Plum colourway:

I hesitated on which size to buy, because there were so few reviews out there for this bra. Pretty much all of them agreed that the band and the cups ran small -- but at the same time, whenever I order a 32, the band just will not stay in place on me. And whenever I order a cup size larger, it doesn't work.

In the end I took a punt on my normal size, and it's fabulous!

The band definitely runs tight. I'm a true 30, in that my underbust is 29.5". In Cleo and Masquerade bras, I find I need to buy the 30 and use an extender for an extra column of hooks to get the right band tension. In the Orla's case, I need 2 columns. (But using the full length of the extender resulted in the band being too large.)

The cups are a true halfcup cut. Good immediate projection, and good inner projection as well, since I don't find my breasts waging war with the gore on this one quite so much as in other bras. I'm *almost* quadding, but it's so open at the top that it isn't a problem and just contributes to the regency cleavage look.

As for whether the cups run true to size, well, how to answer that? I fit perfectly in this in 30FF, which is the size I take in Cleo and Freya bras, if that helps.

The lace doesn't lay flat at its upper edge when not wearing a shirt -- but I've not noticed a problem with it showing even under thin, clingy shirts, so perhaps the weight of the shirt holds it down flat.

This is without a doubt the comfiest bra I own. The band is snug without being restrictive or firm or digging; the wires perfectly follow my inframammary fold, the straps don't irritate my arms... There just seem to be none of the little niggles I get with any of my other bras. By the end of the day, the gore does stab me a little, but I think that's more to do with the fact that it's too wide and my boobs and the gore are sick of each other after 10+ hours.

Unfortunately, I think I managed to snare a bra with a manufacturing defect, as the lace doesn't lay flat anywhere over the cup. The lace layer appears to be made for a larger cup size than the lining layer, but it's sewn in place as if it's the same size as the lining layer, which results in puckering and rumpling over the whole cup. I've emailed Panache about it for their advice, and am still waiting to hear back. Pretty sure it's not a size problem as I have the Orla in the vanilla colourway and it doesn't have the same problem with the lace layer.

*Edited to add: Panache have confirmed the lace layer is probably faulty and will be sending me a replacement bra.

This bra is not owned any more

Updated on Jul 28, 2014 Flag this

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