Is it the expense or is it just laziness? So it’s really hard to mass produce and they are expensive.”īut considering there are thousands of styles of sports shoes, equipment and activewear with technical elements stocked by mainstream brands, this argument is hard to swallow.
There’s metal elements, mesh, elastics, hook and eye and adjustment pieces. “While a crop top is extremely cheap to make, a technical bra will have up to 40 different elements to it. In defence of these brands, Tish tells me that creating a sports bra is a technically demanding design process. When looking at big, global corporations that don’t stock a sports bra above a size DD, it’s not hard to feel that the same conversation is happening across the sports world, too.
Instead of coming up with a solution, the plus-size range was shelved altogether. The argument around the cost of producing larger sizes is the same one the plus-size fashion space has been battling with for years.Īn article by Christina Binkley for Vogue Business chronicles the story of a chief fashion executive and creative director who deemed it “unfair” to share the cost of producing larger sizes across the regular range they already had. It’s expensive to hold a broad range of sizes in such a specialty product.” “So brands capitalise on that a little bit because it’s much easier for them to just produce a narrower size range. “Bra fitting is not an easily accessible thing in Australia so most women think that they are middle-of-the-bell-curve-size when they’re not,” Tish explains. Tish believes this is contributing to women not being able to participate in exercise properly as well as the lack of sizing among brands. But is it our fault?Īccording to a study by Sports Medicine Australia, 88 per cent of women wear a bra during exercise that doesn’t fit correctly. The pain of exercise, the frustration of not finding your size on the rack and even opting out of sport and exercise altogether because it’s just too hard. While Tish’s story is on the more extreme side, it’s a situation that most women above a size D would resonate with. Knowing how alienated she felt by the fashion industry, Tish set out to create her own store to help women navigate the world of bigger breasts and exercise. “That gave me back my confidence and desire to participate in life again but it’s a pretty extreme procedure for a 17-year-old to feel like that was the answer.” Wanting to play sport again, Tish opted for breast reduction surgery at just 17 years old. And back then there wasn’t specialty fitting and most of the bras we stock now just didn’t exist.” And all of a sudden at age 16 I just kind of withdrew from an active participation in life because of my boobs,” Tish tells me over the phone. Born out of a lack of options, She Science now stocks up to a size K and educates customers on the importance of buying bras that fit properly. Tish Tilly is the co-founder of She Science, Australia’s only store solely dedicated to sports bras. With all of the plus-size lines, racial, gender and sexual diversity we’ve seen in fashion campaigns and the sporting world over the last decade, why is finding sports bras for bigger boobs still so damn hard? Trying to find sports bras in a size G was like trying to make plans during COVID – frustrating and disappointing.įor more musings on big boobs in fashion, head here. How hard could it be? I’d get sent a bunch of bras, try them on and the article could go live at the end of the week. Considering I have to wear three layers of clothing to reduce even the slightest hint of bounce on a run, I jumped at the opportunity. Recently, my editor asked me to write an article road-testing sports bras for big boobs. Despite all the progress in the fashion inclusivity space, it’s an area that’s still lacking.
0 kommentar(er)
