'85% of women are wearing the wrong bra size' - says Kate Middleton's royal bra fitter
Almost all of us are wearing the wrong cup or band size, says lingerie expert June Kenton.
Kenton has been head of premiere lingerie shop, Rigby & Peller, for over 30 years.
In her role, she has helped everyone from Queen Elizabeth II and Kate Middleton to Kim Kardashian and Joan Collins find their appropriate bra size.
"About 85 percent of women are wearing the wrong size, and haven't got any idea how to deal with it," she told Fashionista.com.
This inspired the shop's staff to develop their own method to make this easier.
Instead of relying on a measuring tape, June and her staff use their wealth of experience to assess customer's by sight."A tape measure doesn't say, for instance, 'she's big here with a narrow back.' It just gives you numbers. But we can look at what figure type you are and find the solution immediately," she said.
Kenton, who started out in the lingerie business in the 1970s said that when she first worked in a department store lingerie concession, there was no cups bigger than a D available.
"Women with fuller chests would be fitted in D, and we'd take the back in. Anything bigger was made to measure," she revealed.
Kenton also recalled her first meeting with Queen Elizabeth II in 1982.
"I had to go to Buckingham Palace to meet the Queen in her bedroom. To put it mildly, it was very nerve-racking — most people who meet the Queen meet her dressed," she laughed.
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"It turned out brilliantly...but it was intimidating. You have to be there dead on time. She's very formal, although lovely, just the loveliest person. I get on with her extremely well, and I hope that I do a good job."
"I was very close to Princess Diana. She would come into our shop in Knightsbridge, and would always bring flowers. She was just the most amazing person. I used to go to Princess Margaret a lot. We even used to make her swimwear. She only wanted it made by Rigby & Peller, she wouldn't have anything "ready-to-wear" — it was all custom-made. So I saw her quite a lot."
Kate Middleton also enlisted the services of Kenton.
"She's lovely. She's very nice," Kenton praised. "I think people assume so much about Kate. When she goes out everyone's like, 'The dress was a hundred and something, the shoes were so and so and the coat was two thousand something.' Everything she wears is priced. I think it's really sad for her."
Speaking about Princess Diana, Kenton says their time together was "fantastic".
"Every time I saw her was a memorable moment. We used to go for lunch together, and it was just so absolutely fantastic. The boys [Prince William and Prince Harry] were at boarding school at the time, in Eton. I would save her all the lingerie posters with girls in swimsuits, or bras and panties, and she'd send them to the boys to put up on their [dorm room] walls — [all their classmates were so] jealous because nobody else could find a poster as naughty as that."
"We used to speak on the telephone, and she'd write to me. I was heartbroken when she died. But then again, I don't know how she would have managed to find somebody who was prepared to take on always being in the public eye. She would have had cameras outside her house with her husband permanently."
Royals aren't Kenton's only regulars, either.
Renee Zellweger
"Renee Zellweger was in the other day. Lady Gaga's been a customer, and the Kardashians. Kim was in our Glastonbury location the other day. She's fairly big [chested], you could say that."
"Any time a star comes in, we usually get a phone beforehand. The PR people will phone and say, 'so and so is coming in.' It's not like [celebrities] really wander around Knightsbridge and think, "Oh, I'll just pop in for a bra!" We usually get notice and sort out a fitting room we can use, and deal with it that way."
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"A lot of notable people are wearing the wrong size because they want to show a bit more, though. You know what they look like sometimes, especially at a film premieres. They're coming out the middle of the bra, let alone the dress, and it's not nice. I think they do it on purpose. That's what really gets them noticed, isn't it? Everybody to themselves, but I like to wear a bra that actually fits me."