to the cups, but there is no structure whatsoever, and the cloth is very stretchy. This leads me to thing that the garment would look more attractive on smaller/fake breasts. Where often you can compensate for lack of support by tightening the straps to the max, I tightened the shoulder straps completely, but the combination of the weight of my breasts and the extreme elasticity in the strap material did me no good.

The bustier also has four, removable garters that are made of a very strong, elastic. They are fully adjustable.

My boyfriend concluded that he liked that he could touch my breasts through the material and it didn't feel like he was grasping a bunch of cloth and padding, but the design of the cups did nothing to boost them up.

Overall, the set is a very nice set. It simply didn't work out for me. I definitely should have ordered a size smaller, and if your concern is if your breasts will fit in it or not, don't be. There is more room in those cups than the size chart implies. Go a size down. While the entirety of the set was beautiful and well-made, it simply did not achieve what I was hoping it would.