Bra dress highlights breast cancer fight

Some things are secret, even when the battle is over.

For the past year Hannah Sherring has watched a loved one fight for life in a battle against aggressive breast cancer and, at that person’s request, has kept their identity secret.

The 17-year-old Kapiti student refers to the woman as ‘‘someone close to me’’ or ‘‘someone I love’’ but she’s found a way to tell people about the fight.

This year, instead of speaking, Sherring stitched, using bras to create a dress to shame the cancer that nearly took everything and to draw attention to a disease she felt was too often kept quiet.

‘‘I didn’t want to talk about it, so it was a way of working it out.’’

The one person she told was Crystal Goodwin-Ford, her best friend since the beginning of college.

‘‘Crystal supported me right through it all,’’ Sherring said.

‘‘A bit like a good bra,’’ her best friend laughed.

The Paraparaumu College students used dozens of pre-loved bras to make dresses they entered in the school’s wearable arts competition.

College office staff and a local youth service collected the undergarments and the friends crafted them into two dresses they modelled themselves.

Goodwin-Ford said, compared to modelling the garments, making them was easy.

‘‘You know how good it feels taking off your bra at the end of the day? Imagine what it feels like taking off heaps of them.’’

Initially, the friends planned to make one dress, but quickly realised they had different visions.

While Goodwin-Ford stitched her bras into a colourful full skirt, Sherring cut hers in half to mimic the mastectomy her loved one had endured.

For that reason, the bustier of her dress is created out of cups of different sizes but it’s surrounded by shiny pieces of mirror. ‘‘I wanted it to look pretty.’’ The students didn’t win the competition, but said the thunder- ous applause they received was enough.

As for the woman who battled the disease? She’s on the road to recovery and is ‘‘incredibly proud’’ of what the girls did, Sherring said.

‘‘Maybe one day she’ll name herself.’’

PHOTO: VIRGINIA FALLON/FAIRFAX NZ Crystal Goodwin-Ford, left, and Hannah Sherring designed two bra dresses for Paraparaumu College’s wearable art competition.