Bra-vo Sadie, you’ve been wonderful
UNDERWEAR PIONEER IS HANGING UP HER TAPE MEASURE
SHE’S the bra queen of the North East.
But Sadie Ayton, known across the region as “Sadie the Bra Lady”, is stepping back from the world of underwear.
After an award-winning career in which she’s helped measure over 100,000 women’s busts, at 81, she’s entering “semi-retirement”.
But she’s leaving behind a lasting legacy in which she revolutionised bra fitting – and also measured up a host of stars.
“It has been a wonderful career,” said, Sadie, of Consett, County Durham.
However, Tyneside’s bra queen has said struggles with her sight have meant she’s stepping back from her business of almost 50 years.
“I can still do the fitting, but we have about four or five thousand boxes of bras, and I’m struggling with the little numbers,” admitted Sadie.
“We do right up to a 52 back and every cup size between – so you are talking a lot of bras. And I found I was a lot slower, and we like a good quick service, so that was one of the things that made my mind up.”
And she’s revealed she may have lost out on a fortune by not patenting her famous “Sadie Method”, which has been copied worldwide – and doesn’t even need a tape measure.
However, selfless Sadie said: “On the other hand, I’ve been able to help so many women by keeping it free. And I’ve never wanted to get rich, just help people.
“As long as there’s been enough money coming in to pay the girls’ wages, and for me to make a living, I’m happy.”
Those girls, as Sadie calls them, will now run her existing branches as franchises.
One, in Ashington, Northumberland, recently closed having failed to turn a meaningful profit in four years. Sadie said younger girls now prefer a fashion where the cleavage is “popping out” – and are turning their back on a proper fitting.
But there’s little to suggest the bra game is about to go bust – with business booming elsewhere.
That, according to Sadie, is down to the 102,333 customers she has in her database – many of whom return time after time.
“We get grandmothers bringing their granddaughters in for their first bra, and every week there’s another new customer coming in,” she said.
“I’ve had customers coming back and back who say they won’t go elsewhere.” Initially opening in Consett in 1970, Sadie now has branches in Darlington and Sunderland – having opened previously as far away as Scarborough.
She’s won a stack of awards – including once even beating the Queen’s bra fitter for a gong.
Among the celebs she has measured are Denise Welch and Lisa Tarbuck. But she laughed: “I’d go into meetings and say ‘Hi, I’m Sadie’ – and they’d be excited and reply ‘The Bra Lady!.’” Sadie has appeared on Radio Five Live and on TV documentaries, while in the ’90s her advert was a staple on the big screen in North East cinemas.
“My granddaughter is 29 now, but when she was younger she’d go to the pictures and her friends would go, ‘Isn’t that your grandma?,’” recalled Sadie.
For now, Sadie – who has had the car reg L2 BRA – is planning on spending more time with husband Tom.
And she said: “I think he’s a bit fed up – we’ve been together 62 years and all he ever hears is bras!
“But I want to be remembered as the person who had the proper way to fit.”