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Swimsuit designer Melissa Odabash , who is a favourite with celebrities like Beyoncé, Kate Moss and Kate Middleton, has created a new range with breast cancer survivors in mind.
In collaboration with cancer organisation Future Dreams Charity Odabash created a line of swimwear for women who may have scarring and sensitive skin due to cancer surgery, like mastectomies.
The collection features five styles that have been constructed from a soft microfiber and have specific features such as sewn-in moulded cups, wide-adjustable straps and high back bands.
Future Dreams Charity’s founder Amanda Grossman said the range came about due to a gaping hole in the market.
“The collaboration basically came about because we just kept on having women post-surgery coming to us and just saying there was no swimwear that fulfilled their needs,” said Grossman. during a behind-the-scenes video.
“Whether it was from scarring or sensitive skin issues and the seams were maybe too thick on the current swimwear ranges, or that the things they were being directed to were really aren’t attractive.”
Former British Olympic gymnast and Sky News presenter Jacquie Beltrao was selected to model the range.
Beltrao is a cancer survivor herself having been diagnosed with breast cancer on Christmas Eve 2013 and undergoing a mastectomy in early 2014.
“You’d probably not be able to tell unless you looked closely – I think I just look like I have pretty good boobs for a woman who’s had three children. But still I wouldn’t wear a very low-cut bikini top as you’d see the scars,” Beltrao told The Daily Mail.
Odabash said choosing someone who was not a fashion model to be the face of her range was an important decision.
“I didn’t want it to be your typical catalogue stiff [advertising],” said Odabash. “I wanted people to be inspired when they see images of Jacquie and I want people to be able to relate to the collection.”
“I hope this small thing that I’ve done gives women a little bit of confidence,” said Odabash of her collection.
The range is due to become available from February 10 and twenty per cent of all sales from the suits will go to Future Dreams.
Former British Olympic gymnast and Sky News presenter Jacquie Beltrao was selected to model Melissa Odabash’s new range. PHOTO: Melissa Odabash / Future Dreams.
Odabash said choosing someone who was not a fashion model to be the face of her range was an important decision, which is why she chose Beltrao who herself is a breast cancer survivor. “I didn’t want it to be your typical catalogue stiff (advertising),” said Odabash. “I wanted people to be inspired when they see images of Jacquie and I want people to be able to relate to the collection.” PHOTO: Melissa Odabash / Future Dreams.
In 2013 Angelina Jolie revealed in a New York Times op-ed she underwent a preventative double mastectomy in order to lessen her chances of contracting breast cancer. “I’m very happy I made the decision,” she said. “I was very fortunate to have great doctors and very, very fortunate to have a good recovery and a project like Unbroken (the film she directed) to have something to be really focused on, to be getting healthy or, and to be able to just get right back to work.”
In 2008 actress Christina Applegate explained on The Oprah Winfrey Show she underwent a double mastectomy after being diagnosed with breast cancer at age 36 and discovering she tested positive for the BRCA gene. “It came on really fast. It was one of those things that I woke up and it felt so right,” she said. “It just seemed like, ‘I don’t want to have to deal with this again. I don’t want to keep putting that stuff in my body. I just want to be done with this.’ I was just going to let them go.”
E! host Giuliana Rancic told NBC’s Today in 2011 she decided to have the surgery after previous lumpectomies didn’t rid of her cancer. “At the end, to be honest, all it came down to was just choosing to live, and not looking over my shoulder for the rest of my life,” said Rancic.
After a battle with ovarian cancer, Oscar-winning actress Katy Bates told people she underwent a double mastectomy after being diagnosed with breast cancer. “Luckily, I don’t have to undergo radiation or chemo,” said Bates. “My family call me Kat because I always land on my feet and thankfully this is no exception.”
In 2011 Sharon Osbourne told Hello! Magazine she had a preventative double mastectomy procedure after she learned she had the BRCA1 gene. “For me, it wasn’t a big decision, it was a no-brainer. I didn’t want to live the rest of my life with that shadow hanging over me. I want to be around for a long time and be a grandmother to Pearl … I just wanted to be able to live my life without that fear all the time. It’s not ‘pity me’, it’s a decision I made that’s got rid of this weight that I was carrying around.”
American comedienne Wanda Sykes told The Ellen Show in 2011 she opted for the surgery after learning she had cancer. “It sounds scary up front, but what do you want? Do you want to wait and not be as fortunate when it comes back and it’s too late?”
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