Bra campaigner wants more support for big-breasted

Photo: Waikato Times

Hamilton woman Donna van Munster holds a 14HH bra, which is too small for her.

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If Donna van Munster wants to lie face-down on the beach, "I dig two holes in the sand".

Running is out of the question: "I'd end up with blackened eyes and bruised knees."

She's joking. But the sad fact is, for van Munster, buying a bra is an exercise in despair.

Van Munster has a size 14J bust. The Hamilton woman says she's fed up with the high cost and low availability of underwear she can fit comfortably.

"At the moment, I'm wearing bras that are falling off me because they're just ridiculously expensive – upwards from $60.

"I'm an awkward size – but I'm sure I'm not the only awkward person in New Zealand."

Last week, van Munster lost an Advertising Standards Authority complaint against a company that promised "bras in sizes and cups for every woman". In a she-said-they-said decision, the ASA accepted an underwear expo organiser's claim that it did stock bras in van Munster's size.

The 38-year-old, who is pregnant with her fourth child, was disappointed but undeterred in her crusade for a better deal for bigger busts.

"I've had a lot of support," she says (no pun intended). "I know how fast a factory can pump a bra out. They don't cost $60 to make."

She is calling on companies to cut costs and offer a wider range for larger breasts.

"I do get depressed about it... in the United Kingdom or the States, you can walk into a shop and pick something up off a rack."

She conceded companies like Bendon were doing better – but claimed its bigger bras were not that comfortable. "They need to be fitted on a proper-sized model. There is a demand, and they should be available at a reasonable cost."

How hard is it to buy a 14J bra? One local mail-order website, which stocks more than 30 brands, offers three styles of bra for women like van Munster – and 172 for women size 14D.

Van Munster says she comes from a big-busted family, and has considered reduction surgery, but that has not been possible while she is still having children.

"My breasts have increased with every child, but they don't decrease when I've finished feeding."

UK manufacturers recently announced they would begin making bras in a KK-cup. Locally, new Bendon brand DimitySO, launched in January, is only being made in D-J cups. Rachael Parkin, Bendon's global communications manager, says from next year two new J-cup ranges would be released every month.

"We have certainly noticed bra sizes are getting bigger. This is through the natural changes in the shape of women and surgical enhancement, which is more common these days. Size 12B used to be the average – it's now more likely to be a 12D."

Parkin said the price of the new bigger-cupped bras started at $64.95 and that was unlikely to change. "Larger cup bras often have more structural engineering and there is a cost in producing these."

Want to support Donna van Munster's campaign for bigger bras? Email her at donna.vanmunster@gmail.com

- © Fairfax NZ News