How to stay in the breast shape of your life

Women know that — sigh — the law of gravity (what goes up must come down, you know) would catch up with them one day. But what if women could defy gravity? But that’s getting ahead of this very intimate issue.

Here I am at the 25th anniversary celebration of the Philippine Wacoal Corporation, staring at the shapes of things to come — actually latex rubber molds of the different stages of the female breasts. To help women understand how their body changes as they age, Wacoal’s Human Science Research in Japan, since it was put up in 1964, has gathered over 40,000 women’s body measurements and has also tracked and studied the changes in their body shape in a span of 30 years. Wacoal calls it “spiral aging,” which asserts that women undergo three major physiological changes related to aging throughout a 30-year period from 16 to 46, and during these turning points, women experience changes in their physiques.

“In the study on how the body changes as it ages, women from age four to 69 are measured regularly,” relates Ann Christine Palisoc, Philippine Wacoal Corporation president (the first woman president in Wacoal’s 25 years in the Philippines). “What we’d like to showcase here is the competency of Wacoal in developing products based on research made in Japan. We named each bra by the age, but we saw that the women were offended so we called it by the stage.”

Ann walks us through the stages:

• Stage 0 — around 20 years old — is the peak of the breasts, when their form is at its highest and firmest.

• Stage 1 — women in their 30s — is when sagging starts from the upper part, as the elasticity of the skin expands; the breasts are not as firm anymore, even the breast tissue becomes softer.

• Stage 2 — around the 40s — is when you’d notice that even the nipples begin to point downward.

• Stage 3 — 50s to 60s — is when the breasts go down and out  (now you know what being “down and out” looks like). By this time, you don’t have a well-defined cleavage anymore.

So, how does Wacoal help a woman go back to Stage 0?

It can? I ask Anne, as I lift up my sagging ego.

“Yes, it can!,” Anne boldly declares. “Yes, without surgery!”

She points out, “For every make of the bra, the underwire and the pads help to lift and make the upper bust fuller. In Stage 2, this is where it becomes more critical. Here, the breast starts to go downward and even outward. So, we pay attention to the side panels, there’s a reinforcement fabric that helps to bring your breasts from the side to the center. There’s also what we call the resin bone, this is one example of a bra targeting women in Stage 2 — this is wider and there’s an additional reinforcement fabric to give a slimmer effect. The strap is wider because as we grow older, our tissues become softer. If it’s narrow, we may experience discomfort.”

The same thing applies to the hips, says Ann, which go through these same three stages. The main difference is that in Stage 3, while the breasts go outward, the hips go inward. “So, again, depending on the stage, each Wacoal girdle has its reinforcement fabric. Typically, for Stage 0, the distribution of support is equal. When it comes to Stage 2 and 3, there’s more lift from the lower area.”

It’s not just about how underwear looks, it’s about how you look in it. “We try to bring the utmost comfort in the make of our product, in the materials we use, so even if it’s got undewire, you can expect the most comfortable underwire; we use soft pads and laces because some women don’t like laces,” says Ann, in an intimate one-on-one with The Philippine STAR at Wacoal’s 25 anniversary dinner at the Rigodon Ballroom of Manila Peninsula Hotel.

Wacoal also has its bra extenders to cater to women who feel bloated during their monthly period.

According to Ann, brassieres and girdles are the foundation garments because they bring shape to a woman’s body or enhance her shape.

“So, if you’ve been wearing the wrong bra for a very long time, instead of helping you create a beautiful silhouette of your body, it will create bulges,” says Ann. “If you wear too tight underwear and you don’t pay attention to how soft your tissue is, you’ll end up with a muffin top which will definitely show in your outerwear. We should pay attention to our backs, too.”

Meticulously mindful of a woman’s body changes, Wacoal has developed underwear that provides the proper support, fit, comfort, and style for all women regardless of age.  So, when you walk into a Wacoal outlet (it’s got 52 store counters in partner department stores like Rustan’s, SM, Landmark, Sta. Lucia, and direct sales channels), its knowledgeable beauty advisers will point you to the right underwear to suit your body type.”

Anne stresses, “We want to make women understand how their body changes not just by a pretty-looking bra. It’s not just getting a bra off the rack, like shoes. Underwear is worn very close to our body that even just a centimeter of difference will bring discomfort.”

Surely, Wacoal strives to be the intimate wear that makes women beautiful inside out.

Ann finds Filipinas more conservative that they don’t want to be identified as a Cup C and end up wearing a cup size smaller.  “There’s an art to wearing the bra. You bend over, gather your breasts from the side, bring them to the center so you’ll notice what your cup size is.”

In Wacoal’s 25th year of existence in the Philippines, Ann considers as the most significant milestone the trust and confidence of their customers. “A lot of people know the brand and we’ve been able to penetrate even the very far provinces.”

By way of giving back, Wacoal Philippines launched its breast cancer program in 2005, among other advocacies, to raise awareness about breast cancer, how it can be prevented or treated at its early stage. “We started having seminars every October,” says Ann. “However, we saw the need to have a consistent dissemination of information and through our partner Gift to Life Foundation, we now go to different communities at least twice a month to spread information and also conduct clinical breast examinations and onsite biopsies sometimes even in the provinces as far as Tuguegarao.”

“The important keys to our success are our products, our people, and our service,” says Philippine Wacoal Corporation chairman/CEO Takashi Iwasaki. “As our founder said, we develop people before developing products.”

In its 25th year in the Philippines, Wacoal’s cup runneth over.