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BRA DRAMA AND THE CALENDAR GIRLS

Looking their best in new style bras!

The famous Calendar Girls look great naked but they can't quite get it right when it comes to putting their bras back on! Our search for the perfect bra proves to be an uplifting experience for these model girls.

It's every woman's worst shopping nightmare - visiting the lingerie department and attempting to find a bra that fits.

Even the most basic bras are complex, and necessitate fiddling around with straps, hooks and oddly shaped cups.

Modern bras are designed using technology and product engineering that Boeing or NASA would be proud of.

Beryl from the Calendar Girls goes bra-less by choice as she can't find a bra to fit properly

But despite this appliance of science, eighty per cent of women in Britain are still wearing the wrong bra. Many bras don't fit at all and others are simply the wrong shape or size.

With 拢647 million being spent on bras in the UK alone last year, it's surprising that we're prepared to put up with the situation.

Worse still, badly fitting bras can lead to poor posture, neck and back problems, as well as looking unflattering and lumpy under clothes.

Bra-bra-bra...

Many women are baffled by the art of bra selection - it's a minefield out there.

A big decision - how to find a bra that actually fits

Questions like 'what's the difference between a padded, underwired bra, a balconette and the push-up, plunge model?' loom large.

And then there's the tricky matter of whether we should be picking a AA, B or a D cup?

So what's a girl to do? Inside Out set out to provide the perfect fit with a little help from north Yorkshire's Calendar Girls and Sadie the Bra Lady who runs a specialist lingerie shop in Consett.

Bosom Buddies

Step in Sadie, queen of bras - she's been in the business of fitting brassieres for twenty years.

Her approach goes back to basics, "We take the lady and put her bust back where it started, and leave it there.

"I can just look at somebody and know they're wearing the wrong size. I can usually tell what size they should be in," she says.

"Eighty per cent of people are wearing the wrong size bra and it's because the measurement guide doesn't work.

"There are thousands of bras in this land which are neither use nor ornament."

Sadie starts by looking at the size of a woman's back and how their current bra sits on their shoulders.

It's common to find straps digging into the shoulder area, leaving nasty ridges and grooves!

Then it's a case of fitting the right bra and checking support at the front.

Sadie isn't a fan of tape measures - it's more a case of a sensing the right fit and look.

Hello Girls!

The Calendar Girls are all uncomfortable with their current bras and their oldest member Beryl is so disillusioned that she doesn't even wear one anymore.

So it's Sadie's job to make them feel good - the right size and amount of uplift can work wonders.

A good bra is also a great confidence boost for older women.

"When you're younger, it's a very different thing wearing a bra, and it doesn't matter if there's a bit popping out 'cos it looks good," says Trish from the Calendar Girls.

"When you're older, you don't want this wrinkly flesh popping out. You want it all to be where it should be!"

The girls are delighted with the result, and they're also surprised. "I always thought that I was a 34B but actually I'm a 32D," says one of the girls as she admires her new shape.

A Perfect Fit

For lesser mortals like ourselves what advice can be given to frustrated bra buyers?

Look at your existing bra聟 check for any of the following tell-tale signs of a bad fit:

• Your breasts bulge out of the sides of your bra
• Your bra straps fall off your shoulders
• Your bra arches up your back
• You have marks where your bra has dug into you
• The bra doesn't sit properly and causes irritation around the straps or its band

What's the solution then? Well you could take a leaf out of the Calendar Girl's book and get a professional fitting at a specialist lingerie shop.

Many larger high street stores also now offer a bra fitting service.

Alternatively you can measure yourself with the help of a friend using a few basic rules.

Measure around your rib cage directly under the breast bone. Then add five to the number of inches (after 33 add only three inches) to get the back size.

To measure cup size, measure around the fullest part of the bust and subtract the back size. Check the measurements against the table above to find the cup size.

In no time you'll be looking like a calendar girl or one of the 'Hello Boys' models that grace the North's billboards!

The bra of the future

Sadie prefers to work intuitively rather than with a tape measure

So what can we expect from the bra of the future as technology runs apace?

Experts predict the rise of the 'smart bra' with a built-in microchip.

This will allow fabrics to change shape according to the wearer's movements, tightening and relaxing when required.

There's even research into a bra that uses electrical currents to identify abnormal cell growth in breasts.

It may be the face of science fiction but it looks like picking the right bra could become a lot easier in the future!

In the meantime it's off to the fitting rooms to try on some proper bras and get fitted out ready for action.

As for the Calendar Girls, it looks like it will be hard to part them from their bras in future calendar shoots!