Women’s Confidence is ‘Bust’
Women’s Confidence is ‘Bust’
A New Thought-Provoking Study Reveals How Breast Confidence Affects Women Across Europe
- ‘Bigger is no longer better’ - in stark contrast to the ‘90s pin-up, women across generations desire a youthful natural ‘perky’ look
- Italians and Poles are most breast confident vs. Brits who are the most unsatisfied
- Breast and body confidence hinders women in the workplace, affecting career paths across Europe
- Less than half of women in the 30s to 40s life stage feel positive about their bodies
- Younger women want killer cleavage vs. older generation who desire lift to enhance their natural curves
- Triumph has launched Magic Boost – a collection of three customised fitting bras that offer a solution to the natural ageing of women’s busts – helping women to reclaim their shape
- Never underestimate the power of a great fitting bra – 7 in 10 women agree this is the quickest way to a confidence boost
Triumph, the makers of lingerie since 1886, has revealed the findings of a new pan-European study- the Triumph Female Confidence Report - into female breast and body confidence, unveiling clear insights on the cultural tensions of modern womanhood across ages and life stages.
How breast happy are European women?
Of the countries surveyed (Germany, France, Italy, UK, Denmark, Poland), women’s biggest anxieties with their breasts are with perkiness (40%), size (34%), shape (32%) and cleavage (29%) – a sign of the times that youthful looking breasts are more coveted by women, rather than a larger breasts.
Across all countries there is a consistent level of unhappiness with breasts, with 1 in 3 women in the UK and France being less satisfied overall. French, Danish, Italian and German women gain confidence with age, while Polish and British women stay consistently dissatisfied over time.
Concerned with loss of volume, perkiness and shape - whether due to weight gain, weight loss, pregnancy or the natural aging process – Triumph has developed Magic Boost™ – helping women to reclaim their shape with a little Triumph magic. A collection of three customised fitting bras that offer a solution to the natural aging of women’s busts, the range includes the ‘Lift-Up’, ‘Push-Up’ and ‘Shape-Up’, each style, features the award-winning soft touch flexible Magic Wire™, for unparalleled comfort and fit.
How do the generations compare?
Younger women (18-29) crave cleavage; older women (30-50) desire perkiness, with nearly half (45%) of women in their 40s – over a third (41%) of women in their 30s are unhappy with their décolletage.
The Triumph Female Confidence Report has discovered that 30-40s is a powerful life stage for a woman, experiencing increased self-belief, self-respect and self-acceptance but something is holding her back – her relationship with her body and breasts.
Despite women in their 30s and 40s feeling positive about family, friends, love life and career their feelings about their body remain static, with a shocking less than 1 in 2 women feeling positive about their bodies. According to the Triumph Report findings, the pressure to have it all – motherhood, career, healthy physique and success, is reflected in women’s ratings of how their body image impacts their confidence and surprisingly, has a direct negative impact on women’s careers.1
Incredibly, it’s women in their 40s who put the least amount of effort into bra shopping and clearly need these regular points of bust reconnaissance.
“We live in a youth obsessed culture, and women whose sense of self is tied up with norms of physical perfection will likely struggle with their changing body when they start aging, and changing breast structure is clearly going to be a part of that.”
Lucy Aphramor PhD RD AMSPH, founder of Well Founded, UK
Motherhood and breast confidence
While motherhood boosts overall confidence, 40% of mums are less happy with their breasts after having children and half feel they’ve lost the “perfect” shape, with 63% admitting that their breasts sagging as a result.
So it’s no wonder that the idea of things like the “mummy makeover” – once a procedure for women in their 50s - is now seeing huge growth among those in their 30s. The American Society of Plastic Surgeons found that 62% of mothers would consider a "mummy makeover", including tummy tuck; breast augmentation and/or breast lift.
“Germans have this image as being the perfectly oiled machine, and that is applied to the image of a German too. She has to have a career, be the perfect working mom, the perfect mother to children. She has to have the perfect body, and to be a good partner. And a desirable one too. It’s all about being perfect… and it’s impossible to live up to.”
Yvonne Franck, co-founder of AnyBody Deutschland organisation promoting body diversity, Germany
The research found that although 7 in 10 say they feel more confident when they’re wearing a good fitting bra, astonishingly only 6 in 10 know their size and, only a third have been fitted in the last year. Only 10% put in a lot of effort to finding the right bra.
Women in Italy (69%) put the most effort into finding the right bra in addition to knowing their size and getting regular fittings, and, consequently reap the biggest rewards in the breast confidence stakes – proving frequent fittings can help women worldwide will be more breast and body happy.
How can Triumph help women feel more confident? By using a little trick like Magic Boost, it has never been easier for women to reclaim their shape and feel more confident everyday:
“For over 130 years Triumph has been listening to the needs of women across the globe. We understand the challenges women face when finding ‘The One’, perfectly fitting bra that has exceptional fit and comfort. Lingerie is an emotional product; the wrong fit can ruin a woman’s confidence and her day.” - Suzanne McKenna, Global Head of Brand, Triumph
In 2016, the Triumph mission is to help 1.5 million women worldwide ‘find the one’ perfectly fitting bra for them and reclaim their shape. Visit findtheone.triumph.com to book an appointment now.
For more information on the Triumph Female Confidence Report and new Triumph Magic Boost range, please contact:
[email protected]
+44 207 907 7149
Notes to Editors:
About the Triumph Female Confidence Report:
For 130 years, Triumph has listened to the needs of women and has pioneered some of the most innovative techniques in lingerie, resulting in carefully crafted lingerie that offers true support, comfort and femininity enhancing the wearers’ silhouette.
To support the launch of the latest Triumph innovation, Magic Boost™, the iconic brand has launched a piece of cultural research – the first of its kind - into women’s confidence, focusing on breast confidence and how this impacts women across Europe at different life-stages and generations from Germany, France, Italy, UK, Denmark and Poland.
The Triumph Female Confidence Report 2016™, worked with 7 leading experts (aged 31-50 year olds) across Europe from the fields of psychology, motherhood, body image, life coaching, leadership and female empowerment and surveyed over 6,000 women in the region between the ages of 20 – 50 through a bespoke quantitative study.
About Yvonne Frank: Political scientist Yvonne Franck and her partner Alena Thiem are co-founders of AnyBody Germany, Endangered Bodies an initiative for promoting physical diversity in the media and society. https://www.facebook.com/AnyBody.Deutschland
https://twitter.com/anybody_de
About Lucy Aphramor PhD RD AMSPH: Lucy has pioneered the size equitable approach HAES® (Health At Every Size) in the UK National Health Service. Her philosophy that you can be healthy and fit at any size has inspired confidence in women of all sizes in the UK. She most recently co-authored Body Respect with Linda Bacon.
Lucy has worked tirelessly to integrate social body confidence issues into the clinical conversation. Her work with co-author Linda Bacon aims to help people respect and look after themselves, whatever their circumstances and challenge stigmas to promote equality www.well-founded.org.uk
About Cultural Intelligence:The Cultural Intelligence team at Flamingo specialises in tracking shifts, trends and emergent ideas in order to help brands grab a bigger share of the cultural conversation.
About Tapestry: Tapestry is a global market research agency that specialises in understanding the connections that exist between consumers, media and brands.
About Triumph Magic Boost: As part of the brand’s ongoing commitment to listen to women’s needs, Triumph commissioned a piece of research with over 11,000 women across Europe, which revealed a need for a new type of innovation that offers a solution to the natural changes to women’s breasts.
Concerned with loss of volume, perkiness and shape - whether due to weight gain, weight loss, pregnancy or the natural aging process - the brand developed Magic Boost™ – helping women to reclaim their shape with a little Triumph magic.
The ‘Lift-Up’: The Magic Boost™ Lift-Up is the ultimate design in creating some extra curve to the bust. A natural uplifting effect is created by graduated padding in the balconette cup – making it perfect for smaller busts or busts that have lost some of the fullness at the top, giving the structure and supportive fit without compromising on comfort thanks to the thanks to the unique Magic Wire™ soft touch technology.
The ‘Shape-Up’: The Magic Boost™ Shape-Up bra is perfect for contouring fuller busts. Moulded cups with pretty lace details create a perfectly rounded shape and Magic Wire™ soft touch innovation gives outstanding comfortable support. The versatile straps can be worn as a racer-back or regularly for flawless figure-boosting lingerie
The ‘Push-Up’: For women who want to show off a little more cleavage, the Push-Up rounds and lifts the breasts, with a gradually padded cup, creating sensational cleavage. The plunge shape is ideal to be worn under low-cut dresses or tops, and Magic Wire™ provides the perfect comfortable support and fit.
The Magic Wire™ soft touch bust support system, featured in every Magic Boost™ bra, won the coveted ‘Red Dot: Best of the Best Award’ for groundbreaking product design 2015, cementing Triumph as an industry leader and maker of lingerie.
About Triumph: Triumph International is one of the world's largest intimate apparel companies with 2,000 stores and 40,000 wholesale customers worldwide. Its global distribution spans 120 countries and its online presence features an innovative, bespoke Find the One hub. Since 1886, Triumph has been crafting lingerie that makes women look and feel their best. For over 130 years the brand has been a fit specialist and expert in creating feminine designs and innovative products for all occasions, shapes and sizes. In 2016, Triumph aims to help one million women ‘Find The One’ – the right bra for them.
1 Low self-esteem of women (and specially the very skilled ones) would cost society more than 200,000 highly placed employees in 2050, because they will not pursue the career that they are capable of. (E. Halliwell, P.C. Diedrichs and S. Ohrback S. 2014, http://eprints.uwe.ac.uk/24438/1/CAR%20Costing%20the%20Invisible%20-%20final%20web.pdf