I grabbed this on a whim when loading up for the fitting room at Nordstrom Rack today, hoping it would fit but doubtful as it was a cup-size bigger than what I normally wear. I had no experience with Cleo, though, so I thought I'd give it a try. Much to my surprise, it fit my bigger breast and didn't have too much wrinkling on the other. I had to get it, of course, being unable to resist a bra that fits and costs less than 30 dollars.
I'm not sure if it actually runs a bit small, as I checked my measurements when I got home and my ... breast perimeter is up an inch, overbust up a half inch, so I may have edged into G territory. The lift is good, and the shape is nice - natural, but perky looking. Not pointy at all, but not over-the-top round.
I especially like how narrow the gore is all the way down, so it doesn't shove my boobs apart at all.
The fabric is not the most comfortable, unfortunately, being a little skritchy, but I'm hoping once I break it in it will be fine.
The worst part is how much the high gore digs in, but I'm unused to gores this tall and have this problem a little bit with every bra.
The design and colors are super adorable; I especially love the button in the center of the bow on the gore.
Overall, I would definitely recommend it. It's the first higher coverage bra I've found that doesn't cut in to my shallow breast shape, and it provides a lot of lift even though the cups are below the band.
On some further consideration of the fit, I think that perhaps as the band is a little tight, the stretched cups are distorting the fit. The band does seem to run quite firm, so I think you want to look at how much the cups distort when the band is on and perhaps consider sister sizing to a band size bigger (although I think an extender would be better.) I have a feeling once the band relaxes a little and the cups return to the front where they're supposed to be, they will be too big.
Update 1 month later:
I've gotten this broken in now, so I know a little better about what are fit issues and what are style issues. I think I could have sized down to an FF (perhaps risking a little quadboob, but only after extreme swoop and scoop) just because the cups are so very open on top. If I REAAALLY squeegee all my fat in, I actually fill them perfectly, but only for about 10 seconds. It is hard to say if this is because I'm not so full on top as this bra is shaped for, or if it's size, but I do feel like I'd get a slightly higher/rounded shape if the cups were a size smaller.
The band has slightly relaxed at this point, but the cups haven't changed shape when on as I was expecting. What I was identifying as distortion still happens - the wire is very narrow until about the halfway point between bottom of breast and armpit, at which point it looks as though it is pulled sideways further onto my side than it should be. It technically sticks out past my breast there, but I do prefer that just to keep things contained and I don't think it affects fit in this bra as I don't get any wrinkling.
I really like this bra - the straps are not the most comfortable and sadly the fabric is still not soft like I'd like, but overall it's one of my favorites.
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Updated on Jan 15, 2013 Flag this
I've noticed you haven't added any Panache brand bras, including Cleo or Harlequin/Masquerade, to your profile. It's possible that you may be a G cup in their brands but it could also be the way the current AW12 line was made, like the Marcie here. I've found it quite inconsistent and had to play with many sizes. Another possibility which is difficult to guess based on your profile stating only one bra fits you right now (ahh, sorry to hear that but continue the search!) is that once you find a few that fit after maybe approximately 6-12 months of wearing the right fit the tissue that has been misplaced all along will migrate back to where it needs to be and this may result in a cup size bigger. This happened to me with a lot of FF's. I wondered why I started seeing bits of quadboob after that long and had to buy mostly G's. But remigration is definitely a good thing. Sorry, maybe rambling at this point. Would like to know your thoughts. :)