WORDS : ALICE ARMITAGE IMAGES : INDI CHATAWAY

When I was thirteen, my mum took me to see the ladies that owned the bra shop in town for a proper fitting. At the time it was terribly embarrassing and I didn’t understand why I couldn’t just buy those cool looking crop tops from Sportsgirl like everyone else my age. At the time I didn’t know that not too long ago, women all went to visit the ladies that would fit them with the perfect sized bra. Usually those fittings happened on special occasions at a department store and were an integral element of one’s coming of age, a special occasion or as a ‘just because’ moment throughout one’s life. But as that tradition seems to be fading into a bygone era, women like Philippa Mitchell are re-claiming the craft of fitting for the right bra, for one very simple reason – none of us are doing it right by ourselves.

How do I know this? Well, watching endless reruns of Sex and the City in my early twenties taught me. In one episode, Miranda is rummaging through the racks of lingerie in a department store searching for a black bra when she is interrupted by the store attendant. With a flick of the wrist, she whips out her measuring tape and adamantly affirms that Miranda is a 34B, not a 36A as she so erroneously believed her entire life. While I mention this in jest, it is known that 80 per cent of women are wearing the wrong size bra. You heard that right — everyday around 40 per cent of the population are walking around somewhat uncomfortable and Philippa Mitchell is here to do something about it.

Philippa Mitchell hasn’t always been a bra fitter. It was a chance encounter when Philippa was working as a wedding celebrant that piqued Philippa’s interest in the profession and since then Philippa has continued to develop her craft to work with women throughout all stages of their lives. “When I was first introduced to the prospect of becoming a bra fitter, the only place you could get fitted for a bra where I live was closing, so I saw a real opportunity. I started doing this six years ago and I haven’t looked back. I’ve come to a place where I can confidently fit all women at any stage of life, from size eight to size thirty, from AA to K cup and with any style of bra. I wanted to be able to fit everybody so I’ve expanded my business to be able to do that.” Philippa now works predominantly from her studio in Orange.

Originally from Sydney, Philippa made her home in Orange after starting her family and wanting to raise them in the country. “I grew up in Pymble, in Sydney. We moved to Orange not long after I had my first child, my partner at the time was from Orange and we decided that we wanted to move to the country to raise our family. I did spend some time back in Sydney but found my way back to Orange again. I just love the country town life,” shares Philippa.

It takes a special person to fit women for their bras for a living. If you have in fact ever had a proper fitting, you’ll be familiar with the feeling of the firm tug of the bra strap, the comforting touch of someone checking the tension of the fabric as it’s wrapped around your body, and the no-nonsense gaze of someone who really doesn’t mind at all what your partially naked body looks like for she’s seen it all a hundred times before and cares only for your comfort.

These are the exact feelings that were invoked in me when I first met Philippa and while I still had my shirt on at that stage, I felt instantly at ease in her presence. I’d followed Philippa to Coonamble in NSW West, where she had ventured with her new caravan — recently converted to the perfect mobile fitting studio, allowing Philippa to offer bras and a quality fitting service to women across regional and remote Australia.

Philippa is now venturing further afield than just her workspace in Orange after acquiring a 1960 sunliner caravan last year. After retrofitting the van to fit all of her bras, as well as a comfortable space to perform fittings in the back, Philippa is hitting the road to help as many women as she can from her little caravan. “I looked at a lot of caravans but I was struggling to find just the right one. One day I was on Gumtree and saw a caravan advertised on a farm between Eugowra and Forbes. This van had been beautifully and lovingly restored by a lady who bought it as a derelict caravan from the middle of a paddock near Parkes. The lady had always wanted to do something with the caravan related to women in business but had never quite figured out what to do. When I made an offer to buy it, the first thing she asked was what I was planning to do with it. It was all a bit serendipitous — it feels really right to have this van for this purpose,” shares Philippa. “If I can just get to some local towns, it makes my services so much more accessible and I hope it’s one less burden for the women I work with.”

It was Lisa Murray who lined up Philippa to visit Coonamble recently. After having a fitting by chance while in Coonabarabran last year, where Philippa fitted forty seven women in just three days, Lisa was keen to share Philippa and her skills with her own local community. “I am the carer for a young girl, and we both went to see Philippa for a fitting when she was in Coonabarabran. Philippa made us both feel very comfortable doing something that was way out of our comfort zones. The fitting was good fun actu- ally,” shares Lisa. “Women coming from rural communities, agricultural communities, just don’t ever put their needs first. There is a fundamental element of self care that comes with wearing a bra that actually fits you. One of the other ladies I’ve spoken to who has had a fitting with Philippa and wears a prosthesis has been wearing the same bra for twenty years. For me, that about sums up the need for fitters like Philippa.”

For women living in Coonamble, the closest major centre where you might look to buy a bra is four hours away. While women might head into Dubbo or Tamworth regularly, when they go, they’ve always got a very long list of jobs. When they get to the end of that list the last thing they want to do is think about having to buy a bra. So many women find themselves walking into a shop, buying the first thing they see that looks like it might fit and an hour later they can’t wait to fling the bloody thing off because it doesn’t actually fit properly. So by actually being measured and fitted by someone like Philippa, women can be recommended a bra that will be comfortable for the long haul — it’s a huge win.

But Philippa’s work isn’t done once your fitting is over. With every appointment Philippa also teaches everyone how to look after their new bras, making sure you get the very best out of them, and she also teaches everyone how to check their own breasts along with sharing monthly reminders to check them, to give us all the very best chance of keeping those babies if we happened to find a little lump.

This holistic approach to her craft has led Philippa to expand her skills to support breast cancer survivors who require fittings for pocketed bras and breast prosthesis. “The thing is, a lot of people don’t want a prosthetic because it’s just another thing, but they come to the point where they don’t want to be looked at for the wrong reason,” Philippa says. “It should be normalised but it isn’t, so when they do get a prosthetic they feel normal again. They feel more confident. Not pulling at their shirt as they walk down the street, they can leave all that behind and just get on with their lives.”

Philippa’s journey into post-mastectomy fittings started three years ago. Since then she has worked closely with breast care nurses and healthcare providers in Orange and surrounding areas, providing families with a level of care and intimate camaraderie. “I took myself to Melbourne and was trained by a German company to fit post-mastectomy ladies,” she says. “I came home with that knowledge and I first went to meet the breast care nurses in the region and the surgeons, and from there I’ve just kept building that element of what I can offer people.”

Philippa’s mastery means that not only can she fit you for the perfect bra (no matter what stage of life you find yourself in), but she’ll also give you a comforting space to breathe and your straps a firm tug while she’s at it.