I’m so backed up on reviews dear friends, and I promise eventually I will get caught up. I have a stack waiting for me! Today’s gem is Madeleine.
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. After a couple of months of ownership, I still clasp 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.
The cups are moderate width, and the wires are soft but not as flexible as Freya wires. I’d say they’re in between Freya’s wires and Panache’s wires-of-steel. The gore is quite high on me, but I don’t find it uncomfortable. This bra is pretty full coverage as a result, though.
This bra is moderately projected, which is very projected in comparison to 99.99% of all UK molded tee shirt bras. If you’re extremely projected or very full on top, this bra will likely not work for you. I am very projected, and you can see in a couple of pictures where I start to fold over the bottom of the foam cups a little. I will say this is much less of a problem in this bra than any other UK molded bra I can think of, including the Freya Deco, Parfait Casey, and Parfait Jeanie.
In a nutshell, I’d say Madeleine is an affordable, little known option that I’d really recommend trying for most everyone who has had no luck with the common, shallow molded bras available on the market today.
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