I first heard about the Women’s Center of Greater Lansing‘s annual In Her Cups: Bras for a Cause Art Auction several years ago, when I was working at FOX 47. The Morning Blend show would often highlight the events at the Women’s Center. This particular event always seemed like a wonderful opportunity to express creativity while helping a great cause. I remember seeing photos of bras that looked like disco balls, or Dr. Seuss characters, or covered in peacock feathers.
The Women’s Center of Greater Lansing helps women with individual counseling, support groups, and career preparation. The bras made and auctioned at this annual event are for the healing of cancer survivors and domestic violence and trauma survivors.
I saw a post about a call for artists on Facebook last month, and I was intrigued. I used to think that people had to be artists or a part of a business to create a bra for the event, so I was really motivated to make one when the rules said anyone from crafty people to artists to groups of people could submit work.
In considering what the design or theme should be, my first thought was to do something with the color teal in honor of sexual assault survivors.
It has been a very surreal and upsetting couple of years, with the events surrounding Michigan State University and the Larry Nassar trial, as well as our current White House occupant and the recent Kavanaugh hearing. It feels like so many brave survivors are sharing their stories, but many times things aren’t changing. The only light coming from these dark moments is the swell of support for the survivors I have seen in our local community and across the world. There is still good around us.
In making the bra, I knew I wanted to incorporate the techniques I used when I made my friend Jen’s brooch bouquet and the framed holiday trees. I still had several pieces of costume jewelry from last year, and it seemed like a fun way to embellish the bra.
I looked for a teal bra, but eventually found a Tiffany blue bra at Meijer. My original thought was to use teal, blue, and clear jewelry to cover the full bra, but as I considered the jewelry I had on hand, I realized it would take a lot to cover the entire thing. Plus, it would be extremely heavy. I decided to deconstruct a teal flower necklace I’ve had for years and never really wear anymore. From there, I added additional earring pieces in shades of blue. I lucked out that I already had some teal velvet ribbon at home, so I created two cause ribbons and glued them near the straps.
When I showed it to my husband, he said it was beautiful, but suggested that I include text or some other indication that this was in honor of sexual assault survivors instead of a decorated, lacy bra. I was worried about writing directly on the bra because of the lace texture, and also didn’t want to mess it up if I made a mistake. I gave myself a few days to think about it, and bounced ideas off of some of my friends.
Finally on Monday, after talking it through over lunch with my friend Jen, I thought about adding the text “believe survivors” on something that would look like a ribbon banner. I wasn’t sure how I would do it, but I lucked out when I found some sheer pale blue ribbon at our house that matched the bra. I used a free font generator online to find a pretty script, and wrote out the words “believe survivors” in Sharpie on white paper. Then, after testing how the Sharpie would work on the sheer ribbon, I taped the ribbon to the paper and traced my lettering.
I carefully hot-glued the ribbon to the front of the bra, and loved how it changed this pretty bra into a statement piece. The text really brought it all together for me.
I’m going to be turning this in to the Women’s Center this week. The deadline is this Friday, and the In Her Cups: Bras for a Cause event will be November 2nd in REO Town. Here she is, all packed and ready to go:
According to the submission details, only a certain number of the bras will be displayed or worn during the event for the auction. It’s possible that this one won’t even see the light of day, but it’s my hope that if it does, it helps raise a lot of money for the Women’s Center.
In this strange and upsetting time, it felt really nice to do something creative and with a purpose. I hope to be able to make one every year from now on.
If you’re free next Friday, November 2nd, check out the event in REO Town. Click here for all of the details.