Cleo Lily (30FF)

It's been too long since my last post! Between work deadlines, new interests and my vacation in July, I've only lurked around the bra community without much interaction. To be fair, I haven't gotten any new bras until yesterday, but I do have a couple ideas for other posts, so it's not a very good excuse. :p

It's good to be back, though!

Getting right to it...

The Lily is no stranger to me and my blog. I've had numerous colors and sizes of it and so I initially debated on mentioning this one. However, once I tried it on, I felt like there was enough difference between this one and the others that it might be useful information for someone with a similar shape and situation. 

The most recent size I've had of Lily was a 30GG. It fit as well as it always had for the short time that I was able to fill it out. If you've read my 30FF Marcie review, the things I'm about to say will sound very familiar because Lily has the same things going on in the same size - the main being that it's considerably more shallow.

With Marcie, I was torn between whether the dramatic change in shape was because of the issues and eventual recall of both the beige and black versions, or if I had unknowingly stumbled upon the point at which the bra just changes from projected to shallow. Now that I've tried my good ol' pal Lily in the same size, I feel like I can safely say it is indeed the shallow/projected cut-off. Unfortunately, this turns both bras into just baaaarely passable on me. 

I haven't tried a 30G Lily, but I'm including updated fit pictures of one of the 30G Marcies I wear around the house to illustrate the amount of gaping I have going on. The fit of the 30FF Lily and Marcie are nearly identical on me, so I think it's reasonable to say that I'd get a similar fit in a 30G Lily with perhaps slightly less gaping. 

30G has the shape and projection I need, but the cup volume is just too much, while the 30FF has the right volume but the shape and lack of projection make it nearly too small. 

Straps set a little tighter than they would be if the cups weren't so big. Again, this was designated as a house bra once I shrank out of it.

Now back to Lily...

If you compare the shape between the two side profiles, you can see what kinda looks like a missing chunk from the Lily, towards the lower half of the cups. This leaves my very projected boobs hardly any room to exist. 

In both 30FF Marcie and Lily, I have to swoop, scoop, position and adjust just right to get a smooth and (softly) tacking gore; more on that in a minute. There's no room for error if I want them to fit as well as possible. I actually went to wear this Lily yesterday and felt so disappointed in the fit and performance that I immediately took it off and put on Marcie. I was almost certain I would sell the Lily. I think because Marcie is meant for shapes with more upper fullness, as opposed to Lily's even shape that Lily isn't quite as forgiving when they both have pretty abysmal immediate projection. 

That brings me to another, perhaps obvious, point... If you're someone who normally fits perfectly into 30FF (I say 30 because I can't speak for the other band sizes) but your boobs grow out of it, 30G will probably end up being too projected for you and you'll have trouble filling it. I don't know if the shape change is a good thing/bad thing or if perhaps it should be at a smaller/different size. At least in terms of Marcie and Lily, people on either end of the cut-off can definitely be sized/shaped out of their favorite bra with a little boob fluctuation. 

At what cup size is it more common to be projected than shallow? I guess Panache would know better since (I assume) they do market research to determine these things. Then again, there are many brands who grade/scale very poorly as the cups get bigger, for instance, so who knows.

The last two things I want to mention are that I don't find the straps and wires to be as sturdy in this size. The straps aren't as surprising because it's not uncommon for them to get thinner as the cup volume goes down. I will say they seem to have a bit more stretch to them, but it could be a result of coupling them with what feels like soft(er) wires.

When my boobs were in the HH/J range, I was convinced the stiff Panache wires would be the death of me. Once I got down to the GG range though, I found that the bras/wires seemed to fit more proportionately for my body... if that makes any sense. Basically, they were still firm but weren't all up in my armpits, rubbing me raw. I swear the wires in the 30FF aren't as strong. They're even more comfy, sure, but when I wear the strong 30G Marcie all day and then pop into the 30FF to leave the house, I immediately feel the downgrade in support and lack of anchoring in comparison. Lots of bouncing and the gore barely tacks while Marcie has pretty good soft tack.

I want to sort of blame Panache for poor scaling/grading or what-have-you, but I'm sure there are many people who get on perfectly with both Marcie and Lily in the FF and smaller range. It just freaks me out a little to be so close to being "shaped-out" of my two normally tried and true, easily accessible fits. I'll be holding onto this Lily for now, but I know if I have the slightest volume increase, it's over.

Bras really are super complicated.