New opportunity for bra hunter

Charde Heremaia, from Napier, would like to be able to buy affordable, sexier bras. Photo / Paul Taylor

A busty Hawke's Bay woman is being flown to Auckland compliments of a lingerie company after her self-shot video slamming K-Mart's lack of big-size bras went viral.

Charde Heremaia, 20, went shopping for a bra in Hastings K-Mart on Monday night when she filmed her good-humoured rant about being unable to find a bra big enough to accommodate her FF bust. She then uploaded the video to her comedy page on Facebook, Memoirs of a Maori, where it has had 442,000 views and 15,000 likes.

Rose & Thorne, which make lingerie for The Warehouse, are flying Miss Heremaia up to head office at Drury on Monday to meet the design team and be fitted to help her find a solution to her bra dilemma.

A spokeswoman from Rose & Thorne contacted the NZ Herald saying they made "beautiful big bras".

She said the lingerie company had been following Miss Heremaia's viral video and had options for the bra-hunter.

There were many women like Miss Heremaia who felt the same way and their bras started at $30, she said. Miss Heremaia said she was shocked at how many people had responded to the clip, but felt it was probably because it related to women all over the world.

She had received a lot of misogynistic comments from men who suggested having a big bust was due to being overweight.

In her opinion, many slim women also had bigger busts which made bra shopping for them just as tricky.

"It's kind of rude for men to ... make those sort of assumptions and suggestions that maybe women need to go for a run."

Miss Heremaia "just happened" to be in K-Mart this week. She had explored other specialised bra stores, but found their products were overpriced.

"Now you don't pay more if you've got bigger feet for shoes do you?" she asked.

She had always had a big bust, she was terrorised by her peers when she was younger for it and it was not something she asked for.

It was a fluke to find a good, cheap and supportive bra, she said. Many people who experienced similar bra buying distress had also reached out to Miss Heremaia.

"I don't know if I've changed anything or not, I really hope that I have."

In terms of an ideal bra, Miss Heremaia said Lonely Hearts products were pretty with different and unique designs but they were about $100 and went up to 36DD.

Suzelle Lingerie owner Coralie White said paying a little more for bras meant better quality.