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• Sorry this is not entirely relevant to your entry, buuuuut since you said that very tight bands are typical of cleo bras, I was wondering if you think that they are just very tight or perhaps just very uncomfortable (fabric etc). I ask because I literally just (like 10 mins ago hah) made my own extender for my Cleo Maddie 28D. When I first got it I thought that the band fit well, like pretty tight but maybe that was how it was supposed to be, but when I went to put it on the next day it immediately hurt. So I just made the extender thinking that that would help with the underwire pain. Seemed to at first, but after 10 mins I'm already uncomfortable again!!! And making the band any looser would be ridiculous (can already fit a whole hand).

  Is it Cleo? Is it the Maddie in particular? Or is it just me?

• betty2 Thats totally fine! This is for the Cleo Natasha. Some people do find Cleo bands uncomfortable because of the fabric (kind of scratchy, I guess), and others are uncomfortable from the tightness of the band. I don't mind the tightness, as I prefer really firm bras, but it definitely was tighter than I expected lol.

  Where is your discomfort coming from? Maybe the wires need to be more padded to suit your ribcage? Are the cups staying in place or are they moving out of your inframmary fold? I had a bra that refused to stay in my inframmary fold, which made the underwires

• (cont.) hurt pretty badly. betty2

• It's beautiful, and it does look like it's fitting you properly from your photos.
  Try bending the gore and report back to see how it feels!

• KariNicole Interestingly, it does look like it fits better in pictures than I think it does irl. The top lace part really does some crazy stuff in reality!! I will let you know my new opinion of the bra next time I wear it, haha

• tiggaren haha okay!
  I hope it fits Better next time you wear it!

• It looks 100% better on you than it did on me!
  wow! :) I don't remember bending the gores wires but if I did, it's because I was getting stabbed probably. :)

• or it might be because I moved the wires to the outside of the wire channels. :)

• It looks gorgeous on you!!

• Thanks for responding tiggaren ! You know, I think it's both (the tightness and the fabric). Before using the extender (after one day of wear) the underwires were really hurting me at the gore and my back was kind of itchy, and I assumed that both were due to it being too tight. After using the extender, I noticed that the underwires felt slightly better but still kind of hurt, and the itchiness was still there. I think maybe the lining on the underwires isn't thick enough for me and the fabric is just uncomfortable. Both would make sense since I have kind of a bony rib cage and sensitive skin.

  Loosening the band definitely did help a little though. I actually read that women with smaller busts (me compared to you) often prefer a slightly looser band. The logic being that a tight band's purpose is to offset the weight of the breasts and distribute it more evenly around the band. So if there's less weight, the band isn't counterbalanced in the same way and just digs into the wearer. This made a lot of sense to me when I read it and I think I've decided to stick with 30 bands since they provide adequate support for my smaller breasts and are far more comfortable for me to wear.

• Haha thanks Nayanya!! I will check on the wire channels, that didn't even cross my mind. The weird lace gapping at the top didn't show under the shirt I wore yesterday, so I think it will be part of my daily rotation :D

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• It's wonderful to hear when someone finds a great fit! Thanks for the review. Please update as you continue to wear it.

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• Isn't the band to loose?

• It actually isn't bad. I think in some of these a 30E is best for me, but some of them seem to have extra tight bands (I found this with Ellis and Minnie) and a 32DD is a very good fit, even on the loosest hook. For this Natasha I think a 30E might be slightly better, but I wasn't able to find one. The 32 band is ok on loosest hook, perfect on the middle hook. I do have a 27 inch UB, but I have very little body fat around my rib cage and I find 28 bands to be painful by the end of the day, so 30 usually works best with 32 in a few cases when bands are extra firm, It seems to have a lot to do with stretchiness of the fabric.

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  Also, the cup sometimes fits better when pressure is taken off the band. So, even though snug bands are great on one hand, they can sometimes distort cup fit. The trade off suggests trying sister sizes and see which works best in the end. I think that is what I really learned when I tried these on in 32DD (even if I preferred the 30E in the end).

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  > I do have a 27 inch UB, but I have very little body fat around my rib cage and I find 28 bands to be painful by the end of the day, so 30 usually works best with 32 in a few cases when bands are extra firm

  Same for me - I have a 27" ribcage as well and I rarely find 28 bands that fit (see my bra list).
  When I put on a 32 band which is as tight as this one (band stretches to only 29"!) and I jump around in it a little, and the band stays in place, it's perfectly fine and gives me all the stability I need.
  I tried several 30 band Marcies but all of them gave me distorted cups, a digging center gore, major discomfort and red marks that lasted for days :|

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• yetanotherthing, I am *very* interested in what people say about this bra and how it fits you. I have very similar fit issues, at least in this specific instance.

  I'm wondering, actually, if the cup size isn't a little small, or at least the cup width is a little too small. I say that because it looks like the band is too tight, which could be spreading the underwires a little, distorting them, which in turn could be causing the wrinkling in the cup bottom. It also looks like there's some slight lifting of the band away from your chest in photos #9 and #12, although that might be because you have your arm(s) lifted.

  The upper cup seems to fit perfectly as seen in the side shots and the overhead shot.

  I'm really surprised the back band is so narrow. I'm totally with you on the 3-4 columns of hooks.

  If it were me, I would keep this bra. It looks very good on you.

  --Kristine
  

• MmeKristine

  I've put it on the fit check ( http://www.bratabase.com/troubleshoot/dlpbl/ ) and gotten a couple of responses, which is where the cup size too big theory comes from. The responses were very helpful for sure.

  My snug underbust measurement is 35.5", and this stretches to 38"+, so I'm not sure that the band is too tight. Then again, this is my second or third attempt, so I could very well not have any idea what I'm talking about :)

  I was wondering if the bottom wrinkles paired with the top smoothness was an indicator of shape at all, since I'm still really lost in that area. I keep getting referred to the tutorials and explanations on it, but I just don't understand how to relate that back to my own boobs.

• Well, that's that! I completely trust wendybien when it comes to *all* my issues.

  --Kristine
  

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  The band tightness issue is tricky in some brands because the length you can stretch it to with your hands is not the same as the length it will comfortably reach once it's hooked on a human torso... does that make sense? So, I would go by whether it feels too tight, or comfortable. If you're comfortable in a range of normal everyday situations (walking briskly, taking a deep breath, lounging on couch, etc.) then it is likely a good length for you. If on the other hand it starts to feel really uncomfortable then it's likely too small!

  There are several reasons that a cup can wrinkle so I'm hesitant to make any pronouncements about what it means here. One possibility is the band being too tight, as Kristine says--it pulls everything out of whack and the distortion makes the fabric ripple/wrinkle. Another possibility is simply the "orange in a glass" effect: the bottom section of the cup is not deep enough for the breast to settle into it fully, so the boob rests a little higher in the cup than it's supposed to. This can make a cup look like it fits even when it's too big, because since the breast is sitting higher than it is supposed to, it nestles nicely against the upper part of the cup, which then sits smoothly.

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