Looking to find a sexy dress for the single-breasted woman? Good luck. Fortunately, a New York fashion designer has pioneered a new approach.
“Many women can’t or don’t want to have reconstructive surgery,” says Hilary Boyajian. “I realized that the only clothing targeted to women who had lost their breasts were the medical bras hospitals sell. Who goes clothes-shopping in a hospital?”
Between 70 per cent and 84 per cent of breast cancer patients in developed countries beat the disease, only to face an awkward reality: they have nothing to wear.
So Boyajian, a 33-year-old New York designer, developed Chikara, a fashion line for women with one or no breasts. The ancient Greece-inspired clothes, which are draped across the chest, cover up the missing breasts. Boyajian sells the clothes over the Internet and recently opened her first shop, in New York City’s NoLita neighborhood.
“I get so many emails from breast cancer survivors thanking me for doing this,” she says. “What they particularly like is that people don’t look at their clothes and say ‘Oh, that dress must be for a woman with no breasts.’”
For more information: www.chikaradesign.com.
