Guest post: CLEO Lucy – the work horse of your lingerie wardrobe

Hello gals! This is a guest post by one of my darling readers, Vesta, and I’m proud to present you a bra I have not yet tried on myself: Lucy by Cleo. Hope you enjoy the review! 🙂After studying the offerings and blogs, I really liked the way Cleo Lucy fit people, so I decided to get the black one and see how it works out for me before deciding on whether or not to get other colors. I must have somehow missed the fact that it is widely reported to fit small in the cup, and ordered my usual 30G to begin with.

As soon as I saw it, I knew it would be too small – wires too narrow, and the band looked really short. Sure enough, it was a really tight fit. Band was in fact about 2 inches shorter than the 30G Jasmine band, and painfully tight. I was spilling out of the cups on the sides and the top edge of cup was slashing my breast in half. Overall, I felt like a stuffed sausage in this bra and my ribs hurt after just a few minutes of wearing it. I measure 29 inches in the ribcage, usually choose a 30 band, and have never tried one quite that tight before.

Not to be thwarted,  I found a very good deal on the Navy/Pink colourway of this bra (my favourite one), and could not resist getting it in 30GG. After receiving it, I found a peculiar difference in construction and fit between black and navy/pink ones. It could be partially due to the fact that the black one was a G cup and navy was a GG cup, perhaps Cleo construct bras differently in bigger cup sizes. I am going to compare various parts of the bra in each of the sizes/colours that I tried:

Band:

Black 30G – very tight, in fact 2 inches shorter than 30GG in navy/pink. Even though both have two hooks and eyes, the 30GG Navy has a wider band with wider set hooks. However, it is also a stretchier band, and I feel like I could have done with a 28 in this color! Definitely glad I did not order the 32! A 28 band in black would have probably chopped me in half.

Cups: 30GG navy/pink cups appear quite a bit larger than the 30G black ones, I feel like there is more than a cup size difference between the two. The 30GG navy covers a lot more of my breast at the front. Wires may feel wide to some, but they work for my breasts. Wires on the 30G appear quite a bit narrower.

Now, the big difference I noticed between black and navy/pink is in the center gore. Black center gore is considerably wider than the navy center gore. There is maybe 5-6 mm of fabric between the wires in the black version, while the navy version’s wires are separated by about 2-3 mm of fabric. My breasts are not particularly close set, but they are pushed together by the bra and as a result, the center gore in the black version sort of folds in on itself, resulting in the wires overlapping at the top and the gore not sitting  flat against my sternum (though this might also be due to the cup being too small).  In the navy version, the wires are also pushed together, but they merely touch rather than overlap and the gore is flat against my body. Taking in the center gore could be an option, though I am not sure if I am willing to jump through the hoops to fit into this bra. Navy version does not require to be taken in, at least for me.

Straps: Straps are fully and easily adjustable on the go. 30GG straps are 2-3 mm wider that 30G straps. Also, there is an additional soft layer of felt like fabric on the underside of the 30GG straps, intended to ease the burden on the shoulders. While I like the soft layer, I wish they didn’t make the straps wider, but it is my personal peeve  – narrow straps J. Also, the lining definitely will make it harder to adjust the straps should you need to shorten them this much. Strap material is not very stretchy, so I didn’t need to adjust as much as I usually end up having to in other bras.

Fit, look and feel: I really like the way Lucy  makes my breasts look. It makes them look round and uplifted, and I like how the top section of the cup is not just there for mold to my shape, but to do the slight shaping itself. It does make a difference with my soft breast tissue that tends to spill out of cups that are too open on top. Lucy holds me in, stabilizes and prevents jiggle that is usually inevitable if I wear an open top bra.

The fit of the cups is a bit weird. While the top edge of the cup is on the verge of cutting into my tissue, there is definitely some space inside the cup that goes unfilled.  The top section is a tad loose other than at the very edge, though not noticeable when I stand up straight, so it does not necessarily bother me.

So, fit wise, I would say this bra is not a 100% perfect shape for me, but it comes very close.  The clothed look is pretty great in this bra. Overall it is a more compact, closer to the body, somewhat minimizing, uplifted shape.

I do feel that the bra looks rather plain in the basic colors, but I adore the navy/pink colourway. I am curious to try some other colourways now, but I am definitely going with a 28H next time.

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Update a couple of months after the initial review:

Cleo Lucy is the bra that grows on you. I have gone from being merely ok with it to reaching for it every time I get dressed in the morning (and feeling disappointed if I can’t wear it for any reason that day).

It fails to stun as you first get it out of the mail order package. It lacks the finesse, elegance and intricate detail of Marcie and feels a bit flimsy. Flower embroidery is underwhelming/simplistic  in most colorways, with my personal favourite being the navy/pink  (whenever I wear this one, I can’t help stealing looks down my shirt just to catch a glimpse of those pink/purplish dots along the bra’s top edge).

Then you put it on and look in the mirror. Solid colors look a bit crude. The bra underwhelmes me personally when worn on its own. Then you turn a bit sideways and note the superior round shape. I would say, the shape is not just round – it is the slightly pushed up orb like shape that I have not seen from any other bra I have tried.

And then you put some clothes over the Lucy. You look down at your chest and realize that your boobs are brought up closer to your eyes than you have ever seen them before. You look in the mirror and see the apex of your boobs sitting higher than what you are normally used to. There is not a point in sight – perfectly rounded silouette. You try it with tshirts, button shirts – whatever the style of tops you like wearing and you realize that this bra works wonderfully with pretty much anything, making you look slimmer and slightly minimized, yet perky and not at all flattened. When you put on a clingy, thin top, you finally realize that you cannot have everything – embroidery shows through and makes your boobs look kinda pimply/spotty. I normally do not care about a seam or embroidery showing through, but this particular bra has tiny flowers all over the lower portion of the cup and an occasional spectator may decide that you have some suspicious rash going on under there, so I’d probably skip this bra when wearing  thin/clingy fabrics.

At this point, I own Lucy in navy/pink and in pink/white. I have failed to pinpoint my size in this model, as it is not quite consistent across colorways. I still don’t really like the way Lucy looks on me without clothes on, but as an undergarment it is hard to beat.

Sizes I have tried:

Black – 30G – way too small, both in band and cup – sent it back.

Navy/pink – 30GG – works very well, maybe a tiny bit roomy in the cup, but nothing to fret about, band feels loose.

Pink/white – 30GG – works well, feels a touch bigger in the cup than the navy/pink one, bland feels loose, same as the navy/pink

White – 28H – too much extra space in the cup, too much chest coverage, horisontal seam in the cup cuts into the breast and creates an in-cup quadraboob – sent it back

White 28GG – cuts into my tissue at the top, not big enough, so sent it back too.

28 band fits me better, but the H cup that comes with it is just too big for me, even though it is the sister size of 30GG. I wonder if it is due to the slight difference in sister sized cups, or are all white Lucys made slightly bigger?