Lorna Jane Kudos F/L Tight & Portia Bra in Hyper Lime!

These items are courtesy of Lorna Jane!  But of course, the opinion and review given are entirely my own.  :)

I was contacted by someone from Lorna Jane a little while ago saying that they'd like to send me a top and a bottom of my choice to review.  As you all know, I discovered Lorna Jane earlier this year, and have since bought quite a few pieces.  I'm very happy with pretty much every Lorna Jane item I own, so I was beyond excited that someone from their corporate office found my blog and made me such a generous offer!

Now the hard part... picking out the items!  I debated between a tank and a bra as the top.  I have noticed that most Lorna Jane tanks do not come with built in shelf bra.  But they make an amazing bra!  They use a pretty substantial (removable) cup to put inside the bras, so they are almost like push up bras rather than most sports bras that smash you down and give you a uni-boob.  When I saw the Portia Bra in hyper lime, I immediately fell in love with it.  The style is simple, it's exactly like the black Lorna Jane Pammy bra that I have.  But the color and pattern are so pretty!  It's made of a very bright, highlighter type of color in between green and yellow as the top mesh part.  The fabric underneath the mesh is white/cream which helps tone down the overall color of the bra a little, but it's still a very eye-catching piece.

Same as the Pammy bra, the straps can be clipped together in the back which will ensure they stay hidden under racerback tanks.  Or you can let them out like a normal bra which works well under scooped back tanks.  I appreciate the versatility.

I think the color on these web photos are a bit brighter than it is in real life.  My picture below shows slightly greener, and looks more true to real life color to me.  I got it in size S to get a slightly looser fit than the Pammy bra I have which I got in XS.  

As the bottom piece, I looked through all their tights and came upon these Kudos Full Length tights that I somehow missed before!  I'm pretty sure I would have bought them already if I had seen them!  Unfortunately, I think I got the last pair sent to me so they are out of stock online now.  I did pop into a Lorna Jane store a week ago or so, and saw that these were still carried in the store.  So if you live near one, I'd definitely recommend going in to try them on, because they are awesome!  Look how cool they look... the design on the side is pretty wild!  It looks almost reptilian to me.  Very cool and different from anything else I have.

The Lorna Jane writing on the back of the waistband is gold!

These tights are from the Lorna Jane Black line, which represents the premium range of their products.  The two other items I have that I know for sure are from the black line are the Tempo Excel tank and Mosaic F/L tight.  The quality and design of both items really do not disappoint.  These Kudos tights are very similar in fit and feel to the Mosaic tights.  They are more comfortable to workout in than tights from their regular line (like my Marvel 3/4 tight) because they have flat locked seams.  The material is nice and thick, and definitely pass the bend-over test.  They feel similar to Lululemon's luon but thicker and offer way more compression.  They are my preferred pants for weight lifting, especially for leg workouts.  I feel like the compression helps stabilizing me and I am able to squat heavier and deeper.  The material is also way more durable feeling than my delicate Lululemon items.  Quite often, I do these hip thrusts with 135lb barbell resting on my legs.  It's always tricky putting on and taking off the barbell without snagging whatever I'm wearing.  I love that Lorna Jane tights are made of substantial enough material that I don't have to constantly worry that I might snag or rip open my tights.  I do find that their thicker material can be a little hot for indoor cardio though.

Same as my other Lorna Jane tights, I got these Kudo tights in size XS and it is a great fit.  I'm 5'5, and the length of these is perfect on me with no excess material pooling at the bottom.  I think the web photos represent the details of the tights pretty well, but I took a bunch more pictures anyway!  Oh, and I didn't even mean to do this when I picked the items, but the tights and bra match perfectly since a portion of the color in the tights is green fading to yellow!

Here they are worn together!

The waistband is wide and there is a tie inside for you to adjust the fit.  The wide waistband helps cover up muffin tops, but you can also wear it folded down which gives a lower rise and shows the tie on the outside:

More close up shots:

Not sure if you can see, but the outside of the legs have the reptilian looking gold/green/yellow fade, but the inner legs have a white strip with dark blue design on it as well:

So even though there are many colors in these tights, they actually can be paired with many different tops.  Other than the generic black/white/gray, you can also wear them with a similar darker shade of blue as the inner design, and of course any combinations of green and yellow shades.  You can go even crazier if you want and pair them with a completely different colored top!  But that's not really my style.  I typically like pops of color, or focusing on letting that one special piece shine.

Here's an example of these tights and bra with my Lululemon cool racerback in wish blue (pretty much perfect match of color to the blue in the tights), and black/white Nike Free Bionics.  I also wore them as 7/8 length tights by just pulling them up a little and folding the excess material over (it's not cold enough here in SoCal yet to wear full length tights!):

I'm so happy with my new items!  They are both gorgeous, unique looking and great to move in!  I've said this before, so at the risk of sounding like a broken record, I am very happy that new competition has moved into the market for women's athletic wear.  Lorna Jane makes some very nice workout gear, and I'm beginning to see more and more girls at my gym sporting this brand.  Although I do wish they would update their return policy to something less strict (currently you can only exchange items bought in store).  I know that when I spend this amount of money on workout wear, I'd like the freedom to be able to change my mind.  Most US stores are very good about letting customers make returns, and I did hear from a girl at the Santa Monica Lorna Jane store that this issue has been tabled for discussion in the US.  So I'm hoping changes are coming soon!  But anyways, this brand is definitely worth checking out if you haven't already!  They also have a blog where they write about fitness and nutrition - Move Nourish Believe.  It's a fun read, check it out!

Big thanks to Lorna Jane for sending me these awesome items!  They are dearly loved and will be used a lot.  :)