I caught up with Claire Dumican, owner of Butterfly Collection over the pond in Canada, a country notoriously difficult to get lingerie for bigger busts. Claire talks fit, passion, business and her mission to change Canada’a outlook one fitting at a time. Do you remember wondering what you would be when you grew up? At 9 I thought I was going to be Prime Minister, at 22 I found myself writing fervently for technology giants in London and by 31 I realized that my passion lay in bras – big bras! When I started to research the online bra community I very quickly found ‘Invest in Your Chest’ and so I’m over the moon to be writing for Cheryl today.
My passion for big bras has a physical and an emotional foundation. When I moved to Vancouver from England in. I really struggled to find something gorgeous to support my 32H ladies. I was in my 20s I wasn’t about to condemn them to a life of beige boulder holders so I started planning my own solution. It took several years but in 2010 I launched Butterfly Collection Lingerie and dedicated my passion and profession to busty ladies. The emotional foundation for Butterfly Collection is the joy I get from passing on my love and knowledge of big boobs to other women. I quickly realized that my ‘joy of boobs’ was not shared by most women and I knew I could and should change this for busty Canadians.
Because Canada’s 30 million people are spread out over the second largest landmass in the world I knew I wasn’t going to make enough of an impact with one single store front in Vancouver and that’s why Butterfly Collection is an online boutique. I want the 36F woman in the remote North West Territories to have as much bra choice and quality of service as the 32G woman in downtown Toronto. I’m a huge geek so I love using technology to connect with people across the country. I do fittings via so that I can talk women through the process of measuring themselves and to see the exact problems they have with their current bras. Seeing someone’s build and style helps me make bra recommendations. I really love being able to chat with my customers and hear their personal bra journeys. One of my favourite Skype fitting moments is when one lady’s five year old son wandered into the room and asked his Mum “Why are you talking to the TV with no clothes on?”
Life is about more than just right bra for a busty woman so we use video on YouTube and Facebook to tell stories, share advice and review stuff that is relevant for life with big boobs. One of our best video series talked about which sports are great for busty ladies. I love that these resources are out there for everyone, at any time no matter where they live. I think people worry that buying online won’t give them the personal experience they want when buying lingerie. I am really enjoying showing these women how personal and fun our online experience can be! I am very fortunate that technology keeps me very connected to my customers. We chat long after they’ve bought their first bra from us. Through Facebook, Twitter and our blog I learn a huge amount about my customers’ lives and feel very fortunate that they allow me to help them love their curves.
