again. I also love being able to educate women on the different shapes and styles that work under different pieces of outerwear. Especially with a fuller bust, these ladies are often challenged and don’t have many options. If you’re a J cup and want to wear a halter neck dress it isn’t always as easy as it should be, so I love being able to solve these problems for customers.  Inside Retail: How has the lingerie industry evolved since you first entered it?  DK: The major changes I have seen in the industry are the extension of sizes to many different brands. Originally they stopped at a DD and now many go to much bigger cup sizes, and also a much wider colour palette. Inside Retail: Tell me about how you got your start in your career.   DK: I started a lingerie party plan business over 25 years ago. When we started introducing bras into the range I could hear so many ladies complaining about the lack of sizes available in Australia. From there I decided to launch DeBra’s, specialising originally in the fully figured lady and we evolved to offer bras for fuller bust in all sizes, as well as swimwear. Inside Retail: In all the years of running your own lingerie business, what are some of the most interesting insights that you’ve gathered about female customers when buying underwear?  DK: Over the years I have learned that many ladies are just not happy with their own shapes, no matter what size they are – we see so many imperfections but with encouragement and getting fitted into new styles they gain more confidence about their bodies. I love watching customers’ problems being solved in the fitting room, just by changing the style or size of a bra. Inside Retail: Your business caters to a wide range of women, not just straight-sized women. Why was that important to you?  DK: I wanted ladies to feel comfortable coming into the store and being able to say “YES, this does come in your size and we have it in stock!”, not that it had to be a special order. I just wanted them to feel the same as every other woman when she is bra shopping.   Inside Retail: What are your plans for your physical store network in the future and how are you feeling about your new store on the Gold Coast?   DK: This year is all about the launch of the new Gold Coast store and growing with it over the year. It involves a lot of staff training and product knowledge training as we cover so many different sizes. This will be our main focus for 2021, also working in store and listening to what our customers want. As this store is close to the beach, expansion in the swimwear area will be a big focus. Inside Retail: What was 2020 like for De Bra’s and what were some of the interesting insights that you gained?  DK: 2020, hmmmm! I think this was the year ladies stayed at home and took their bras off or wore really comfortable wire free, non structured shapes as they didn’t have to go out. One key insight for us was that whilst we offered our online service and zoom fittings for customers who couldn’t come into stores, the best service comes one on one in our fitting rooms and once lockdown was over ladies came into stores in the masses. I think we all had time to stop and think about what we needed to feel better.  We procrastinate over getting a bra fitting but after the lockdown they just came in, it was a fun time of growth for me and my staff.   Inside Retail: What are your plans for De Bra’s this year?   DK: We will be adding quite a few new brands to our range once we have researched the fit over our key sizes.  We’re very excited to expand our range online and in store.