Montreal women
Get inventive in their hunt for beauty fixes.
Natalie Luffer Sztern confesses to a “horrible’’ addiction to Internet shopping. She also shares the detail that she is not a “small girl.”
Some years ago, she hit the web in search of an adhesive backless, strapless bra for a specialoccasion dress.
Think of those red carpet dresses with plunges down to the belly button à la J. Lo, backless like Padma Lakshmi or slit at the sides in the manner of Gwyneth Paltrow and you get the picture of what is needed.
“I tried all these bras that claim to hold the girls together,’’ said Luffer Sztern, who turned 57 this week. Nothing did the trick.
And so two years ago, a business — It’s a Secret — was born, offering not only invisible bras but all manner of novelties that women may need and want. “I’m the ultimate Internet consumer,’’ Luffer Sztern said. “I knew that if I wanted it, others would.”
Luffer Sztern, with daughter Carly Sztern working the business side, started developing products. In addition to silicone bras in various shapes and sizes, there are Stabilettos, which are rubber tips with a “bling ring” to attach to your stiletto heels, Bosom Buddies, or decorative crystal pins for your bodice or as button covers — and more.
The silicone bras come in cup sizes up to D and styles like the Teardrop, Cupcake and Defying Gravity. There’s also the Marilyn, essentially a fabric harness to be worn with a regular bra for extra lift. And the Ice Cream Cone, a tape shaper.
Luffer Sztern says there is nothing on the market like her silicone bras — there are no clips or attachments anywhere, although a quick search of Internet images does show a few similar models. The vast majority do have a centre clip, though.
“What makes these so wonderful,’’ said Luffer Sztern, “is that they lift.”
Christine Harding, a former lingerie executive, is head of research and development at Vestechpro, a research centre for the apparel industry in Quebec associated with CEGEP MarieVictorin. The centre did market research and testing of the product. Harding agreed it fills a need in the market.
“She has a quality product,’’ Harding said, noting the centre studied the market to evaluate the available adhesive bras in the U.S. and Europe. “They don’t offer cup size and they don’t offer lift.”
With a jiggly texture and sticky interior, the bras have to be placed on the breasts just so, averting air bubbles. They last for 10 wearings and should be washed with soap and water and air dried after each wearing.
“I’m going to show you an example of how they would be put on,’’ Luffer Sztern says in the dining room of her Dollard-desOrmeaux home.
“You turn it a little inside out. You stretch your hand out and then you lift — as high as it can go,’’ she explains, pulling the silicone up. “And you straighten it out and then you do the dance, you go down for 10 seconds and then you jump around.’’
Mother and daughter, without training in apparel, science, chemistry or engineering, started their research on the Internet.
“It’s real trial and error,’’ Sztern said, explaining they found factories in China to create prototypes. Safety testing was done by SGS in Switzerland, and the bras passed with flying colours, showing minimal trace elements like lead or mercury.
The pair also came up with the notion of Stabilettos, which Sztern sees as a kind of training heel for young women on their first high heels, or stabilizers for older women who need the extra width on a heel.
“My mother and I came up with this together — her need for more stability and my desire to bling up my shoes,’’ she said.
The rubber tips come in clear or black and attach to the bottom of a heel, with coloured crystal rings that can be added. They are to be offered in the TIFF gift bag next year.
Asked whether the look of a stiletto is marred by the wide rubber tips, as some Gazette testers complained, Sztern notes that it’s difficult to notice them when you’re actually walking. And Harding adds they would be wonderful for those garden parties when your high heels sink into grass. (She said the Stabiletto is not something the centre would research; its expertise is in apparel.)
Next up for the pair is the “Blister bling,’’ a contraption to avert blisters on the heel.
Patents are pending on the Stabilettos and some of the adhesive bras, they note.
It’s all about fashion and function for the two. “If we create something that has no actual function, but it’s cute, it’s a no go,’’ Sztern said.
It’s a Secret bras and Stabilettos are available online at www. itsasecret.co.
The bras cost about $30 and are also sold at Sex Cité and Oui Je le Voeux. Stabilettos are available at Scarpa, Tony’s, Europa and Prato Chaussures.