The Ashley bra presents the same tricks of the eye as the matching panty, which I already reviewed. While the product is made of black and white stripes, it gives off a strangely blue hue. This isn't bad necessarily, but it's interesting to look (and go cross-eyed) at.

The bra uses the same theme as the panties. Tiny black bow adorn the straps where they meet the cups. White lace lays over the cups themselves and there's a ruffle of lace along the bottom edge of the band. The attention to detail is very well done, and I think that's why so many of us are attracted to the pieces in this set.

The majority of the bra is a stretchy nylon material printed with the black and white stripes. On the plus side, the delicate lace isn't the brand. When this is the case, the lace usually winds up tearing on me. The bra uses the standard hook-and-eye enclosure with two hooks. It's a standard 1" wide, so you can pair it with a black bra extender should you need to. While there are three sets of hooks, they're much closer together than on any other bra I've ever used, which is why I suggest the bra extender.

The elastic straps have the traditional bra adjuster, but there's not much else to say about them. They're not flimsy and this bra does seem fairly supportive. Images from other reviewers do suggest this as well. You might find the ribbons of the bows are too long and pop out from your shirts. You could easily cut off the 'tails' and leave just the bow part. Similarly, I find the bow between the cups to be distracting. It actually slants to one side, so it seems like Oh La Cheri has trouble with these centered bows (there was a slightly sewing error on the bow on the panties).

The cups have underwire along the bottom to give you support, but they lack the padding to be true pushups. There is more padding here than some of the flimsier bras I've tried, and it feels like it's molded with the shape of the cups. With other bras, the foam felt stiff and like cardboard. I've noticed that many lingerie companies produce either teen lace bras or ones with hardened cups, so this is a wonderful change of pace.

The foam also protects your nipples from making an appearance on cold days. The inside of the cups is a smooth material that's probably made from the same nylon, and there's a light mesh lining between the cups and extending about an inch to the side of the cups. The lining stops at a reinforced seam/bone in the band. I've seen this before to prevent bulging but I'm doing an awkward job of describing it.

On the outside of the cups, a layer of lace layers over the striped fabric. It's the same lace as on the back end of the panties. In the product photos, the lace covers up the striped pattern so that you almost can't see it. The stripes behind the lace are more visible to my eye, and I'm not quite as fond of how it looks in person.

The silhouette under the cups is round rather than straight like some other bras. To better explain, the cups dip below the enter of the bra. About 1/2 inch of white lace ruffle extends along the bottom of the bra. While this same trim has a tendency to pop up around the legs of the boyshots, it doesn't with the bra. Of course, thin tops will show the lace detail along the band and cups, but it's not as obvious as I expected. The lace tapers toward the center of the band in back, so that it doesn't get in the way with the hooks.


As you can guess, all the ribbon and lace means this isn't the bra you want to put in the washer--even with a lingerie bag. The tag says to hand wash in cold water, and that's exactly what I'd suggest to prolong the life of this piece.

Oh La Cherie packages this with a tiny hanger, so you could hang it to dry and store it with that. It comes atop of giant piece of cardboard in a clear, plastic bag. I'm really not sure why the cardboard is necessary, but at least I can recycle it.

Appearance and quality-wise, this bra is tops, but it just doesn't look amazing on me. I prefer a little bit of pushup for my breasts, which it lacks. To me, the rounded, full cut almost flattens my boobs out or pulls them down. It doesn't really look -good- from any angle. I'm not sure that it looks bad, but I like to flaunt my assets. Because of this, I think the Ashley bra would look best on someone who is already busty enough not to need any pushing up. I feel like the full cut off the cups just swallows up my breasts, and I'm generally happy with my C cups. This isn't entirely surprising. The model appears as though she has no breasts at all.

I wanted to like this so badly, that I picked a day especially to wear the bra and panties together. The boobs smooshage made me feel self conscious, but I battled through. However, after a few hours, the band was really cutting into my skin, so I took it off. It's not even tight on me, so I'm thinking this just isn't the bra for me.