Figleaves Juliette Padded & Non-Padded Bra Reviews: 32GG

Back at the beginning of summer, I was starting to struggle with bras. While I was lucky to have a big enough selection in my drawers that I could pull out some of my deeper or bigger banded bras that were saved for bigger times of the month like my Cleo Mimi and Cybele bras, it was the wires I was at first struggling with. In my pre-pregnancy 28GG/30G size, I was always striving to find bras with narrow wires; that changed quickly when I got pregnant and I found I was first expanding sideways (as well as outwards!).

I knew it wouldn’t be long before the outwards expansion really began too, and I was already starting to feel a little uncomfortable in tighter bands (just like tighter clothing in general had started bothering me), so Figleaves offered a few new bras for me to try. Here’s a closer look at two of them by Figleaves’ own brand that are available all the way from B-GG cup sizes and 30-38.

Figleaves sent me the Figleaves Juliette Lace Non-Padded bra in mint/nude (currently £18.20) in a 32GG and the Figleaves Juliette T Shirt bra in nude (£26) in a 32GG.

Figleaves Juliette Lace Non-Padded Bra

I have a LOT of love for this bra. Most of the bras I’ve acquired recently have been more on the functional side than the pretty, but this one manages to remain delicate and dainty even in DD+ sizes. It reminds me a lot of my old favourite Mimi Holliday Tilt-A-Whirl maxi bra with the pretty lace cup and playful aqua/candy pink colour combinations, although with a slightly cheaper price tag – currently reduced from £26 to £18.20, so go, go, go!

The cups are non-padded, non-lined and quite sheer in this bra. They are separated into 3 cup pieces with a standard lower cup split into two and the strap joining the upper cup piece. The lace used across the cups and bridge isn’t as delicate as the Mimi bra I’m comparing it to, but at the lower price point, it’s still a very good option.

In terms of fit, the 32GG is doing very well for me right now. As you can probably tell, my quite short torso has meant that my bump is, at 22 weeks, already quite high up and causing my ribcage to expand! The 32 band has a good amount of stretch, meaning that I started on the tightest hooks back at around 12 weeks, and now, 10 weeks later, I’m still wearing it here with room to grow.

The cups are quite shallow, meaning that the gore isn’t lying entirely flat on me (even though the cups fit well) as I tend to need a deeper shape, however this is something I expected as the Figleaves Juliette bra isn’t designed solely as a fuller bust bra – the cups are simply scaled up from a B to a GG depending on need. The wires are the perfect width for me right now, even though previously I would imagine they’d have been too wide.

I’ve worn this bra a ridiculous amount of times over the past 10 or so weeks – having only a limited amount of bras and a honeymoon in 30C+ weather meant I was desperate for unlined designs to keep me cool and comfortable. This did an excellent job and I was really pleased to have this with me on honeymoon.

Figleaves Juliette T Shirt bra

As well as choosing a “pretty” bra from Figleaves, I knew I would need a good basic one in my expanding size too, so I picked one out that would work as a nude on my skin tone and would go well under the hot weather clothes I needed for honeymoon. Fortunately, the Juliette range came to my aid again with this T shirt bra!

Even though the bra is a functional one, it still has pretty details which elevate it from simple and basic T shirt bra to something that I actually like to wear. The band is decorated with scalloped lace, as are the outer edges of the cup.

The Juliette T shirt bra is made with moulded cups – this can be a tricky fit on some people, but I normally get on well with them somehow. This time around, the moulded cup is a little shallow for me, meaning the higher gore doesn’t sit entirely flat on my sternum again. At first, the 32GG cups were a little on the large side with some gapping at the top and the gore still remained sat away from my chest wall, which is how I can tell it’s a slight shape mismatch rather than the cups being too small.

Despite this, the bra is very comfortable and exactly what I’ve been needing the past couple of months. In addition to the hot weather clothes I wore on honeymoon (ie. strappy tops and light coloured/lightweight clothes), I’ve also been wearing fitted maternity tops since coming home which seem to require a smooth bra underneath.

Now I’ve started the pregnancy reviews, stay tuned for some actually maternity bra reviews coming very soon!

PS: The knickers here are a wonderful pair from Neon Moon which are doing very well at seeing me through early pregnancy so far – sadly the matching triangle bralette isn’t faring quite so well with my bigger bra size, I think I’ll be waiting until afterwards to wear that again!