The Bra Police:: Hands Up, I'm Padding You Down

I know it's pretty well in the category throughout Australia that it's 'too-hot-to-wear-a-bra'. They should have one of those charts they have for bush fires so that all women are comfortable in the knowledge that they should unleash the beast and set their boobies free. 

So spare a thought for me. Of the small boobied variety. All my bras have about 10cm of padding in them foam. It's sweaty in there.

And this is not my flipping fault.

Recently I went to go bra shopping (right up there with shoe shopping for one of my most loathed sorts of shopping for me), and I thought - I am so sick of padded bras. Let's be real, I am going to just have some nice non-padded bras, and no underwire while we're at it - and be done with these faux boobies. 

I found plenty of non-padded bras that I liked. Plenty. 

But none in my size. 

It's as if the designers of bras decided that NOPE - if you're flat chested, then you are totally going to have to wear padding. The End. Don't even try and have a conversation about it. 

Padding. Underwire. You're getting the whole lot. We don't care if you're at one with your petite cleavage. 

It kind of defies logic. Doesn't it? I don't need any hardcore engineering. I don't need a designer to fashion some webbing the latest elastic and a bit of lace (actually and some bows, diamantes, polka dots, and whatever else you can throw on it - because let's make it look like a haberdashery store threw up on this piece of underwear). I just need some boobie covers. Nothing much else really. Let's be brutally honest. 

Before you say - did you try this brand, or this brand, or this brand? The answer is no. Like I said, I hate bra shopping. With a vengeance. And I know that Calvin Klein bras fit me, so I go straight to that section. When I am bra shopping, I shop like a man. No faffing around, I'd rather be sitting on the man seat than in the change room. 

Yo Mama! An Interview with Prue Brown of Love & Lustre

I've made the confession before that I've become so lazy with dressing at home, that bed for me involves one of Matt's t-shirts, a threadbare pair of pyjama pants and some disheveled hair. I am such a dish. 

Nevertheless, it was a fortuitous thing when I stumbled upon Love & Lustre - a luxe intimate apparel line that's designed locally by two Melbourne mamas, Prue Brown and Dana Burrows.

Kind of fortuitous that it's almost Mother's Day, isn't it birds? Who's not to benefit from beautiful bedfellows?  

So without further ado - let's YO MAMA this thing with Prue Brown! 

PMM: Why do you think it's important to wear something luxe to bed? 

Prue Brown: Having a sound sleep is important to ALL women!  A nasty fabric can be one of the first things to wake a women. Scratchy, stiff, synthetic fabrics can really irritate the skin.  Luxe fabrics should be  mandatory in all sleepwear.

How did Love & Lustre come to be?  

From a desire of finding the perfect knicker.  Dana and I were friends from uni and after several years out in the work force in varying careers decided to come together and create the perfect knickers.  It was really hard to find a well designed, soft fabrication, pretty yet durable pair of knickers!  Our first knicker is still one of our best sellers 11 years later!

You have children - how do you manage running a thriving business, and homelife? 

It is difficult at the best of times, but  Love & Lustre has an amazing team of people who handle the day to day activities of the business and Dana and I have the incredible support or friends and family who always pick up the slack on the domestic front.   

Three tips that save your sanity when it comes to working and being a mum?

1.       Turn your phone off when you arrive at home from school pick up so you can concentrate on just being a mum for an hour or so

2.       Realise that you can’t be everything for everyone – so one thing at a time

3.       Enjoy the wins!

What's a regular day look like for you? 

Hectic! 

What's your favourite part of your job? 

I love it when a new range sells through and there is no stock left  - we know we have hit the mark and our product is in demand

And your least favourite? 

Waiting for deliveries that have been held up on the wharf!

Do you ever get to take time out? What do you get up to? 

Absolutely, time out is what keeps Dana and I sane.  We both try to take short breaks at various times during the year.  It allows us to restore our creativity and focus on what’s coming up!  We both love travel so time out usual involves travelling somewhere – whether in the country or overseas. 

What's for dinner? 

Chicken Schnitzel

What's next for Love & Lustre? 

Big Things! 

Find Love & Lustre here
Shop for Love & Lustre here
Or follow them on Facebook here. 

This is the eighth interview in my Yo Mama! series. Interviews with creative working mamas. Look out for them weekly. 

Knicker Lover

The other day, right at the end of the day, when I was about to put pens down and go home, Matt texted me to tell me that Tiny had been carrying a pair of my knickers around all day. All day people.

You can imagine that my excitement of her flinging my knickers around was palpable.

Who doesn't want their knickers toted off to school? To shopping? Here. There. Everywhere.

And who doesn't want their husband to remove said knickers from child and gently suggest something else other than her mama's knickers?

Well thank goodness they were clean.

Tiny hooked onto those knickers and carried them around for the next day too. Because they are pink, they became an accessory.

I finally managed to sneak them from her clutches and back into my drawers (pun intended). But a big thank you to Tiny for socialising my underwear. I really appreciate it.

However, as a precautionary tale, never google images: big granny knickers. Never. Ever.

I'll Try To Keep It Brief

When did I go from being someone that only wears g-strings to someone that only wears a full brief?

I've also gone from being someone who wears pretty bras to someone that wears pretty ugly bras.

The transition occurred shortly before I gave birth to my first child and sadly I've not gone back. I've become a bonafide hipster brief junkie. I can't go past the sublime comfort of the Bonds Hipsters. More boyleg than cottontail, these utilitarian knickers see me through day in and day out (a new pair each day of course) - but they're certainly not the sort of lingerie your husband longs to discover once (hey - if) he tears your clothes off in a blaze of passion.

I'd until recently been hoarding my BC (BC - before-children) lingerie. Occasionally I'd take them from the far flung corner of my drawer - inspect the intricate lace, the candy-like confections of colour - pale pinks, creams, lavenders. Then I'd replace them for the day I would suddenly transition back into an undercover saucy minx.

They've not been worn for three years. Finally today I held a silent ceremony of sorts and extradited them to better places (read: the charity bin, and the bin). It's over. My body's changed and I no longer wear them. If I do go back to my former lingerie life, surely by that time I deserve some new lacy lovelies. Plus my growing Hipster collection needs some more space - not only that - my derriere has now reached J-Lo proportions - but that's for another post.

So why do mummies have to relegate themselves to comfy - but ugly - undies?

I realise mummies do not exclusively wear briefs. One of my sister's friends was in denial that she was in labour one day, went shopping with her husband and decided that they really should drop into the hospital just to make sure all was well. Her labour progressed before they had a chance to shoot home and pick up her labour bag. She was wearing her obligatory nude g-string. After the birth she had no choice but to don her g-string once more - this time with the rude over-sized maternity pad that was so large it could probably also double as a surfboard - balanced on the tight-rope of her knickers.. Not comfy. So there is at least one reason mummies have been conned into briefs.

I'm also just back into nursing bras and joyfully discovered the Bonds Bumps range. Comfy, functional. Boring (in a palette of black, white, nude - and who wears this colour MAUVE?) and plain cotton but supportive of my new found lady lumps. Plus they're tough enough to withstand the wear and tear (and spillages) of an eight-times a day feeder.

Hot Milk (http://www.hotmilklingerie.co.nz/) make foxy lingerie for foxy mamas - but they're always sold out in Australia - which just goes to prove - mamas want to look hot, but there's only so many mamas that can be hot before they run out of hot knickers.

My professionally fitted Berlei feeding bra is appalling. It doesn't fit. My Anita Maternity bra has bitten the dust - and really, it wasn't that pretty to start with. And I quickly discarded my ugly Finelines bras as soon as I finished nursing my firstborn - they were unfit for anyone to see, they were so ugly they were an embarrassment. Elle Macpherson's Bendon range has pretty bras - but they don't fit. I've trekked countless websites searching for an answer to my unattractive lingerie - but to no avail.

So for now I am just settling on the trusty Bonds underwear. Comfy knickers that don't ride, and bras that verge on the boring, but they're comfortable and they do the job. My BC underwear lies testament that I did once have respect for my lingerie drawer, but for now, there's no option but to go for comfort.