Disclosure: This blog post is sponsored by Miss Mary. All links in this post are affiliate links.
Founded in 1957 in Sweden, Miss Mary is a brand that aims to create ‘world class lingerie’. To them, that means an emphasis on three things: optimal comfort, a timeless design, and the perfect fit.
Nailing the fit is no easy task considering their impressive size range, which spans UK 10 to 28, band sizes 32 to 52, and cup sizes A-J (that’s up to the equivalent of a UK GG). To get each design in the collection just so, Miss Mary patternmakers grade each garment entirely by hand. Once samples are made, they’re tried on models of various shapes and sizes to ensure that the fit is great across the board.
The patterns inevitably get tweaked and new samples made, but this time round dozens of women are asked to wear the pieces for a longer period. This way, Miss Mary can be sure the garment doesn’t just fit well for a few moments in the dressing room, but also holds up to long-term wear. Only once a design has passed this second round of testing does it get signed off to go into production.
Perfecting the fit goes a long way towards creating lingerie that is comfortable, but the brand also recognises the importance of using high-quality materials – a number of their ranges are high in natural cotton fiber, for example. And wide, often padded, shoulder straps are a key feature, found on almost all of Miss Mary’s mainline bras.
Designed with the mature woman in mind, the full collection includes basics, shapewear, a couple of mastectomy bras, and special occasion pieces. The Visionary collection is where you’ll find the fancier looks. It’s been designed in collaboration with Swedish fashion designer Lars Wallin, and focusses heavily on lace and embroidery.
I have the sparkling Shimmer Frost bra from this range, which is very pretty. Other stand-outs include the guipure-adorned Meadow Dreams, and the Lace Vision longline bra and ultra-high-waist brief that together look like a bodysuit – only with more flexibility for torso length!
From the brand’s mainline collection, I’m particularly fond of the Summer set, which comes in four colourways including ruby red and lustrous navy. The Cotton Dots bra is cute too, and available all the way through to a 50J. And the wireless Fantastic Flair bodysuit looks to me like the perfect blend of comfort and style.
Miss Mary has stockists worldwide but the best thing about shopping from them directly is the returns policy – you get an exceptionally generous 100 days to make your mind up about whether to keep or cancel a purchase.
The brand also emphasises its commitment to ‘truthful’ photos and descriptions, and happily displays the bad reviews alongside the good so you can get a true sense of what each product looks and fits like. As they say themselves, “Without happy customers we wouldn’t exist. That’s the bottom line”.
Have you ever worn a Miss Mary bra, or is this the first time you’ve heard about the brand? What’s your favourite product featured in this blog post?
2 comments
Estelle, you’re probably far too young to remember when Miss Mary of Sweden was a staple of the UK mail order catalogue retailers, specialising in high-quality, if a little plain, “traditional” shapewear – indeed, they had a range of corselettes under the “Lady Mary” brand for the more petite lady (from memory, the cut-off point was 5’2”). Times have changed, and it’s great to see this famous name offering some modern and more colourful options!
Thanks for sharing this, and the comment you posted on Twitter. It was interesting to learn that they used to specialise in lingerie for shorter people, which it had never even occured to me might have been a thing back when people wore full-torso girdles and corselettes!
You’re right that I only discovered the brand recently (a year or so ago), so I don’t know when exactly they introduced more colour and prettier touches into their designs. But they do still have some plainer pieces too, I just picked out my favourite bits to feature here 😉