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The Fantasie Leona is such a pretty bra, but she seems to be a particularly troublesome fit. I had read reviews by another user (Slava-Zone ) saying that it seemed like the wires of her bra were not the right size, but no idea if this was a fluke as there aren't too many other reviews of this style on various websites. I picked one up on Amazon in my regular size, and sadly, she is right. This fit is bizarro.
The band of this bra is actually a little bit smaller than some of my other Fantasies, which can run anywhere between ... 25.5-26", but this one is a solid 25". However, the cups of this bra are just plain weird. The cups are much wider and have much longer wires than any 30DD or even 30E in my collection, and I agree that the wires and cup width are more proportioned for a 30F. However, the cup depth is appropriate for a 30DD as I can basically fill out the cup with no problems if it weren't for the enormously wide cups. So, it's a 30F cup with the cup depth of 30DD. Not sure how this is supposed to work. I also tried putting in silicone inserts, and found that the inserts only really worked in this cup shape at the top of the cup, but because the cup shape is shallow and the upper cup is closed, it would be tricky for tall roots. So, it seems to suit a slightly shallow and short FOT shape that needs very wide wires.
The Balcony cut differs from the other side support cuts in that it's a 3 piece cup with no side sling. I am surprised at the width of these cups as I found the Fantasie Side Support styles to run pretty narrow, but Fantasie specifically says these styles have "wide wires." This style is NOT described with "wide wires" on their official website. I'm not sure what to think of this, but maybe this makes more sense on Backwards Day.
I also found the cup height and wing height to be perplexing, as both are much taller than normal. I had to shorten the straps all the way up to the decorative portion, and the wings and wires were all up in my armpits. If this is meant to be a full coverage balcony style, then the cups are already supposed to come up higher on the body, so why design this with such tall sides? Perhaps this is a style that got lost in translation, where the grading from larger sizes just didn't translate down to the smaller end of the size spectrum. Maybe this would work better sizing down to 30D, but I fear that the shape and shallowness of the cups would make this less than an ideal fit.
Aesthetically, this is a very lovely bra, and it turned out much prettier than in the picture. The purplish grey cups are embroidered with baby pink and tonal grey flowers and leaves in what looks like a cherry blossom shape, perfect for this season. The cups and cradle have a bit of 3D lace decoration. The band is made from a very firm satin with a severe leotard back, so it would be a bit difficult to alter the band down. Straps are solid textured elastic with picot edges, and the gore decoration is a simple bow with round metal disc.
It's a shame that this is such a funky fit, as I think sizing down would not remedy the fit issues of this style. Hopefully this is a grading issue and works for Fantasie's core size range better than in the smaller cup sizes.
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Updated on Apr 08, 2020 Flag this
belleandblues Glad to know I wasn't just having weird luck!
In January, I ordered another Fantasie balcony style bra from somewhere else (the Leona; I don't have much information up but I did at least add the measurements) and it too had very wide wires with shallow, closed-on-top cups. From seeing the fit on the models, one would not think it is a very different fit from the "side support" style. And yet it really is! The side-support style fits me perfectly, so I was really sad to see the balcony styles constructed so differently. Wish they would offer both styles in each fabric they use.