Reviews: Natori, In Which I Have 3 Rather Epic Fails

There was a great sale on Amazon in Natori Plus, a brand I have had some success with when it was formerly called N by Natori. So I bought 3 styles: True Decadence, both the cut-and-sew and the contour versions; and Pure Allure. I went with a 42H in all but the True Decadence contour, which was 40H. 

The well-fitting bras I have now by this brand are non-padded, all in 40H. I went up a band size hoping to gain more space in the cup, particularly the inner and top. Um, that is not what happened. At all. I was pretty shocked at how off the fit was, in all cases. 

The Pure Allure was the biggest surprise. The cup is huge; far bigger than one cup up. And, in what is a hopeful feature for full-on-tops, the lace mesh overlap is incredibly stretchy and loose. I literally cannot recall the last time I had a cup that was loose on top; I may well be able to wear a 38H (US/Euro) in this, i.e., a cup smaller than my normal size of 38GG (UK). 

See the crazy amount of loose material!

And gapping! 

The bra itself is beautiful and I like the way the thinnish foam does not completely cover the top of the cup, but leaves room for that magical stretch lace. The band runs true to size for Natori, which means it was loose on the tightest hooks for me, and I prefer a looser band, so that's saying something.

I tried the True Decadence contour next. This time in my usual Natori sister-size of 40H. Cup was huge again! Band even looser. 

Wow. These fit unlike any other Natori I've owned. I don't believe this would have worked in a band size down either; there appears to be a shape mismatch as well. So. At this point I thought perhaps the padded Natoris simply won't work for me. Maybe they are sized completely differently. They are certainly shaped very differently in the cup. 

So, with a sense of relief, I opened the non-padded True Decadence style. And...Fail #3. I couldn't believe it. The first pic doesn't look that bad. 

Oh but wait.

There it is. The bizarre shape Bras I Hate & Love named "Elf Shoe". WTF, Natori? Really? There is a boob shape that sharply projects outward in the shape of a pointy elf foot, but only in a 2-inch area? That is an inch of empty space in a crazy angle that just makes no anatomical sense. I mean...I...just...I've got nothin'. 

Here are pics with my hand where the bra expects a lot of big projection to be:

Also, all of the cups jumped a great deal in height, rather than depth, when I went up a band size. So I'm not certain that my usual 40H would even work in these newer styles. The cups seem to be intended for a very shallow, tall shape - with a sharply angled, pointing toward the ceiling projected area right above the nipple. 

I am tempted to try the Pure Allure and the non-padded True Decadence in a 38H, to see if the cups scale correctly shape-wise in that size. The good news is that the sizing for the new Natori Plus appears to be much more generous than the N by Natori, which ran around 1/2 cup small. And I may be able to purchase my usual 38 without sister-sizing at all.  

However, I don't think I will bother trying any more of the fully padded styles; the shape is just not compatible with mine. It reminds me of the Fantasie T-Shirt bra scaled for Jessica Rabbit proportions.