Swim shopping tips for Simone Pérèle and Empreinte

Welcome to the last of my swim blogs for July even though it’s August now. It’s a week later than intended but that’s what happens sometimes when life gets in the way of good intentions! Starting a new PT job and the end of summer beginning of school took up more time than anticipated last week! So, the two brands I’m focusing on this last week of highlighting swim in my blog are a little higher end price wise than the ones I’ve previously featured and they run in the range of $200-300 at full retail. This is obviously quite a bit for swim and I cannot honestly say that I would go there at full price or if I didn’t already love the lingerie brands. They are quality suits in fabric, fit and design but it’s definitely a lot to spend on a garment that many of us like to cover up no matter how great the fit. Women are conditioned over years of advertising to be self conscious about our curves and fluffiness or even showing extra skin. That’s beginning to change but it’s a pretty conscious choice still to decide to ignore that little voice in our heads. Anyway, one of the brands this week is Simone Pérèle and the other is Empreinte. It might be a great time to try one of these brands on sale if you’re going on a holiday in the coming months somewhere warm and sunny and want to feel fabulous in your swim!

Starting with Simone Pérèle (because it just barely edges out Empreinte for my favorite lingerie brand) there is a lot to love about the brand but really it’s just a pretty good match for my size and shape. The bras are beautiful and they are comfortable and a there’s a good mix of multiple panty styles to satisfy my compulsion for matching sets. I like to think that if a $100 bra was sold in midrange department stores I would have paid it even back when I was more of a bargain shopper than I am now. However, it might have still have taken an experienced fitter putting me in a 34D for the first time to help me fall in love with it. We’re so conditioned to think of a D as a large cup size and I’d always seen myself as a “barely there” kind of woman. In fact I think there used to be a brand by that name specializing in AA cups that were still big on me. All of this brings me to my excitement when Simone Pérèle began selling swimwear to stores in the US. I was not disappointed when I tried it. The fabric quality feels luxurious and my favorite style Elea had a retro European look that I loved.

They provide some choice of coverage for the bottoms and a couple of different style tops so you can choose your own bikini style. I like the hi waist bottom but the more traditional style is a good fit as well. I do feel that the swim bottoms run a little on the big side but I have pretty small hips and not much volume on my backside so that might be part of it! The one pieces are great but a little harder to wear when you have the kind of asymmetry I have because many are wire free styles that don’t really allow for a prosthetic to even me out. They’re great styles if you have the bust for them!

Simone does a mix of sizing with both band and cup sizes and XS-XL sizes which for the brand are numbered 1-5. In some cases the 1-5 sizing is combined with a cup size. Simone Pérèle lingerie can sometimes have a full cup but most are a good fit for women with a shallower breast. The swim is similar in fit when you go from cut and sewn styles to formed cup styles. For the most part they run true to size if you wear the lingerie already. If you are interested in trying this brand I can certainly assist with sizing here!

Moving to Empreinte, the fit of the swim is again similar to the fit of the lingerie. While it is somewhat fuller in the cup than Simone Pérèle, I’m still able to wear the swim in a 34D but just barely and I would have a harder time with solid colors because it doesn’t disguise my asymmetry as well. I could go to a C cup but then the shape of the wire frame is on the small side for the size of my breast root. This is where it makes a difference what brand and style you choose.

Some lucky women are able to wear almost any suit in the correct size and it will look like a good fit. Where you might have to be choosier with your brand or style is when your breast shape is atypically shallow or full. Back to Empreinte swim styles, there are a mix of cut and sewn soft cup styles and moulded or formed cup styles. When it comes to fit, the only style here that I can really wear is the seamed style bottom left. The center picture is a deeper moulded cup style and the halter style is a little on the deep side as well. In one pieces there are halter styles and recently they added a convertible one piece style but though some are still available it looks like they may have discontinued it. I personally think the halter styles are hard to wear because the fullness of the cup combined with breast weight mean they tend to pull at the neck and the neck straps tend to be on the thinner side and in my opinion they just don’t have enough solidity to support breast weight distribution.

The bikinis tend to be on the “showy” side particularly in the moulded cups and not as good an option for those that prefer a more modest cup style. That said, if you have well proportioned breasts and are comfortable showing your assets, this is a great brand and there is definitely a swagger that can come from knowing you look your best in an exclusive and not so easy to find very quality French swimsuit. My first bikini in decades was an Empreinte soft cup swimsuit that I bought for a trip to New Orleans and it definitely helped me feel more comfortable in my skin when I headed to the hotel pool. If you’re thinking you might want to take “the plunge” into either of these beautiful French brands, I can again help you take the guesswork out of sizing and style selection finding the fit that will work best for you and your frame and ultimately get you the look you want with hopefully less frustration.

Thank you for reading my month of swim blogs this July. Connect with me for all things swim and/or lingerie regarding fit, brand and style because it can make a big difference and be so much less frustrating than the usual trial and error of getting yourself into a good fit! 👩🏻‍💼