Facing your fears: A guide to ordering direct through Ewa Michalak & Comexim

***This post has been edited as of May 27, 2016 with updated information and links***

When we talk to women who are thinking of taking the Polish bra plunge, one of the main factors that keeps them from doing so is how intimidating ordering can be.  As you all know, there are several fabulous Polish lingerie retailers out there (many of which we have featured on this blog).  Retailers are awesome for a multitude of reasons such as when you don’t want to have to deal with learning how to navigate the direct sites, want that extra special touch, and/or want the ease of being able to make returns without having to ship your bras back to Poland.  Many women exclusively order through retailers, while others (including most of the women on this blog) do a combination of ordering through their favorite retailer and ordering direct.  I myself have only ever ordered direct.  This isn’t because I have anything against ordering through a retailer, and I am sure that I will at some point, but I started off ordering direct and it’s just what I’m used to.  Update:  Since I first posted this, I have had the opportunity to use a retailer for a few of my orders.  I still believe that a combination of direct and retail ordering is the best way to go. 

I will preface the rest of this post by saying that one of the reasons ordering direct works well for me is that (at this time) I don’t require any special alterations to my Polish bras.  Because of this I am able to easily pick out my bras, choose my size, throw them in the cart and check out.  This doesn’t mean that you can’t order direct even when you need alterations, it just means there are extra steps you must take which I will be covering later in this post.

Let’s face it, the first time you go onto the Ewa Michalak or Comexim sites it’s down right petrifying! And to make matters worse, even their English sites have many words that are still in Polish.  In order to make things a bit easier for you, we have compiled many of the most common words and terms you will see on these sites at the top of our blog under Polish Lingerie Terms.  Though it can be intimidating and scary at first, I promise that after you place one or two orders it will become as easy as ordering from any other site you frequent 🙂  A couple of tips I have to make this a more enjoyable experience are 1) get your sizing down first, or at least a pretty close idea of what your Polish bra size should be (if you are enhanced and want to read our post on measuring for enhanced breasts, click HERE). And 2) don’t try to place your first order when you are on a time crunch or have a lot of distractions going on.  Pick a time when you have a few moments to yourself so you can really concentrate on what you are doing, which will minimize the chance of making a mistake.  For me, I try to wait until my boys are in bed 😉  Now lets get started!

When you first go to the sites they will look something like this:

   

TIP: If you happen to accidentally end up on the Polish language site, look towards the top of the page and you will see little flags.  If you hover over the flag one will say “English”.  Click on that flag and it will change the site to English for you!

To find bras on the Ewa Michalak site, you will want to look to the left side of the screen and scroll down and click on Bras which will then give you a drop-down menu of all they different styles and types they offer.  Click on they style/type you are looking for and you will be able to see all the bras available.  Don’t know which style or type you want?  Do what I did, click on all of them and look around 🙂  Remember, this is supposed to be fun!

For Comexim it is a little easier, as they have less styles to choose from (plunge, half cup and long line).  You will hover your mouse over Offer and then click on Bra:

s.  

Now that you know how to find the goods, lets get a little more in depth.  We will start with Ewa Michalak.  Lets say I was looking for a padded bra.  I would click on Padded Bras and it would take me to all the padded bras they offer.  At the top of the page there will be a few bullet points about this type of bra to help you decide if it is right for you:

 You will also see that bras are in order of when they debuted, with the most recent first. Lets say I wanted Eden in an S style.  I would click on the bra that said Biustonosz S Eden and that would take me to that bra.  Each bra will start with “Biustonosz” which means “bra” in Polish, the “S” is the style of bra, and Eden is the name.  Once you are in that particular bra’s page you will be able to see different pictures of the bra, a description, drop-down menu of sizes available, price (in Polish Zloty) and availability (how long it will take to make):

      

When you find the bra you want, (before you get too excited) you will want to click on the size drop-down menu to ensure they have your size available (in this bra they only have a 65FF available).  Too many times I have gotten excited too fast just to find out that they were out of my size!  TIP: If they don’t have your size available and it is a newer bra in their collection, you can always email them to see if they are going to be getting more fabric in and if you could order in your size (sometimes they do and sometimes they don’t).  However, if it is an older/discontinued bra, typically what is in the drop-down is all they have left.  The next thing you will want to pay attention to is the Availability.  “In stock – 48h” means that this bra is already made and will be shipped to you within 48 hours (those are the best :)).  You may also see “On request – ready in 16 days” which means that it will be made to order and shipped once made, typically a couple of weeks.  Lastly there is the price.  I know it can look a bit shocking, but remember this is not in US dollars, it is in Polish Zloty which (depending on the day) translates roughly to 1 USD = 3.784 PLN.  So for this bra 179 PLN = $47.22 USD.

A couple other things to note is towards the bottom of the page where they will list for you the sizes that the bra can be custom ordered in.  To place a custom size order, instead of placing it through their site you will want to email them with your custom size and they will send you an invoice.  Remember that there is a 40 PLN charge for custom orders and custom ordered bras are non-refundable.  NOTE: You will often see this at the bottom of their discontinued bras as well, even though they will not be able to make a custom order for you 😦  You will also see at the bottom that they will show other relevant items to the bra you are looking at like other styles with the same design as well as any matching undies, in case you want to make it a set.

   

Once you have selected the bra in the size you want, you will just add it to your cart and can choose to check out or continue shopping.  As I had mentioned in a previous post, I typically will order multiple bras at a time since the shipping charge (45 PLN) remains the same so it lowers the overall cost of each individual bra.  NOTE: If I am not logged into my Ewa account, the delivery fee will say 12 PLN (which I think is the cost if it is being shipped within Poland), but once I am logged into my account the delivery fee changes to 45 PLN.  Also, when ordering direct through either Ewa Michalak or Comexim you will need to pay by using a PayPal account.  With Ewa, you will also be charged a small payment fee on top of the delivery charge.  Once you have placed your order you will get a confirmation email.

      

Sometimes they will ask you to confirm your order by clicking on the blue button.  Once you do that you will get another email showing that your order was confirmed.  If you were lucky enough to order a bra that was ready within 48 hours, you should be getting a shipping confirmation within a day or two.  If you ordered one that was ready within 16 days, you typically will get an email stating that they are waiting on supplies and that your order will be shipped once it is made.   HINT: Once you get your shipping confirmation it should have a tracking number on it, if not you can email Ewa and they will send it to you (just respond to the shipping email.  And unfortunately, it no longer tracks past when it enters the U.S.  For me, once my order is shipped I usually will get it within a week, though it’s really up to the Customs powers that be 😉  And there you have it, you have just made your first direct order through Ewa Michalak!!!

S Eden 65GG

Now on to Comexim 🙂  The process for ordering through Comexim is very similar to Ewa Michalak.  As stated above, you will want to get to the bras section and pick out the bra you want.  As with Ewa, their bras are in order by when they were debuted.  Once you have selected the bra you want to look at, you will see several pictures of the bra on the left and the bra information on the right.  As you will notice, unlike Ewa, Comexim does not offer a description of their bras which I am assuming is because they don’t vary as much as Ewa bras do.

   

You see “Summer Time” (the name of the bra) and then “Biustonosz” (bra in Polish).  Under that is the price (125 PLN) and the size drop-down menu.  What you may also notice is missing is “availability” which is because all Comexim bras are made to order, so they take about 2 weeks to make before they are shipped.  HINT: To the right of the bra you will see an Accessories tab if you want to check out the matching undies.  Once you have selected the bra you want you will add it to your cart and you can choose “continue shopping” or “next” if you are ready to check out.

   

When you get to the Shipping section you will notice that the shipping cost is currently 20 PLN.  This cost is the same if I order two bras but does go up slightly (to 26 PLN) once I order three bras.  Comexim takes payment through PayPal but does not charge an extra payment fee.  As with Ewa, you will get both an order confirmation as well as a shipping confirmation.  When your order ships they will also send you a separate email with a tracking number.  HINT: The tracking number doesn’t work until your package has cleared customs in the U.S. which takes several days to a week.

    

And there you have it, another successful direct order under your belt!  I can feel your confidence rising 🙂

Summer Time 65J

Now lastly I wanted to briefly cover ordering direct when you require special alterations to your bras (lower cups, lower gore, straps moved in, etc.).  There are a few different ways that I know women accomplish this, but I am just going to go over the one that I think is the easiest and least complicated.  If you need alterations, don’t order from the site, email either Ewa Michalak or Comexim directly.  When emailing Ewa Michalak you will most likely communicate with Kaśka who understands English pretty well, so you can send your email in English with your special requests.  She will email you back (typically within a day or two) and let you know if they can accommodate your request.  If they can, she will place your order and send you an invoice so you can pay for your order.  REMINDER: Alterations cost an extra 40 PLN (depending on the type of alteration) and make the bra non-refundable.  Also, they can’t always accommodate every request, depending on what it is and how busy they are.  When needing customization from Comexim, their process has changed a bit since this was originally posted.   You now can add your customization directly to your online order (including custom sizing), and no longer need to email them directly.  If they need clarification, either Anna or Joanna will email you prior to starting to make your bra.  At this time Comexim does not charge for general alterations (though may charge extra to make bras into a long line), but we have heard they may start charging a small fee in the future. Once altered, bras from Comexim are also non-refundable.   TIP:  If you are ordering your first Polish bra, I would suggest ordering it with no alterations first so that you can get an idea of what changes you may need to make.

I hope this has been helpful and will make you all a bit more confident when placing that first direct order.  If anyone else has any helpful hints or tips for placing your direct orders, please post them in the comments below 🙂

Advertisement