A well fitted bra helps me out of my default slouch position and into a confident, tall posture. With all the running, jumping and kicking I do, it’s vital to have a sports bra that keeps everything in and isn’t a faff to do up.
“OK – who’s the girl with the seven-league boots?”
It’s surprising I love sport so much given my early trauma with Miss Macdonald the PE teacher. We’d ordered our hockey boots through the school, and the biggest pair had come out of the box first. Age 11, and already 5ft 8in, I wanted to crawl away into a hole.
But having the biggest feet in my class was trivial compared with having the smallest breasts. The number was OK, I could measure 36ins around my back. But I couldn’t rustle up any letters. I had no need for a bra at all.
Later, at my marathon running best, I still wasn’t at all bothered by bouncy things out front. They didn’t arrive till my daughter was born. Bless her, she’ll What’s App me now and say “Sorry, Ma” but it’s OK, darling, you’ve been worth it every day since.
So now I have a need for a bra that holds everything in when I’m running, jumping and boxing. I also, since Parkinson’s, need clothes without faffy fastenings (see Buttons and Bows). Posture-wise, slouching forward like Mrs Overall is a sign that my meds are wearing off. I constantly need to remind myself to lift my ribcage out of my knickers. A well fitted bra will help me do this.
Shopping nightmares
Time was when shopping for a bra left me stuck between the devil and the deep blue sea.
In person meant a 40-mile round trip to Debenham’s (remember them?). In the old days, they had trained specialists with tape measures round their necks, ready at the call of a bell to venture back to the shop floor for a different size.
But stocks dwindled and staff training standards slipped. Last time I had to drag a shop assistant out of China and Glass. She might have been a whiz on Royal Crown Derby but she clearly had no training in my kind of cup. And she left me pressing the bell in a small and chilly changing room with ill-fitting curtains.
Shopping online wasn’t much better because I never quite got the size right and I couldn’t see if things were bunching up at the back. I had to keep dropping returns into the Hermes pick-up in my local petrol station. At least it wasn’t 20 miles away.
In expert hands
For a couple of years I walked straight past a shop called Sassy Nix in my own town because I thought it was a ‘naughty knickers’ shop. In the window there was too much lace and too little knicker for my taste. Then someone tipped me off how helpful they had been with her mastectomy bra and how nothing had been too much trouble. I ventured in one day and quickly realised why Sarah Mossop (‘Sassy’ to her school friends) had built up such a local fan base for fitting all kinds of bras, for all kinds of women, for all kinds of needs.
Sarah doesn’t use a tape measure. She instinctively chooses something close to the size. I go into the spacious fitting room and discreetly pour myself into the cups, she does it up and adjusts the straps. It either fits or it doesn’t. If my size isn’t in stock, it will be in a few days. She offers help but allows me space. We have a jolly good chinwag which is therapy in itself. I’m confident that like Fight Club, what happens in Sassy Nix stays in Sassy Nix.
Sarah says:
“Support isn’t just about finding the right bras for my clients – it’s about listening, understanding, and making them feel at ease. When a woman has a bra that fits perfectly, she moves with her head held high and her bosoms on full beam. I uplift spirits as well as busts for my Northern beauties – I say, if you want to go South, take the train!”
That’s why I’m keeping it local.
Play > Lifted > Lighthouse Family
https://open.spotify.com/track/1HdoZ6Ql7nx5HfQrlVYtoM?si=0d38710a7c3b4044
Pictured: Freya Active Sonic
0 Comments