Lulu Tout is a Figleaves brand, and the Madeleine is a molded tee shirt bra available in nude and black. The material is very soft and comfortable, and the bra is beautifully detailed. There's a stretch lace overlay along the bottom and sides of the cup that extends part way up the straps, and beautiful sheer striped bows at the gore and at the top of the lace overlay on the strap. The strap slider adjusters and ring are a rose gold toned metal, and the lace overlay covers the full band and extends onto the wings. There's a small ruffle detail all the ... way around the bottom of the band. This bra is detailed in a way I've only previously seen from Tutti Rouge and Curvy Kate, and it takes the "nude tee shirt" bra to a different level. This is not a boring bra. It's sexy in it's own subtle way, and that's hard to accomplish for a wardrobe staple like a nude bra. And Figleaves manages to accomplish all of this in a way that still allows the bra to be invisible under tee shirts!
On to the specifics.
The band - this is a quite firm band. My 30 band measures 23" and 28" stretched, which is fantastic for me, but if you are a true 30 you might want to size up, or have an extender handy. It is stretchy in a way that suggests it will break in some with wear, but not overly stretchy. I closed it on the loosest hooks and it feels very secure. I wish it had 3 rows of hooks, but I wish that about almost every bra. I also wish Figleaves had used the same rose gold hardware for the hooks and eyes as they had on the straps, but I am really nitpicking here. The wings are quite tall - 4.5" on my 30FF, which contains all of my armpit/back fat/tail of spence or whatever it is, and there's side boning in the wings for added support.
The wires - I measured 5.4-5.5" on my 30FF, and they are U shaped. They do open up a bit when closing the band, but they're not as flexible as Freya wires. I'd say they're in between Freya's wires and Panache's wires-of-steel. They're long/tall - 11" here - probably due to the tall side wings. The gore is quite high on me, and it remains to be seen whether it gets uncomfortable over a day's wear.
The cups - when I first took this bra out of its package, I thought there is no way in h-e-double hockey sticks these cups were going to work for me. They looked impressively shallow at the bottom, with a high set apex, and they do close in at the top somewhat. But once I put it on, I found it to be more projected than I once thought. I'd say it's about average everything, but if you're really projected or really full on top, this bra will likely not work for you. I measured a 9" depth on my 30FF, which is about 0.5" smaller than my ideal 9.5," but for some reason, the way the depth is distributed or the shape or something, it works for me.
I really don't have a similar bra in mind that I'd compare this to. It's not a Deco, it's not a Neve. Maybe it's a nice compromise between those two. I've never tried a CK Smoothie to compare. It's an affordable, little known option that I'd really recommend trying for most everyone with less-than-extreme projection.
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Updated on May 29, 2015 Flag this
Really great review lcl0706, thanks. It looks quite like the Parfait Casey to me, which is a moulded bra that's been on my "Need to Try!" list for far too long, mainly cos it's not that easy to find Parfait at cheaper prices in the UK. I'll look into this one - I'm sadly still wearing my 30E Decos to work when I'm at least a cup size bigger but I just can't bear the thought of shelling out £30 each for a couple of replacements....