Venus Swim Bra: Review

This is a "romper"

I'm writing about the Venus swim bra I just tried out for the first time because Venus Fashion, Inc. is not only located in Jacksonville (spitting distance from Gainesville) but the company also prides itself on using American manufacturing.  For me that's two pluses for this company; not only are they local, they are Made in America.®

It's hard for me to find bathing suits, and I've detailed my swimsuit woes on this blog over the years.  Having grown up in the union stronghold of Midtown Manhattan (I like using the phrase "union stronghold."  It is like "nitro-burning funny cars" in the pantheon of strong, evocative phrases), I naturally came to Florida with a union-made swimsuit purchased at Macy's.  After 16 years, however, the suit was finally too worn out to wear even one more time, so I started my so far fruitless search for a new suit.  Forget union-made - I don't think there is a company that still makes swimsuits in the US (do not know this for a fact, and if anyone wants to save a lazy blogger some trouble, let me know if there are any US companies that manufacture their suits in America).  I also toyed with the idea of making my own suit and had gotten a modesty suit pattern but have yet to take the plunge and actually make one.  At this point in my life, I just want a swimsuit that makes me look like a reasonable woman approaching middle age without looking like a Victorian matron or Haoli Girl (I swear, most suits for women of a certain age and size are black, or they're in the most garish purples, greens and/or floral designs.  There is no gray area, here).

Then I stumbled on the Venus website when I decided I was not going to do a bathing suit per se and try just a swim bra (which I could not find in my size at Lands End).  Bought one of Venus' blue swim bras and wore it to the pool the other day.  It was not a great or by any means perfect fit, but it kept the girls in line while swimming.  There is no way that I would wear this thing without a swim shirt over it, though.  For one thing, the largest cup size they had was DD and I've realized that right now I am solidly a DDD - I know, TMI but you knew that when you married me.  The second problem was the band was a couple of inches too tight; it relaxed a bit after swimming in it for about an hour, though, but I still had a red pinch line along my rib cage after removing it.  One more sign that I just need to lose some weight, and I'd rather do that than buy a swim bra at Lands End that is of imported manufacture.

One thing about Venus, though, is that they don't just sell swimsuits, they also sell really tight fitting dresses and CFM shoes, I guess for really fit female bodybuilders?  They started out selling body building and fitness clothing, so that's just a guess.  The catalogue was a little PG-17 so I had to recycle it.  All in all, though, very pleased to find a US-made swim bra that reasonably helps with support.