Uplifting news: A pain-free, comfortable bra
By PAT CAHILL 
pcahill@repub.com
Saturday, January 03, 2009
The Republican, Springfield, MA

Professional seamstress and dancer Therese Legere's calling is to give women a comfortable, cradling bra.

"What does a woman want?" asked an exasperated Sigmund Freud. The father of modern psychology claimed that in 30 years of study he had never figured it out. Relax, Doc. Therese Legere, of Shutesbury, says she has the answer.Women want a comfortable bra, says Legere, and until now it has been almost impossible to find. 

Legere, a professional seamstress and dancer, is the designer of a new bra she calls ZeeBraz. She sells it over the Internet . Since going on the market last March, she has sold more than 150 bras. 

The Republican/DAVID MOLNAR

The straps of Therese Legere's design form an "X" high on the back,

with four adjustments on the back and sides.

Her invention was inspired by her own despair over finding a brassiere that fit comfortably. "I was ready to pull it off by 10 o'clock in the morning!" says Legere. "The band around the chest made it impossible to breathe." Her frustration peaked three years ago when she took a course in "transformational breathing." "What I learned was that 75 percent of our energy comes through our breathing," she says, adding that she had to unhook or take off her bra to "breathe efficiently." 

Most cups are made for "a firm, 18-year-old breast," she says. "If you have a pendulous breast, you have to compress it, squish it, lift it to fit into that shape. That's why you have to tie it so tight, to keep the breast inside the cup. The lift and push create a lot of discomfort."

Back pain can sometimes be traced to an ill-fitting bra, says Legere, who is married to a recording engineer and has two grown children. 

Science aside, there is no topping Legere's sartorial training. A native of Quebec, she spent two years at a sewing school in that province's town of Sherbrooke, where she studied everything from haute couture to making men's jackets. Her mother was also a professional seamstress and businesswoman. In the early 1980s, Legere ran a weaving studio at Findhorn, a New Age community in Scotland. 

In 1987, she made the outfit that musician Yusef Lateef wore to accept his Grammy Award. (The acclaimed musician, a neighbor, had earned his doctorate in education at University of Massachusetts in 1976). Legere had a dressmaking business in Amherst for two years, and was the business manager at the town's Fiber Arts Center for 10 years. She makes her ZeeBraz on three industrial machines. 

She says her training in painting and drawing - especially figure drawing - also contributed to her bra design, as did her history as a dancer. She studied ballet for 15 years, and has been a professional performer and instructor in Middle Eastern dance.
Needless to say, she fashioned her own costumes. "What I love about this product," she says of ZeeBraz, "is that it brought all my skills together, from age 17 to now." Add to those skills a dash of feminist attitude. 

"We've always been told that we have to have lifted, pushed-up breasts," she says. "Says who? Who decided that?" Legere says her bra "cradles" the breasts instead of forcing them into a particular shape. Gone is the band around the chest. Instead, straps form an "X" high on the back, with four adjustments on the back and sides. The seam goes under the nipple, with the cup supporting the whole breast. Legere describes it as a "softer, more feminine look." She says that even women who want a stiffer bra for more formal situations have a place in their lives for ZeeBras. 

"There are shoes for work," she says, "and shoes for sports. There are high heels - and there are sandals. This is the sandal of bras." ZeeBraz sells for $50 to $75. Legere makes them in sizes 34A to 50E, in different machine-washable materials and colors. Among her designs is a nursing bra, a bra with two layers of fabric for larger breasts, and a bra with a front closure for women who have trouble raising their arms. 

"It's kind of like my higher purpose to bring this to as many women as I can," says Legere. Her company, formerly called The Liberty Bra, is online at www.zeebraz.com.

 

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A bra that makes you say 'aahhhh'

By Bonnie Wells
Staff Writer
Published on September 19, 2008

Can we talk? First, a pop-quiz for the women in the audience: What's the first thing you take off when you walk in the door at home?

Those who answered with a three-letter word for foundation garment, read on. All others, may we suggest one of the other fine stories on offer today.

Two and a half years ago, Therese Legere of Shutesbury was traveling to her job as business manager at the Fiber Art Center in Amherst and thinking to herself, not for the first time, "How come we can send men to the moon, and yet, in 2005, we can't make a comfortable bra?"

Tired of waiting for the better mousetrap, she decided to make one herself. Well positioned for the task, she had been a weaver in her native Quebec, before a longtime career in clothing design. Jazzman Yusef Lateef was wearing one of Legere's outfits when he accepted his phony" in 1988. From 1998 to 2000, she operated Legere Designs on Main Street in Amherst.

So back at home, Legere pulled out a pair of her husband, Norman Blain's, sweat socks - apparently he's well-suited for the role of Sasquatch in the school play - and began cutting them up and experimenting on herself.

"I focused on two issues in creating the bra," Legere said. "First, having a band that goes around my chest was one of the uncomfortable facets."

And not just uncomfortable. From classes she was taking in Transformational Breathing, it became clear to Legere, that the standard bra design was also unhealthy.

"What I learned in Transformational Breathing is that 75 percent of our energy comes from breathing," Legere said, "and 70 percent of the body's toxins are released through breathing. So if you're locked into a bra with a band around your chest, it limits breathing capacity and toxin release."

She also investigated the workings of the lymphatic system, also responsible for moving toxins out of the body. The system doesn't have a pump, but rather works on gravity, pressure and vacuum.

"The movement of the breasts helps drain the system," Legere said, adding that cups that lift and compress the breasts to conform to the fashion industry's notion of beauty, decrease the movement and hence the drainage.

"Breasts have become a fashion accessory; they need to look good," Legere said, "so we haven't been paying attention to the health and safety of our breasts."

What Legere came up with does away with the band around the chest and has a strapping system in the back in the form of a modified "X," somewhat similar to a sports bra, with four areas of adjustment. The cups provide gentle support, while allowing the breasts to remain in their natural positions.

"It's a wonderful design," said Joan Bredin-Price of New Salem. "You don't have that whole going-around-the-back thing where you can't breathe and just want to rip it off, and you don't have that slipping-off-the- shoulders thing.

"You don't even think about it when it's on," she added. "It's the most comfortable thing you'll ever wear."

"It's the comfort factor," echoed Susan Rice of Shutesbury. "I'm an alpaca farmer here in Shutesbury, so I need to be able to lift a bale of hay and move quickly. It's very comfortable. I really like the back."

Long Island, N.Y. pattern-maker Eileen Lucas met Legere in the breathwork class at the Sirius Community in Shutesbury, and tried an earlier version of the bra during Legere's experimentation.

"I tried one and hated it," she said, "and I gave some suggestions. "She gave me another and within an hour, I forgot that I had it on. It liberated me, as a larger-breasted women, to be supported and yet free."

After naming her creation The LibertyBra and applying for a patent, Legere made a soft opening this spring by showing it at several Whole Health Expos in New England, where she met with enthusiasm. Now she has a Web site, www.thelibertybra.com.

"What I'm doing is opening up a conversation about breast health and the culture that wants to dictate how we look," Legere said.

 

 

  Buy your ZeeBraz here!