Tomima - Lingerie and Underwear Expert

Last week I had the great pleasure to spend a fabulous and informative afternoon with Liels George. Over the last six years, Liesl has been the designer for Goddess bras and now the new elomi bras. Born and raised in South Africa, and currently living in the UK, Liels is simply lovely. As she walked toward me to shake my hand, I was struck by her Cleopatra coloring, and her buxom shape. "How fabulous!" I thought to know that the designer for these full figure bra lines is herself full figured.

I’ve always known that Goddess bras were the first full figure bra line in the United States. And, their success has sustained the test of time. So, I wanted to know what Goddess, and now elomi, have done and continue to do to ensure that their bras are some of the best fitting full figure bras in the world. Liels was more than kind to share her knowledge.

Underwires - Starting with the underwires, Goddess and elomi underwires have a wider sweep or a longer diameter. Most underwire bras come up on the sides in front of the arm. However, a full figure girl has more breast tissue under her arm. This common wire style could rest on sensative breast tissue and cause pain. By opening up the wire further, and going farther under the arm, the Goddess and elomi underwires scoop up all a woman’s breast tissue and pull it into the bra cup. As Liels in her lovely British accent explained, this tends to have a minimizing effect and a better overall breast shape. She also uses very strong underwires. Liesl made the interesting point that when a woman complains of her underwires sticking outward in the middle of her chest, it can also be caused by cheap and flimsy underwires not being able to withstand the weight of larger breasts.

Soft cup Bras - I then asked Liesl about her design of soft cup bras. She had some very interesting insights. A soft cup bra, she feels, is popular because women who have had a bad experience with uncomfortable underwires feel this is their only option. In truth, she said, if the woman was able to get into her correct underwire size, she would probably stay with an underwire. After all, underwires will always give you a more defined silhouette. However, there are a lot of women out there who want soft cup bras, so she will continue to design them. The elomi bra line, though, will only consist of underwire bras for now. An additional point about soft cup bras. With a soft cup bra, it is apparenlty impossible to get the center panel or gore to lay flat against the sternum. Only an underwire can achieve this.

Bra Straps - since Liesl’s arrival, all bras by Goddess and elomi  have been designed with restricted stretch elastic. Liesl explains that a rigid strap gives great support. but, when a woman moves, if the strap doesn’t have some give, it will pull or get out of place and be uncomfortable. On the other end, an elastic strap will give too much movement and thus reduce support. Also, a stretch elastic tends to curl into a "U" shape when stretched. This creates an even narrower strap on the shoulder which digs in. Restrictive stretch straps are wide and comfortable. They don’t curl, and provide just enough stretch to allow for movement without feeling bound. Oh, and as for those padded straps, Liesl has some designs that incorporate them, but she is not a fan. A padded strap reduces the length of strap adjustability. And, this limitation can prevent women from buying an otherwise fantastic product.

Bra Backs - Liesl prefers the leotard back styling. A leotard back design incorporates the strap into the back and gives a rounded or leotard back style to a bra rather than a common camisole back. There are several reasons for this design choice. According to Liesl, this design helps to reduce the  bra back from creeping up your back and the subsequent back fat this may cause. But secondly, and more important,  leotard back styling helps to better distribute the breast weight across and down the back rather than just at the shoulders. This goes a long way towards increasing comfort for full figure bra wearers.

Cup Design - Liesl is credited with coming up with the 4 section cup design seen in both the Goddess and elomi bra lines. As she stated, the best supporting cup will always be a multi-section cup. However, the 4th section Liesl has added is along the side. Rather than putting a support panel inside the cup, she has incorporated the panel into the cup construction itself. This helps to push breast tissue forward and further reduces breast spillage out the sides. She also made a very interesting point about the differences between US women and UK women. Over in the UK, there isn’t a thought about whether bra seams show through their clothing. It’s only in the US that women are obsessed about seamless bras.

On June 18, 2004, the Wall Street Journal posted an article on their front page about thongs "as soft as butter." And from that day forward, Hanky Panky jumped from a small boutique line of lingerie into the mainstream. They sell more than 3 million thongs a year.

Gale Epstein and Lida Orzeck are co-owners of the Hanky Panky brand out of New York City. Intially a lounge and sleepwear manufacturer, Gale, the designer became fascinated with some stretch lace trim samples she received from a supplier. She fashioned a waistband out of it, and attached a thong shape to it, and their now-famous Hanky Panky thong was born.

When you ask Gale and Lida about thongs, they have quite a bit to share. They feel they have been able to convert so many women into wearing thongs because they overcame the biggest obstacle — they designed a thong that was both sexy and comfortable.

So, here’s Gale and Lida’s advice when looking for a comfortable thong.

Step 1: Face your fears. Women must get beyond their mental block about how they’ll look in it. "If you judge the appropriateness of any garment you wear by backing into a mirror in a brightly lit room to examine every square inch of your posterior, you probably won’t have a stitch in your wardrobe" say the two. Instead they suggest treating yourself a little more kindly and getting beyond the judgment stage.

Step 2: Find the thongs made in the softest and most comfortable fabric. Gale chose streachable lace when designing their thongs because it is so forgiving, adjusts to your size, moves with you, and yet is beautiful. So, pick up the thong, make sure it is very lightweight and feels soft everywhere, including the trim. Then, stretch it. A thong should not have a binding edge of elastic.

Step 3: Find a gusset that fits. The gusset is the lining of a thong. It must be cotton. But most important, the gusset area shouldn’t be too short or too narrow. The gusset must be wide enough, soft enough and non-bulky enough to lay lat against your body when stretched. The sides of the gusset must also not roll in on the sides; otherwise you’re straddling an uncomfortable ridge of fabric.

Step 4: Buy one, wash it, and wear it. After your test drive, evaluate the comfort. If there was some part of the thong that gave you discomfort, figure out what it was. Then, use this thong as a guide for purchasing your next trial thong.

The Hanky Panky ladies feel that following these simple 4 steps will get you to your goal of finding a comfortable and sexy thong you’ll want to wear for every day.

Sports bras are really in a category all their own. You see them less in lingerie departments, and more in the active sportswear stores. This is because sports bras are all about performance. And that performance is their ability to reduce breast bounce. It’s a pretty standard occurrence that a sports bra will declare itself to be one of 3 support levels: light, medium or maximum in its breast support.

Maximum support sports bras are claiming their design will keep your breasts supported during high impact sports such as running, tennis, basketball, etc. This is all great, but do we really know if a bra claiming to be maximum support is doing its job? Before answering this question, let’s talk about breast bounce. The leading researcher in this field is Dr. Joanna Scurr — Professor in the Department of Sport & Exercise Science at the University of Portsmouth in the UK.

Dr. Scurr has done extensive research and testing in this field. Her findings are rather interesting. The first interesting point about breast bounce during running is that breasts move in 3 directions: up and down, side to side, and in and out. And, because of the alternating movement of our arms, the up and down and side to side movement looks like a sideways figure eight.

This movement happens both with and without a bra on. Testing 20 D cup women (ranging from 32D-36D), Dr. Scurr was able to measure the movement. Without wearing any bra, these women’s breasts had a total movement of 15.4 centimeters or a little over 6". That’s a lot of breast movement! Dr. Scurr than set out to find if this breast bounce was reduced significantly by wearing various bras. What she found is that breast movement reduced by 49% just by wearing an average everyday bra, and that wearing an encapsulated high impact sports bra reduced breast bounce movement by up to 73%.

Given this research, can one conclude that all maximum support sports bras will reduce your breast bounce by 73%? Well, HerRoom put all their 35 sports bras claiming to be maximum support to the test. With a 34D model running in place, a still video was shot of the model both in front and to the side. The results of "The Bounce Test" showed that the label of "maximum support" or "High Impact" on these bras did not guarantee a consistent reduction in breast bounce during high impact sports. The poor performers included:

	Champion Double Dry Seamless Sports Bra 2893
	Donna Karan Casual Active Underwire Sports Bra 35160
	Lily of France In Action Sport Underwire Bra 2111210
	Moving Comfort Sera Seamless Sports Bra 705360

Another point Dr. Scurr observed is that encapsulation style sports bras reduced breast bounce more than the traditional compression style sports bras. The Bounce Test proved this out, with the best performers being encapsulation, or a combination of encapsulation and compression. The best performers included:

	Enell Sport Bra 100
	Lunaire Coolmax Underwire Sports Bra 11111
	Anita Active Front Close Sports Bra 5523
	Goddess Sports Bra Soft Cup 5056
	Moving Comfort Melbourne Racerback Sports Bra 720960
	Panache PS Sports Bra 2001

For a more complete viewing of all the Bounce Test videos, visit HerRoom.com and click on the sport department.