by Ali Cudby
The Paris 2012 Salon International de la Lingerie may be underway, yet it seems fitting to pause and take a look back to last year’s Paris show. The winner of the Most Creative Design Award at the ULTRA Fashion Show was a company showcasing a new approach to breast support – Embrace, out of Ireland.
Embrace’s patented innovation is based on a design that redistributes the weight of the breast, allowing for less movement of the bra on a body. The theory behind the inspiration is that even the best fitting bras will move to some extent over the course of a day, due to the ways in which they sit on a woman’s body.
The Embrace approach relies on an “Internal Support System” that sits under the breast and is anchored in three places – in the bridge and under each arm. This Internal Support System is, essentially, a cutaway that is then overlaid with a cup – but it’s the internal piece that’s doing the work of supporting the breasts. According to owner Reenagh McCall, current bra technology supports breasts to account for horizontal and vertical tension. By incorporating the internal structure, Embrace is able to add an additional element of support, which will ultimately provide a more sound system that doesn’t move, no matter what a woman’s daily activities. With Embrace, “movement acts on the outer layer of the bra, not the inner, because the inner layer takes the weight,” says McCall.
Depending upon the job a woman wants her bra to do, there are a number of Internal Support System designs. For example, there is the Support Me™ with “fuller coverage, for structured support and moderate lift.” Another is the With or Without Me™, which incorporates a removable underwire. This is a patented design that enables a woman to move from active/day to rest/night activities without having to change bras. A removable underwire also provides the added benefit of easier laundering. There are currently eight Internal Support System designs, each with a targeted job.
Embrace is currently working on a collection that they are aiming to introduce at the A/W13 shows.
