Fat Babe Talking: Fat Babe Wearing Savage X Fenty
When I heard Rihanna was coming out with a size inclusive lingerie line, I was, for lack of a better word, shook. Now, I’m not a diehard Rihanna fan by any means (Beyhive forever), but after falling in love with multiple products in her Fenty Beauty range, I was pretty confident this lingerie line was going to be incredible. But whether it would be truly size inclusive and fit my fat ass remained to be seen. I immediately signed myself up for further alerts to be among the first to find out the launch date, while also entering in my size in bras and panties, as well as what country I lived in. From what I could see the biggest size in bras was a 44DD and the biggest in underwear was a 3X. I wasn’t bowled over by the size range, but if nothing else, it did offer a few sizes larger than what many other luxury brands size do.
About two weeks later, on May 11th, the Savage X Fenty line debuted at midnight EST. Now while I definitely wanted to get my hands on some items, I wasn’t quite dedicated enough to get up at 5am BST to do so. I was a little more inclined to get up at 7am, though. I checked my emails and had a new update from Savage X Fenty with a link to the website. From there, I had to wait in a virtual queue for up to an hour my estimated wait time told me. Luckily, the website didn’t obligate me to stay on that window or lose my place in line, so I was able to play a few rounds of virtual pinball while I waited. You know, important shit. About thirty minutes later, I checked the Savage window again and it said I was the next customer in line. This experience was already infinitely easier than when I waited outside of Harvey Nichols for nearly two hours to buy Fenty Beauty when it first launched.
The page reloaded and I was in! It all felt so exclusive and exciting! But the website clearly couldn’t handle the capacity of people trying to access it all at the same time. Some pages took two or more minutes to load, and some links wouldn’t immediately work until the sixth or seventh click. It was a little frustrating to navigate. I clicked to view all bras, and to my somewhat surprise, about 2/3 of the bras had already sold out in the first two hours. AND THEY WERE REALLY CUTE TOO! Typically I’m a 46F, depending on the brand and style of the bra, but considering the sizing only went up to a DD, I figured I’d just add an extender to the back and hope for the best up front. I added a black lace 44DD underwire bra, a seafoam green 3X bralette, and matching seafoam green 3X high waisted panties to my cart…only to find the checkout link wasn’t working either! I was beyond frustrated at this point and I resigned myself to the idea that maybe Savage X Fenty wasn’t on the cards for me.
About five hours later, around noon, I received a new email from Savage X Fenty with a link to their website, and clicked to see if things were working yet. Much to my pleasant surprise, everything was still in my cart, and the checkout link was working! I completed the process as quickly as possible before, goodness forbid, links started to break again.
On the following Wednesday, I received my items from Savage X Fenty in a large pale pink, rectangular box. (My mother-in-law would go on to ask me, 'What was in the pretty box?', and I would uncomfortably reply, 'Underwear.' So awkward.) Girl, I’ve never received my underwear in such beautiful packaging before. I didn’t even want to ruin the tissue paper, it was so nicely put together.
I tried on the underwear first, as this was the item I was least concerned about fitting. While I tend to be really top heavy with my large chest, my butt is on the smaller side, so I was confident I’d squeeze into these 3Xs without issue. And I did! They were so unbelievably soft to the touch, with pretty lace detailing. I opted for a high-waisted fit because I couldn’t be bothered with hipsters that inevitably roll under my belly. Ugh! I hate that. But these were perfect. I wanted to live in these panties! Who said you couldn’t feel sexy in high waisted underwear? I felt super pin-up like and sexy.
The matching bralette was more of a miss for me. Even though it was a 3X, my breasts were just too big for it, in my opinion. And the pretty lace detailing that was supposed to lie just under my bust, opted instead to roll under my bust completely, so I found myself struggling with it a lot for photos. If it came in a size or maybe two bigger, I would’ve fell just as in love with it though, and if a plus size woman with a smaller bust than mine tried it on, I imagine it would’ve fit her perfectly.
Finally I tried the black lace, underwired bra on with the high waisted panties. I wasn’t really expecting a 44DD to fit me, like at all, but much to my surprise it clasped around me like a breeze. I loosened the straps and lifted them over my shoulders and analysed myself in the mirror. It wasn’t the worst bra I’d ever tried on in my life, but the cups fit like a demi bra on me, and I’ve never been a fan of demi bras. I like mine full coverage. The wired bit in the center of my cleavage felt a little flimsy, like it would definitely break apart after a few wears, but the rest of it actually fit quite comfortably. I was shocked.
Rihanna set out to make an inclusive makeup line, and she killed it. Then she set out to make an inclusive lingerie line, and she almost did that too. While I’m pleasantly surprised at how most of this fit on myself, I am still aware of the fact that for many women, they’re still not represented. I feel like this is a positive start, but bra sizes don’t plateau at a DD or a 3X. Until this range caters to DDDs and above and corresponding bigger band sizes, it can’t really be labeled 'size inclusive' just yet. For the price, though, this range is well worth the money in my opinion. Before shipping and taxes, the total for two bras and a pair of underwear was roughly £80 which is quite average, in my opinion.
If you’re in the market for some new underwear, or were on the fence on whether to try this new range, I definitely recommend giving it a chance. It might just have you also dancing around your bedroom to Work like I did!
