Dairy farmer Kylie Gibbard has traded number eight wire for underwire in her attempt to create
the perfect bra for rural women. Arriving home rubbed raw from her constricting bra after a hard day on the farm was the last straw for Kylie (39).
Together with her partner Darrell Stratton, she spent the next six years inventing a comfy bra for curvy Kiwis. “I’ve always been a bigger-busted girl since puberty,” says Kylie, who wears a size 18F bra. “After years of finding bras impractical and uncomfortable I decided there had to be something better.”
The couple developed the Emkay Girl bra, with sizes that range from a B cup to HH. It has been a favourite with country girls – the company won the North Island section of Rural Women New Zealand’s Enterprising Rural Women Award this year.
The business started with just four machinists working in their converted farm shed to create the bra. It is made from unbreakable German wire and fabric from Spain, which creates a breathable, comfortable and durable bra. The product is now stocked at 35 retailers in New Zealand and Australia and costs between $89 and $115, depending on the style and the stockist.
But the road to success hasn’t been an easy one for the farmers who are based in Horowhenua, just north of Wellington. “No-one would take us seriously,” says the entrepreneur. “For some retailers, Emkay has been their bestseller, but others are more reluctant to stock them.”
The bestselling sizes are the C, D and DD cups. So far, they haven’t had a client too big for their H cup. “We say we don’t have a ‘bedroom bra’,” Kylie explains. “It’s not a striptease bra, but then you don’t walk down the street in your underwear. You’re dressed, so you want to look good with your clothes on, and that’s what our bra does.”
Kylie developed a line of “comfy bras for curvy Kiwis” after years of suffering from ill-fitting bras
Kylie cautions women not to buy bras too small for them. “Some girls want the pushed together cleavage look so they often wear the wrong size to achieve this. This can potentially do damage to breast tissue.” The key to Emkay’s design is the way they have completely transformed the traditional bra, a style largely unchanged since the 1920s.
“It’s the revolution of bras – it’s the next step,” says Kylie. “Nobody has taken it from a wearer’s point of view and made something really different. “It’s something very simple, but it makes a huge difference. It took someone from outside the industry to think of it.”
Daisy Sillis
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