New for Spring: Adhesive Prosthetic Kit, Spring Colours, Natural Options

The Amoena Contact Multi is a new innovation for women who want the flexibility of wearing a breast form (prosthesis) directly against the skin, for example if you’re wearing a lower-cut or strapless dress.

With this kit, women can get more use and flexibility out of their breast form, such as the temperature-regulating Natura Cosmetic Breast Form. Instead of inserting the breast form into the pocket of a bra, this adheres to the skin and can then come off and be fitted back into your bra.

This kind of innovation parallels the amazing advances we’ve seen in the medical field, where cancers that were once fatal now have many survivors.

Here are two other changes we can look forward to for spring:

Embracing spring colours

Spring has definitely sprung here at Brabary, where we’re seeing exciting new colour palettes from our wonderful suppliers. Isn’t it great to go beyond black, white and beige into the colours of the season? Come and check out the stunning and vibrant Passion Orange, and the calming and serene Ocean Blue, just to name a few.

Eliminating harmful chemicals

Today more and more people are sensitive to chemicals and looking for healthy options for cleaning products and makeup. Helpful resources include the Queen of Green blog from the David Suzuki Foundation, and the Skin Deep database from the Environmental Working Group.

Already free of any harmful chemicals, we were excited to learn that Forever New will soon be launching an fragrance-free lingerie detergent for those with sensitivities to scent.

Brabary Gives Back to the Women & Children’s Shelter of Barrie

 It’s our 10^th anniversary! To celebrate our awesome customers, for every item purchased during the month of April, Brabary will be donating a new item to the Women & Children’s Shelter of Barrie. It’s our One for One program, which we’re sharing about on social media using the hashtag #brabarygivesback.

This is about women helping women. Women have been the main cause of our success. We’re not only celebrating 10 years of operating a business; we’re celebrating 10 years of working with women of all stages and all ages, and with every body type. We've shared your laughter and your tears, and you ours.

Women may enter our store not feeling very good about themselves. We see them slumped over, with their shoulders forward, trying to hide their bodies. With a professional bra fitting and the right bra, we’ve seen those same women transformed with visible confidence, now standing tall!

Women at the Women & Children’s Shelter of Barrie may face much different challenges, including violence, marginalization and poverty. We want to do our part to give these women the strength and support to transform their lives.

Our customers inspire us every day. We want to pass on that inspiration to these women, and do our little part to help.

We are grateful for each and every person who has come through our door. Of course that includes our male customers and those who love them. For every pair of men’s SAXX underwear sold in April, we will donate a pair of women’s underwear to the shelter.

About the Women & Children’s Shelter of Barrie

Founded in 1981, The Women & Children’s Shelter of Barrie has been providing shelter and support services to abused women and their children for 30 years. Their mission is to provide a safe refuge and emergency support services for abused women and their children in a commitment to end the cycle of violence.

Visit their website or Facebook page to learn more.

Follow the progress of our #brabarygivesback challenge on Facebook and Twitter.

We’re 10 years old in April!

We’ve seen many changes over these 10 years, including a move seven years ago. We’ve always been thrilled with our current location, with its ample free parking and fantastic neighbours.

Recently we did some renovations to address comments and requests from customers. They liked the size of the store and the amount of stock we can provide, but they (and we) wanted a more intimate setting. One of the things we did was change the lighting to be more welcoming and calming. You can read more of our renovation story in this earlier post.

Our industry has grown and changed a lot over these 10 years, with innovations in technology, research and development by our manufacturers. When we started, a molded cup bra never went above a D cup; now we can get up to an H cup. Even seamless, non-molded bras now go up to a well-fitting G cup. You can even get a really good fitting G or H cup in a strapless bra. It’s tremendous how far they’ve come.

As the industry has changed in what it offers, we’ve expanded our inventory as well. We wanted to get our feet firmly planted before expanding into swimwear and hosiery, and especially before starting to help women with prosthetics, from pre-surgery considerations to getting fitted for prostheses.

In talking to clients about what they wanted in bras and hosiery, we brought in great luxurious Italian brands like Trasparenze and the simple elegance of Phillipe Matignon. This range of mid- to high-end products is unique in Barrie.

Quality is important to us; we don’t do anything halfway. As we’ve expanded our product lines, we’ve taken our time to research the products we feel would be good for our clientele. We continue to listen to our customers and bring in products based on their needs.

This commitment to customer service has been recognized by our community as well. We are honoured to be the recipients of the Bell Business Retail Excellence Award from Barrie Chamber of Commerce in 2008, and the Businesswoman of the Year from Barrie Examiner in 2013.

We support our community in numerous ways, by dedicating time to several charities, as well as donating resources for fundraising. Some of these are listed on our Community page, and others we’ve written about on the blog, like the Barrie Toy Tea, 100 Who Care, and the NSMHPCM Palliative Care Conference.

Our caring staff has grown with us - always eager to learn about new products and finding the perfect fit for you.

Thank you for joining us for this trip down memory lane, and thank you for your continued support. We look forward to the next 10 years with you!