Our Fitting Process

By far the most technical, costly, and time consuming aspect of running a lingerie brand, is the fitting development process.

THE PROCESS

When we design new shapes, we start by draping on a mannequin to get a basic body-shaped 3D garment. However, these mannequins aren't really like real life - they are hard and plastic, and most importantly there's no 'weight' in the curves. A real pair of breasts weighs 1-2kg and needs to be supported in a flattering way. The only way to make this happen, is to move the fitting process onto real women as soon as we've got a basic shape we can work with.

THE FITTINGS

We have a variety of fitting models ranging from local ladies who can pop in at a moment's notice for a quick look, to professional fitting models who travel up to 50 miles and charge a fortune because they've got really useful boobs that help us to get the perfect fit. Even though Made by Niki is a teeny-tiny company based in the heart of the English countryside, we use the same fitting models as John Lewis, M&S and Next.

BASE SIZES

The first bra prototype is always made in size 34B. When we are happy with the 34B prototype, we start fitting a 34D version. Usually, the 34D fitting highlights problems that weren't visible on the 34B initially, just because there's more weight and shape variation to support and beautify. So we'll review and revise the 34B, and continue to go back and forth between 34D and 34B, revising, re-fitting, and re-making as many 20 times, to get a bra that fits well on both sizes.

SIGNOFF

When both base sizes are approved, we start to grade all the in-between sizes. Having an approved version at the smaller and larger end of our bra size spectrum gives us a solid framework within which to calculate and grade all the other sizes. We currently make about 15 bra sizes in our basic size range, but as we grow our company we will extend the size offering with demand. We then make and fit as many of the other sizes as possible, especially at the smallest and largest end of our size spectrum, currently A cups and E cups, just to make sure everything is perfect.

While bras are our most technical garment to create, we also go to great lengths to make sure that your knickers, bodysuits, dresses and tops also fit perfectly. We carried out extensive research on the high street and among our customer base to determine the average size and shape of a Made by Niki customer, and you can see our body size charts by visiting the 'Knicker and Body Fit Guide'.

KNICKERS TO YOU

We are constantly advertising locally for knicker and garment fitting models. It's like the 'Cinderella' story, we are always looking for the lady who matches our body size chart perfectly. We have a constant stream of local women coming to have their waists, bottoms and hips measured to see if they are 'the one'. It's certainly a novel way to meet the local people near our 17th Century Manor House Offices, which are in a sleepy little village called Tur Langton in Leicestershire.

BECOME A MODEL

If you're local and you think you match one of the sizes on our body size chart, then please email us!

BOTTOMS UP!

Our first prototypes in bodies, knickers and other garments generally tend to be a size 10. When we've got that prototype fitting perfectly, we grade up to size 14 and down to size 8, and fit all the sizes on as many local ladies bottoms as possible, including ourselves, so that we can feel what they are like to wear.

WEARING TESTS

And finally, everyone's favourite part of the job, is the wearing tests! Each season, we all order a handful of finished pieces from the production line, for ourselves so that we can wear them, just like a real customer would. This gives us the ability to learn how the garments wash, wear and feel over time. We can always identify something extra that we'd like to do if we run that product again. A lingerie designer's work is never done, but it's worth it when we get to have a fabulous underwear drawer that we crafted and created all by ourselves!