I’ve been doing this work for over 7 years now and I’ve learned that a woman’s bra is as important to her comfort as is her breast form.
Every single one of us has her own requirements of a bra and when you add an external breast prosthesis into that equation, everything becomes just that little bit more complex...
We make 14 differently sized breast forms and consequently, different styles of bras work better for the different sizes of breast form. Here are the one's I recommend by size of the breast forms.
Smaller Sizes
Update in Progress
Mid range sizes
I’ve found two different bras to be very comfortable with our mid-range sizes of breast forms. They are both Intimo products.
Intimo are an Australian bra company who were the only ones who interested and willing to help Perfect Again when we started back in 2014.
Thank you Intimo!
They were wonderful and sent us 1000s of dollars-worth of free bras!!
Intimo have a foundation range and a seasonal range of bras among other garments they sell. Seasonal bras by their very nature change every season but our breast forms need a bra that is a perennial product and therefore always available.
The 2 styles of bras shown below are from their foundation range. One is smooth and the other is lacy.
Everyday Full Soft Cup Bra $69.50 - It comes in Black, White and Honey
Opulence Soft Cup Bra
I have 5 different colours of this bra and I love it! (However, just because I love it doesn’t mean it’ll work for you, I’m afraid. You must seek out the bra that’s just right for you.)
This is called an Opulence Soft Cup Bra and it’s $99.50 which is just about maximum I’d ever pay for a bra but then again, I have 5 of them so clearly, I think they’re worth it!
It comes in Black, White and Honey but every so often, Intimo bring it out in different
colourway and that’s when I leap on them! (They also come with matching knickers too, which is a lovely indulgence).
Our breast forms are teardrop shaped so they fit beautifully into the shape of the under-
wire of these two bras.
Larger Range Size
This is a Posture Bra. It works beautifully for out larger breast forms.
Bestform 531 It’s available in black, white and nude and it’s $59.99
Here are some recent words by a client who loves this bra.
“I originally wore the underwire bra that Julie recommended to pair with my Perfect Again breast forms. They were a great fit, but I regularly snap underwires. Even pre-mastectomy it happened regularly. I knew I needed a different style that would work for me. A targeted ad popped up in my feed on social media that looked like it was going to fill everything on my wish list. The Bestform 531 has wide shoulder straps, good back support, front closure and best of all, good structure without underwire. The staff at Bras in Paradise were very helpful in deciding the best size to fit me. I am very happy with the fit of the Bestform 531. They pair beautifully with my two No 11 Perfect Again breast forms.”
Helen from Perth is proud to be an advocate for normalising the wearing of breast forms after cancer surgery!
Customised Options
I know that most Australian women have hundreds of dollars’ worth of unused bras in their top drawers. One often buys a bra on impulse because it’s lovely or you’re been talked into it by the shop staff.
On your way home however, that bra scratches or it pinches and when you arrive home, you take the bra off and never put it on again and into the top drawer it goes. This is a crying shame and a terrible waste of money!
A solution may be a customised bra...
I have a very skilled colleague (whom I met along the way) called Linda Jobson who makes bras. She’s been doing this for 25 years and she can make any bra for any woman who has never before been able to find a good comfortable bra in her life!
She makes bras for women who have problem breasts and can make bras for Perfect Again clients as well.
Linda's Lingerie
This is a lovely bra that Linda has made. She’s located in Brisbane and carries our entire size library of breast forms in her premises.
She can also make full body lymphoedema garments and she makes garments for all
genders.
www.lindaslingerie.com.au 0402-990-159
Of course, a customised anything is more expensive than an off-the-shelf anything and Linda’s fixed base price is $170. This involves a fitting and making a customised pattern for your bra. There is a further cost over and above the base price starting from $160 and increasing with the size of the garment.
Everything Linda makes includes as many fittings as required and there is a 60-day adjustment period to ensure you achieve a beautifully comfortable unique bra from the materials of your choice.
Linda can do anything with bras, adjust existing bras, alter straps, repair hooks & eyes and even make a back-opening bra into a front-opening bra.
When you consider the hundreds of dollars’ worth of bras in those top drawers, it puts Linda’s prices into clear perspective.
Caring For Your Bra
At this point I must discuss the Care of a Bra. A good bra is a well-engineered garment and should be looked after carefully. Never, never, never put your bra in a washing machine or a tumble drier! It’s too easy for the hooks & eyes, bling or lace to be torn off and damaged.
Also, they should only be washed in warm water. If you hand wash your bra/s, they will reward you by lasting for years...maybe even 5 years, which makes an expensive bra very economical when amortised over those 5 years.
It takes me 4 minutes to hand-wash a bra in the shower and then if you dry that bra inside and far away from the harsh UV of our Australian sun, it will last you even longer. When you see those little threads of elastic appear on the band of your bra, they have been broken down by drying it in the sun!
Clearly, a bra is yours and you can do with it what you like, but my suggestions above will make even the cheapest bra last way longer.
I hope you have found some of this information helpful.
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