Sharm Lingerie (Ukraine)

You are active across social networks. Tell us about your experiences and results.
At the beginning in social media, we posted the standard catalogue photographs once a day. Soon we completely changed the content and today the situation is radically different. On Instagram and Facebook, which cover different—but suitable for us—target audiences, we fully present the role of underwear in a woman’s life. Here there are posts about the relationship between women and men, sometimes with humour, and live broadcasts with experts: photographers, psychotherapists, doctors, coaches, as well as streams from international lingerie trade shows, and educational videos. Of course, we post photos of beautiful, sexy lingerie and models, often plus sized. We try to adapt the content as much as possible to an understanding of all the subtleties of wearing any bra style and size so that customers can see what to expect from buying this bra. Recently, we launched a special social project on Facebook where women of different ages with different sizes responded honestly to questions about their underwear selection. The goal of the project is to cultivate the culture of wearing a bra, to demonstrate its interaction with the body, and to show how a properly selected bra emphasizes a woman’s beauty. We helped project participants manage the consequences of wearing the wrong bra, and refuted erroneous opinions about bra selection and use. And most importantly we contributed to happy women who no longer struggle with choosing a bra, and who feel confident and comfortable during the day.

Tell us about your particular method of underwear selection.
I firmly believe that bra fitting is not a trend, but properly selecting a bra translates to real breast care. And bra fitters must be trusted just like a hair colorist or manicurist, for example. A bra fitter is not a consultant who brings the bra of your choice to a changing room and carefully adjusts the straps; in our country, you can count on one hand the total number of certified bra fitters. High-quality bra fitting is possible only if there is a large size range in the store’s offering, and lingerie stylists must have a certificate of training. In my company, three specialists have certificates of training for the UK. My method is developed on the basis of George Goodheart's muscular testing method, which allows you to choose the right bra through bypassing the subjective opinion of the consultant and the client. Rather, the woman’s body and the muscular frame itself “chooses” the bra it needs. The muscle testing is carried out in compliance with six, and for some women even seven, requirements for the perfect bra fitting. During bra selection a stylist checks the bra band, fullness of cups, location and shape of underwires, the center front gore between the cups and height of the torso, the straps and level of chest height, centering, and also the tone of the muscles as they react to the already-worn bra.

How do you see the future of bra fitting?
As a regular visitor and speaker at international lingerie trade shows and forums, I always seek to fill in the gaps in bra-related knowledge. I then transform this knowledge into the material for my master classes, including training sales assistants to become bra fitting consultants. Underwear store managers’ genuine interest and involvement during the master classes, alongside their trust and willingness to invest in training consultants, suggest that the approach to lingerie selection has changed a lot. Lingerie is not just something invisible under your clothes, but properly selected lingerie means health, beauty and chic!