How to get Your Padded Blouse Design Right

For the uninitiated, a padded blouse is a blouse with “built-in” bra cups & is supposed to be worn without a bra. It saves you from the embarrassment of having your bra strap peeking from your sexy blouse & allows you to safely flaunt your style

Padded blouses are a must for blouses with heavy embroidery. This is because heavily embroidered blouses become stiff and tight due to the work and wearing a bra along with that would be too uncomfortable. Not just heavily embroidered blouses, but ideally all kinds of designer blouses and backless blouses can only be created using pads. A bra, even if made from a transparent material, would spoil the look of the blouse or make it too uncomfortable to wear. Also, padded blouses allow a lot of design freedom to create modern style blouses – with different cuts and patterns, which is not feasible with traditional blouses

If you are opting for a backless or off-shoulder blouse, then a padded blouse eliminates the hassle of finding the perfect bra that does not show through the design. Also, if you have ever tried strapless bras, you would know that most of them do not provide ample support or start slipping down as the hours pass by, which is certainly not the experience you are looking for when you are all dolled up

On the other hand, you can simply slip into the padded blouse, and no matter what the shoulder or back style is, the pads will stay in place, providing support all day, without any straps digging into your skin or being embarrassingly visible

Here are some blouse styles that are best suited for padded blouses as it may be hard to find appropriate bras for the same

When tailored right, padded blouses are extremely comfortable and will provide ample support to your bust. The pain and discomfort caused by bra straps can be completely eliminated by opting for a padded blouse. However, a padded blouse can be extremely uncomfortable if it is not stitched well i.e. if the cups are not placed correctly as per the body shape or if the inner lining is not of good quality.

A lot of women come that come into our boutique have a preconceived notion that padded blouses are uncomfortable. This is usually because they have only tried readymade padded blouses at a retail store in the past, which are not their perfect size & are made with low quality pads. However, once they try on our custom-made padded blouses with international quality cups and a double lining for a seamless finish, they are converted into padded blouse lovers!

Remember that a tailored blouse that is designed for your bust size will be much more comfortable than the readymade padded blouses that have a generic fit

Padded blouses are suitable for all body types and can be worn by both heavy and small-busted people. All you need to do is opt for the right cup size and thickness of the pads so as to customize it for your body type, which is what an experienced designer can help you with. If you are small busted (size 30 or less), it is advisable to go for double padding. This will give a good shape to the blouse, which may look too loose or unshapely in the bust area otherwise.

On the other hand, large busted women (size 46 & above) often find padded blouses, no matter how well stitched, a tad too loose and feel the need for added support for their bust. This is because the pads alone can only provide limited support, which may not be sufficient for those with a larger bust size. In such cases, we typically attach bra loops on the back portion of the blouse which are stitched on the inner side of the blouse fabric. This ensures that the pads hold the breasts firmly like a bra and provide adequate support as they are tied securely with the loops at the back

Read more about our our comprehensive blouse design process here

While a number of local tailors carry only a single size in blouse pads, ideally the size of your blouse pads should match your usual bra cup size

This is why a lot of you may have found padded blouses stitched by a tailor unsightly and uncomfortable. A designer that specializes in blouse designs will see to it that your padded blouse is fitted with cups of the right size

A common misconception regarding padded blouses is that they get distorted easily during storage. This is only true for poor-quality readymade padded blouses or poorly tailored padded blouses. The high quality pads used by our boutique have a firmness to them which ensures that the blouse will retain its shape for years. Since the pads used by us are not flimsy at all, you can simply fold the blouse and store it like a regular blouse without any fear of it losing its shape

The cups of a padded blouse are made out of the same material as the cups in padded bras. Just like the quality of bra cups varies from brand to brand, the quality of the cup material for padded blouses can also vary depending on what your tailor uses. At Lavender, The Boutique, we use only high-quality bra cups for all our padded blouses, which are similar to ones used by premium lingerie brands such as Jockey and Enamor

Padded blouses are more expensive than non-padded blouses because of the additional cup material that needs to be added and the tailoring effort required for the same. If designed right, they are definitely worth the investment though because the final look of padded blouses is much more seamless than that of non-padded ones and you don’t even have to purchase a bra separately