First, I must say that I was in love with this bra before I even bought it, so it should be obvious that I was going to be let down.
That out of the way, this is a very pretty, very quality bra that simply does not fit right. It looks okay when it's on me - looking in the mirror, I probably wouldn't guess that the bra isn't right. Under clothes, you'd never tell. But it certainly feels off, and looks bad from my vantage point.
It's mostly the cups I have trouble with. When I opened the package, I thought to myself - holy hell, those things are ... HUGE! (given my size, this is relatively speaking) I mean, I had bought a Freya Deco 28D, and even that I remember being smaller than these things. The cups on this bra are very wide, which I like, and that's why I buy Panache. However, they were not as shallow as I had hoped. The dimensions seem closer to a 28DD, so I'm guessing this runs a bit large. The cups are 3-part seamed, and I admit that I often have trouble with this construction - the top panel always seems to be angled oddly for my breasts, meaning I'm gaping at the tips and the edge is ending too low on my chest. It's also the type of cup where the area near the gore is much more open than the area by the straps, and would probably be better for women who have more breast tissue towards the center of their chest.
In sum, the cups would probably work best for middle- and center- heavy wide boobs. That is unfortunately not me.
Cup issues aside, there's still more to say about this bra. The straps are not fully adjustable, and given their satiny material, not the most likely candidates for staying up. The band is definitely the smallest 28 I've ever seen, but despite that, it felt a little loose on me - and I have an underbust that's somewhere between 25-27 inches. I think it felt loose because the band is really unstretchy and didn't cling to me the way a more elasticized band does. This might not be an issue for other women, but I felt it was worth pointing out.
So, overall, the Lula-Mae was a really, really nice bra that I very much wanted to own and love, but the shape of the cup was just bizarre on me - way too much room in the center, despite a great fit on the bottom half. But if you have wide breasts, this is definitely a bra worth trying.
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Updated on May 14, 2012 Flag this
Aww, too bad it doesn't quite fit you! I had high hopes. Challenges indeed. :( At least it's pretty, right? :D