You might remember the photos from my last trip toBravissimo, when I tried on the Masquerade Rhea in a 30H and fell in love. The shape was absolutely stellar but unfortunately I couldn’t stomach the high price. So I scoured the internet for a 30H Rhea at a lower price. I guess I was asking for a miracle because I couldn’t find any lower-price Rheas in that size. So I broadened my scope and looked for other Masquerade bras with a similar construction, and I happened upon the Delphi in 30H on Amazon.co.uk on sale for about half price.
I don’t think the Delphi is even close to as cute as the Rhea—I mean, why would you take a satin bra and then cover it with mesh on the cups?—but the shape and support are the same.
The most interesting feature of this bra is the straps. They are very thick in all directions. I knew they widened at the top, but I had always pictured it being a thin layer of fabric that was sort of gathered at the cups and spread out at the top of the shoulders. Instead, these straps are made of a very thick foam. I have somewhat mixed feelings about this. On the one hand, it’s impossible to wear this bra with a sleeveless or strappy top, as I do with most of my other bras. But on the other hand, the wide foamy straps are a miracle when it comes to comfort. I wore this bra for 48 hours straight on an assortment of delayed international flights and it didn’t hurt me at all. I don’t know if Masquerade designed the Delphi with air travel in mind, but it certainly works for that.
The cups on the Delphi, like the cups on the Rhea, have a three-section vertical-seam construction.
This construction is awesome for giving a super-lifted, rounded shape. It also gives lots of openness at the top of the cup which is great for full-on-top boobs. It’s the same construction used in the Curvy Kate Showgirl bras, but the Rhea and Delphi have more openness at the bottom of the cups whereas the Showgirl bras are very flat there. That’s the reason a lot of people need to size up in the Showgirl range. I perfectly fit a 30H in the Rhea/Delphi but a 30HH is a tiny bit small on me in the Showgirl bras. So I would say that Masquerade definitely runs a little bigger in the cups than Showgirl. (I wear a 30GG Freya Deco, but that is a completely different cup shape so not as useful in comparison.)
Although the three-section vertical-seam construction leads to a really round shape, it also has one pitfall that I have noticed—it tends to make my boobs really center-heavy in a way that they usually aren’t. This makes sense if you think about where the lift is coming from. In a 3-piece balconette construction, the strap connects to the section that starts in the middle of the cup, so the pull comes across the cups and pulls the boobs both up and out.
But in the vertical-seam construction, the lift comes more from the outer section which pulls straight up, so the boobs are pressed more towards the center.
I suppose this would be great if you are looking for increased cleavage, but I personally find it annoying because it’s not just the cleavage, but the whole boob that ends up in the middle. It makes otherwise modest clothing a lot more showy and so I always have to be aware of what clothes I wear with the Delphi (as I do with the Showgirl bras). It is a minor annoyance in an otherwise great bra and seam construction. There is no such thing as a perfect bra and every bra comes with compromises. With the Delphi, the compromises are relatively minor.
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