Lepel’s bestselling Fiore has been on my radar for a while now – not least because of the pretty colours (helloooo mint green and strawberry!) – but for some reason it was only a review request from a reader that prompted me to actually order.
I wonder if my bradar was warning me off, because this bra and I did not become fast friends. Though I love how it looks on smaller busted models, when confronted with a G-cup the bra is slightly raggedy and cumbersome. It comes with light padding, plus an extra removable padding in a sling at in the lower cup – somewhat gratuitous when you’re already packing a G-unit, but not something that presents too much of a challenge if you don’t fancy the extra oomph… assuming, of course, that there’s enough room in the cup to start with.
But the cups are tiny. And the band is big. I so wanted to love this bra, but this bra just didn’t want to love me back. With padding the quadraboob is cataclysmic, without it’s not too bad up top if I’m still, although the underwire simply cannot tack to my chest and the centre gore never gets closer than a centimetre away from my sternum. In many respects, this bra fits me like a 34D – to the point that I checked every single tag twice for a labelling mistake. I know 30G is my ‘starting point’ size – but I’d need more than a Tom Tom to point me in the direction with this bra. I have never known a bra fit quite so disastrously – or fit so small whilst looking so damned big!
Has anyone else experienced this with Lepel?
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Busts 4 Justice 
I stock it, but only up to a DD cup 30 – 38. We find in this range it’s ok (fits one
size small in the cup) but after this it’s no good and in a G cup, really not good!
Good to know it’s not something fundamentally odd with my boobs! I simply don’t get it – physically it’s huge!
This is pretty much the experience I had with the fiore balconnette in a 32ff, I could not get over how loose the band was, it felt like a 36, and I got absolutely no lift. I got two colours, so I’m pretty sure it wasn’t a labelling error.
I’ve heard more reports of the same /
– once it goes DD+ it all goes wrong for that bra. Shame.
This review surprises me because I have something very similar by Lepel with the opposite fit anomoly! I got it because the band was unusually tight and 28 bands were hard to find then, don’t remeber any cup anomolies. I think it was the Fiore but this was several years ago so I may be remembering wrong. So when did it all go wrong?
How strange! Do you still have it at the back of your lingerie drawer?
I found a small family of them…
Padded plunge, 32DD in pink and 30DD in brown seem slightly loose in the band (bear in mind they’re a few years old, not worn vast amounts but enough to not be quite as new), slightly large in the cup. Band and cup within what I would consider normal variation for those sizes.
Exactly the same style in blue and black and with more lace over the cup, 30D, band is a lot tighter. More different from the 30DD than the 30DD is from the 32D, it seems much more like a 28DD. Cup slightly large again.
Blue and black unpadded in 30DD has a normal band but large cup, more like 30E.
This is very odd because the blue and black 30DD looks exactly like the one in the photo but in a different colour scheme, and does have the opposite size anomoly. I wish I could remember when I got it more accurately than “a few years ago”, probably between 2005 and 2008.
Very strange indeed! I understand sizing variances between brands, and even between styles… but within the same style? That’s insane!
That should say the blue and black 30D looks like the one in your photo.
Belated comment, but I had exactly the same experience with that bra. I ordered it because it was SO pretty and I wanted a plunge.
I am a 34GG (although when I was ordering I was still toying with my size due to weight gain and thought I was still a 34G). So I ordered a 34G. It was such a bad fit I started laughing. I couldn’t even begin to figure out how I’d get that thing to fit me.
I had at least an inch of space between the center gore and my boobs. I could look down and see so much empty space even if I fastened it on the tightest hook. I was busting out all over, and it was just ridiculous. It was so soft and nice and gorgeous, but I think I definitely needed to go down a band or two, and up several cup sizes. Or something. I’m afraid to try any more Lepels now.
Hey Janiece you’re so sweet! Thank you for your support! It’s eougnh for me that you wrote that I’m not sure I’d get anywhere to be honest as they’ll probably just state it’s the lingerie part of my business that is offensive, not the big-busted-ness. But agree, pathetic and quite insulting!!!
I’m generally a 32E, I love the Fiore balconette. I have it in most colors with matching shorts. I especially love that they offer something besides a thong. The shorts are wonderful. The bra fits well, I haven’t tried the plunge, it didn’t look like it offered much support.
Bra sizing is a real hit and miss affair it seems…. After being measured and trying umpteen different makes, including own brands from M and S, Debenhams and House of Fraser, I found that the Lepel 30D (or 30DD when am a little heavier/time of the month) is the perfect fit for me. The only time it has let me down is when I ordered the 30 D Fiore Balconette bra a few months ago. I sent it back because it was basically too big. The band fitted ok if I did it up on the tightest hook, but the cups were too big. The best bra fit-wise is the now discontinued (of course!) Mia Rose balconette and the Elizabeth plunge.
I just wish there was a proper standard measurement followed by all bra manufacturers for cup size (like there is for weights and measures) – and surely the band measurement should be what it says on the tin…? It seems however, that not only do different manufacturers have different measurements for the same cup size, but they all seem to have a dodgy tape measure for the band size! No two M and S branded bras are the same size – an Autograph 30D is much looser than a 30D in another M and S range. But to have the difference within the same brand and manufacturer (ie the Fiore balconette is bigger than the same size Mia Rose balconette) – just can’t believe it! Come on bra-makers – sort yourselves out!