Get the right support!
Apr 21 2005 By The Journal
Thousands of women across the North are wearing bras which are too small for them and are damaging their health and self-confidence.
Hannah Davies finds out about the importance of wearing the right bra.
There are around 80,000 women in the North-East alone who are a D-cup or over but many of them remain convinced that they are a C, B or even an A-cup.
Too-small bras can lead to back pain, a lack of self-confidence, headaches, poor posture, and even an abscess.
But there is a simple solution - a properly fitting bra.
As any viewer of Trinny and Susannah's What Not to Wear knows, the right bra can do wonders for a woman's self-esteem and figure.
Michelle Thompson, manager of Newcastle's Bravissimo store, which is celebrating its first anniversary in the city, explains: "We've had women come into the store and start crying after being put into a correctly-fitting bra for the first time. People suffer from back pain and straps digging into their shoulders.
"A number of women with badly-fitting bras have their breasts drooped low. Wearing the right bra can hoist them up where they should be and take inches off your waist.
"It really is sometimes a life-changing experience. I've seen women leave the store walking taller with visibly more self- confidence."
The visitor book at the Grey Street store - which specialises in women who are a D-cup and above - confirms this. One customer writes: "After a very depressing consultation with a plastic surgeon about having a reduction I have now decided to keep my breasts and dress them well with Bravissimo."
Another writes: "My confidence has returned," while another comment reads: "You have changed my life. I have never felt so good in a bra."
Michelle says her customers range from teenage girls, self-conscious because they cannot fit into the bikinis in teen fashion stores, to 70-year-old women who have never worn a correctly-fitting bra in their entire life.
"There were 14 of us who started in the shop together last year and all of us were wearing the wrong-sized bra," admits Michelle.
"There are a lot of misconceptions about what the sizes mean - for example people think a 36 means 36 inches - when it is nothing of the sort.
"Petite women also often think their cup sizes are totally different. We have a number of people who come in wearing 36B bras and they'll go out wearing something like a 30F.
"A proper bra should not cut in anywhere and the weight from your front should be taken by the back - not by the straps. It should lie flush against your skin and to get proper wear out of it you should start off on the slackest hook and, as the bra stretches, move it up onto higher levels.
"A lot of women do not get the support they need from their bra because they are just wearing the wrong size."
* For more information visit www.bravissimo.com
Page 2: 'It's all about making women feel good'
