

With the Cleo Minnie and Freya Daydreamer being the only two longlines in my bra drawer(s) at the moment, and both being unreviewed, I felt like it would only be appropriate to do them a little joint review. It’ll definitely be interesting to see a bit of a comparison between two quite different styles. I’ve always been a little obsessed with longline bras, both because they’re super pretty and because they tend to provide more comfort around the rib cage, but they can be fairly difficult to find in smaller band and larger cup sizes – not impossible though, and to be fair, there are more hitting the market nowadays.

First up, my current absolute favourite bra: the Cleo Minnie Longline in a 30GG. I bought this from Figleaves’ sale range, and I’m surprised to see that it’s actually still there at £20.30, although only in limited sizes at the moment.

Appearance & Shape



I was especially drawn to the Cleo Minnie Longline because of the length of the band. I know, that sounds silly – of course a longline is going to be long, right?! Not so right actually – take a look at the first image in this post. The Freya longline isn’t what I’d call a true longline, but the Cleo is. It reaches almost right down to my natural waist. I also loved the bright colour and polka dot pattern. I’m not always into bright and young pieces in my lingerie any more, but this one really spoke to me. In fact, I added it to my wishlist immediately after seeing all the Moda posts right back before it was released!

The balconette cups are constructed from 3 pieces of light foam with 2 seams which produces a very rounded effect. It has a pretty crochet style lace trim along the top of the cups and a little bow on the gore. The gore itself is fairly wide and high. As I said before, it’s got that longer longline style with a nice thick band of elastic at the bottom.

The band fastens with 3 sets of 6 hooks – plenty of hooks! I did find it difficult to fasten these at first and ended up occasionally having to do the fasten in front and swivel thing which I’m not a fan of, but I’ve got the technique down for fastening all the hooks now. The straps are half adjustable, with the front part covered in the same fabric as the rest of the bra.

One detail that I absolutely love that really just makes this bra special for me is the inside around the underwire channels where there are the words: “Crafted for fit: styled for fun”. It’s just one of those details that makes a big difference!

Sizing, fit & comfort





I decided to go slightly up in size for this one with a 30GG. I believe that was because I couldn’t spot a 28 in a size near enough mine, and I went up in the cup size by 1 (from my usual 28GG) as I have a couple of other excellent fitting bras from Cleo and Panache in 28Hs, so I thought I’d do better with the sister size of that. Luckily it fits perfectly in the cup – I’m definitely glad I sized up. I wouldn’t say that it runs small, but rather that I’m in between a 28GG and 28H, and this style just happened to fit well in the larger 30GG. The cups are slightly more shallow at the bottom for me than I’d like (although I’ve come to realise this is the case for me in the vast majority of bras), but the top edge of the cup is nice and open, providing plenty of uplift with no overspill. I love the shape that this cup provides both by itself and under clothes.

The band though is slightly on the bigger side as might be expected having sized up from a 28 band to a 30. I am able to wear it comfortably on the loosest hooks still though, and do so the majority of the time. But if I’m feeling like I want the band slightly tighter, I do have a little bit of a trick, as you can see above. With all the hooks tighter, the cups get pulled a little too shallow for me and feel slightly uncomfortable. It’s also important to note I have a funny rib flare too. But fortunately one of the positives of a longline is that you can quite easily fasten the hooks onto different rows so that the gently flares outwards too. I’m not sure if it’s a “done thing”, but it works for me!

One thing I do find with this bra is that the gore is just ever so slightly too wide for my close-ish set shape, so it pushes my breasts apart slightly and the top of the underwire sits slightly on the tissue there. It’s only noticeable once I take the bra off and you can see the marks it’s left there. Fortunately it’s not too much of an issue as it only becomes uncomfortable after a very long day of wear (as I recently discovered) – a normal day’s wear is just fine.

The other thing I love about this bra is that I think with the length and good coverage it provides, I think it can be worn suitably as outerwear. I haven’t done so (except in front of the mirror), but I do definitely want to!

And onto the Freya Daydreamer in a 30G. I bought this last year from my local Leia shop, simply because it was the first longline I’d come across in my size and I just had to try it. This wasn’t in the sale (boo!) so I paid the full price (£36) for it, but it’s now an older style so is available at reduced prices in several places.

Appearance & Shape



The Freya Daydreamer longline is a lot less of a longline than the Cleo Minnie, as I mentioned before. In fact, I probably wouldn’t really call it a true longline, rather just a bra with a slightly wider band. I think, but I’m not definite, that the issue is that the band is “eaten” up by the cups; in smaller cup sizes, the longline band appears to be longer. Nevertheless, it is still very pretty and nice to have a slightly wider band than usual.

The cups are the same balconette style as the Cleo Minnie, with 3 light foam pieces (more flimsy than the Minnie) and 2 vertical seams. I’d say that the top cup edge on the Freya Daydreamer is slightly more closed and lower than the Minnie (although do bear in mind it can’t be a direct comparison as it’s a cup size smaller). While the cups do produce a nice smooth round effect, it’s a slightly more natural shape than the Cleo Minnie, most likely because the foam cup is a lighter one so doesn’t provide quite as much uplift. I don’t generally prefer one over the other, rather I find that they work for different outfits and situations.

The gore is ever so slightly lower than the Cleo Minnie and isn’t quite as wide. I do like the decoration of the 3 slightly neon buttons on the gore rather than a bow too as it’s just a bit different and a bit less feminine (generally, I do love feminine details, but sometimes I prefer slightly more androgynous details too).

Although the band isn’t quite as deep on the Freya Daydreamer, it has the same number of hooks as the Cleo Minnie meaning I can still do the funny fastening up thing if I like.

The straps are covered in a complementary fabric to the full frame and cups of the bra, with multicoloured polka dots. And the fabric of the bra itself is one of its main draws for most customers, with an abstract “tattoo” floral print and loopy script decorating it.

Sizing, fit & comfort





I chose the 30G in the Freya Daydreamer longline because, in reality, I didn’t have a lot of choice. Since I always wear a 28 band in Freya (they generally run large), and since I was mostly wearing a 28G at the time, I picked up this one to try in a 28G first. It was apparent immediately that it was too small as I was spilling out of the cups. The band also felt a little tight, although I’m pretty certain that’s due to the fact that the cups were too small. I then tried this 30G and the cups were a much better fit but the band now felt slightly too loose, although it was bearable on the tightest hooks. As you can see, the cups are now definitely more on the small side and I’d probably be better with a larger cup size in this one, but unfortunately, there wasn’t an option for that as the G cup is the largest they go, boo! It’s not disastrously small though, and I’d say it’s also likely due to the shallow shape of the cup that I get the bursting over the top effect, so it’s definitely wearable as it is right now.

Comfort wise, it does fairly well. The size is comfortable to wear and the materials are soft, but unfortunately the band can be somewhat troublesome in that it immediately flips or rolls upwards on me – in fact, it was difficult to get these pictures without that rolling! So this bra really doesn’t act as a longline for me since the band spends the vast majority of its time rolled up against the wires. I don’t get this with the Cleo Minnie in the slightest, so it’s a shame!

The Cleo Minnie is available to buy (mostly at sale prices) at various sites including Figleaves, Simply Be, Mish, Dahlia, Amazon, and My Curves and Me.

The Freya Daydreamer is available to buy in a few places (mostly at sale prices again) including Dahlia, Bra Stop, Belle Lingerie and Leia (which is where I initially bought it from.)