"Love your boobs", Cosmopolitan FashFest 2014

Last week, on the 15th September,  Cosmopolitan UK gave us the most wonderful, magical and boobtastic night. It was their FashFest Lingerie Show and it was just divine. It had one purpose: educate us about our boobs. 

Photo: Cosmopolitan

It was held at the spectacular One Marlyebone.

Photo: Cosmopolitan

For us, it was not only a key networking opportunity but it was always a wonderful insight into what an amazing event is actually like, giving us lots of ideas and aspirations for and after our launch next year.

On arrival, we headed straight for Coppafeel, where we were lucky enough to meet its founders, twin sisters Kristen and Maren Hallenga. We heard about Kristin's story and why it's so important to spread awareness about Coppafeel! 

Photo: TEDx Kings College London

We took some photos with our friend Teri and some gigantic boobs to raise awareness for this amazing cause.

Cosmo even snapped us and stuck us on their website with these incredibly, fabulous, DD+ boobs

Photo: Cosmopolitan

Then we did something we never thought we would in such a crowded place.... stripped down to tiny paper undies for a spray tan! Who could resist a free spray tan!?  We are converted!

Leaving bronzed and glowing (jewellery-less and dare we admit to it, knicker-less!!!), we headed over to meet the wonderful girls at BrandAlley.

We met their fabulous Lingerie Buyer, Clare, and had a good giggle about bras, boobs and what the market is lacking. It was lovely to speak with other women who share our passion and enthusiasm for making the lingerie market the best it can be for all women. Hopefully one day soon, we'll be appearing on BrandAlley. 

Show Opening

Louise Court 

Louise Court, Cosmopolitan's Editor-in-Chief gave the opening speech to kick off the fantastic catwalk show. 

She emphasised the importance bras have on our lives highlighting the fact that well fitting lingerie boost a woman's confidence, however, despite this fact, "70-80% of women are wearing the wrong bra size", which is why anyone who knows us will now how much we tell everyone to go and get fitted regularly! "Choosing the right bra is key to choosing the right fashion".

Kristin Hallenga 

We had had the pleasure of hearing from Kristin again. She shared her inspirational story about how she was diagnosed with breast cancer five years ago, at the young age of 23. 

Coppafeel was set up in the hope that a message in your bra, reminding us all to check our breasts for lumps, will save lives of other women. Kris' cancer is terminal and although her time left with us is limited, the work she is doing through coppafeel, and her latest campaign #brahijack, is to promote breast cancer awareness and how to check for early symptoms, is inspirational and phenomenal. 

Her parting message was, "love your boobs a little more" and "make your bra save your life".

Show time!!

This stunning venue hosted a gorgeous lingerie catwalk, full of beautiful designs and fabrics.

  

Photo: Cosmopolitan

The likes of Pour Moi, ASOS, B.tempt'd and Wonderbra were showcased in a stunning catwalk show.

Photo: Cosmopolitan

Photo: Cosmopolitan

We were even treated to some delectable nibbles...

  

...and delicious cocktails. 

 

We were treated with the gorgeous voice of Leah McFall, runner up on BBC's The Voice...

Photo: Cosmopolitan

During the interval, we took the opportunity to take a few photos.... 

...and rummage through our astonishingly amazing and generous goodie bags. Only once we got home could be actually see how much Cosmo had spoiled us...

....with the RRP of over £200 we were more than happy with our haul!

The show was resumed and even more beautiful lingerie sets graced the stage.

This was honestly the best, most informative and most fun even we've been to yet.  We already can't wait to get our hands on next years tickets! Thank you Cosmo team for an exceptional night.

Photo: Cosmopolitan

Of every event we have attended in the past 12 months, this is by far the most organised, special, thoughtful, catered for, contributed to, thought through, spectacular and well run event. It was simply an amazing night. 

Thank you Cosmopolitan Fashfest, see you next time!

Attollo Turns One!!

Exactly three years ago we both met during Freshers Week at university.

Exactly two years ago our bitching and moaning about DD+ bras went up a notch as our friendship grew.

Exactly one year ago Attollo began.

We cannot believe that we have had Attollo for a year!!!




Although we did not incorporate the company until October, September 18th is our appointed birthday. It was this date in 2013 that we prioritised Attollo over our other commitments, and today marks one year since we've been working constantly on Attollo, getting it closer and closer to launch each day.

A year ago we went to a business networking event at university with Lee McQueen, Apprentice winner 2008 and Levi Roots, Reggae Reggae sauce founder and Dragons Den successor as the speakers. We went to find out when we should start the company, how soon after university should we set up the company and how on earth we could create our dream company from the perspective of two very inexperienced third year Geography undergraduates.

Little did we know, that all these questions would answer themselves in the next 24 hours.

We networked for the first time, bluffing and smiling our way through conversations we simply did not understand, with terminology being thrown around while we were both trying to discretely get google to translate.

That night we got offered to meet two exceptional contacts the very next day. Like two little giddy children on Christmas Day we embarrassingly burst into tears. To us, that demonstrated how much Attollo was meaning to us and later our parents received very intangible conversations. The suggestion of business meetings the next morning did not go down at all well.

That night we worked round the clock, obtaining domains, email addresses, and obtaining the right to use social media under our name before our meetings in the morning.  Meetings that went so well, it was time to leave our beloved teams; Fleurette left her beloved Cheerleading Squad, Alice left her beloved Hockey team, to focus on creating a business that would finally give us bras we could be proud to wear.

Although this year has been a whirlwind, full of ups and downs on a daily basis, we couldn't have asked for more support and encouragement from our friends and now our families.

We've met some incredible people and without the tireless support of our ever-growing team, we would not have taken Attollo where it is today.

It's also exactly a year since our parents knew we were completely serious about chasing our dream of making Attollo into a reality.

Today marks the half-way point; it is a year since we started Attollo and a year until we bring Attollo bras to all you lovely booby ladies.

In exactly a year's time we will be launching our first range. We cannot wait to see what the next year has in store for us but we know that we love our job more than ever and feel incredibly lucky to be not only create bras that we finally can love wearing, but most of all we get to work with our best friend and sister from another mister every day.  Happy Birthday Attollo!