PrettyLittleThing launches first of its kind mastectomy range with Girl Vs Cancer – and it’s incredible

Each year the month of October comes around and countless brands come together to raise funds for Breast Cancer Awareness month. However, this year a much-loved brand has taken things to new heights as PrettyLittleThing has collaborated with the incredible Lauren Mahon and Girl Vs Cancer on a post-surgery lingerie collection called ‘Awaken’ – a first for the online retailer.

We sat down with the inspiring Lauren and chat all about the new 18-month partnership and how this brilliant project came together…

Hello! So firstly, for anyone who doesn't know, what is Girls Vs Cancer?

Girl Vs Cancer is a charity collective because no person is an island and for me in charity world, we need to collab so we’re a collective with people who are maybe cancer patients, people who design the website, PrettyLittleThing – those who support the cause.

Our aim is to create real tangible changes for the cancer community, we don’t do lip service, we are fed up of hearing how bad things are or all this needs to change and we want to be the ones to get those changes over the line.

Also, a space for awareness and information, and cancer is a very overwhelming, dark, scary place when you get sucked into it. We are trying our best to be the best friend down the pub with their arm around your shoulder telling you it’s going to be ok. It’s about humanising it rather than being clinical, it’s about connection. Connecting with the people in the community from all works of life to get the support that they want and need.

How did the collaboration come about?

It all started ticking over and became real in May. But I’ve had a really great relationship with PrettyLittleThing for years, so they’ve championed me and the work I do with Girl Vs Cancer forever. As soon as I started it, I’ve been in a few of their campaigns over time and I know that when they wanted to move into a different direction with their breast cancer campaigns and they came to me, it felt very like a hell yes!

I’ve seen first-hand how this business runs and I’ve seen how hard the teams work and you know when you get certain places that are inclusive without even trying that’s PLT for me and I just knew that it married up to what Girl Vs Cancer is trying to achieve so it was a no-brainer. I was very adamant I didn’t want this to be a one-time thing, it needs to be bigger, so we have three collections over 18 months which I’m really excited about as we can really sink our teeth into and learn from each collection.

The campaign pictures are incredible – what was the plan behind it?

I wanted this feel of an elite sex club vibe and I did a shoutout to the community earlier on in the year and I just said look, something huge is happening who wants to be involved. And the thing is it’s so easy, it’s kind of in a way like nepotism, you see the same people in the same campaigns and none of us are the spokesperson for cancer.

Everyone’s cancer experience is different and I wanted to be able to get as many voices as I can from the community involved. Everyone is going to have a different cancer experience, surgical outcome, be in a different stage of their cancer experience, have different taste levels, and different desires from this collection.

So, it felt really important to get a real good mix of people from the community that I hand-picked myself to come forward and sit in the room and work with PrettyLittleThing very closely.

We also had lingerie consultant Monica Harrington that I’ve worked with a lot in the breast cancer-sphere. Her knowledge of underwear and prosthetist fitting is otherworldly. There was no one else I wanted to help me with this than her so she worked very closely with the PLT design team as well.

Lingerie can be quite a scary style to approach for anyone, but what is your key piece of advice for gaining back your self-confidence after going through the journey?

I’m very lucky that I managed to save my breasts and I mean that purely because surgery is a lot on the body. So I got all of these other women in because I didn’t have the experience of losing my breasts or have those augmentations, so I wanted their influence on the collection.

But for me personally, your body does change, when you’re going through cancer it dehumanises you, you become separate from your body. And a big part of the process of living well with and living beyond the disease is finding a way for that to connect back. A lot of that is around sex appeal.

As females, or people that are fem or identify that way there is a lot of sexualisation conditioned that our breasts are sexual, we’re seen as these sexual beings – which is fine if you feel that way about yourself, but I think looking at yourself with your own set of eyes rather than worrying what other people are seeing is the most important thing.

This campaign isn’t built for other people to look and gaze at and think “omg these women look amazing”, it’s for the wearers to look and feel amazing. The minute I was looking in the mirror every day and every time I heard myself say something negative, I’d tell myself to stop. Would you talk to your best friend like that? No, so don’t talk to yourself like that. That’s the message I was trying to get to them and holding up a mirror to the girls on those days on set and them really seeing themselves and how we all see them, it was the best thing every. It was very emotional.

The minute they put those outfits on they were shocked and it awoke something in them, hence why the collection is called Awaken. It’s not for anyone else, it’s for them.

What was involved in the design process? How did the collection change and evolve from the very first idea to shooting the campaign?

I went into it with a very clear idea of what I wanted it to be, so taking inspiration from the likes of Savage Fenty with their sexy, powerful and inclusive, with the basics of SKIMS something that you really want to wear. I took what the brands were doing and said I want something like this but tailor it to the breast cancer community. We got in a room with all of the PLT design team, creative team, marketing and the 12 women and just listened.

We went around the room and asked “what’s missing?” and they all said sex appeal so it immediately confirmed I was on the right track with lingerie. I don’t want anyone to think that we’re sexualising cancer, because that’s really not what it’s about. I’ve giving back that autonomy to the community.

What are the key design features which make it tailored to the cancer community?

It was good to hear that everyone had different needs and tastes, so working closely with the design team we had to change how we looked at things as we knew what we wanted and what was available but how do we marry the two?

So it was bringing the lines higher on the chest to cover prosthesis or scarring, making sure straps went down the centre of the chest not across the breast so that it didn’t dig into any swelling, it wasn’t digging or cutting into the underarms as lymphoedema causes this, thicker straps and waistbands for support, no underwire – we’ve used flexible boning instead. We’ve included hidden pockets and power mesh underneath to put any prosthesis in.

_I_t’s not fair to expect young women or young fems to go out and buy a £90 bra that might be practical but it’s ugly and they don’t feel good in it and makes them feel like a cancer patient. The beauty of this collection is that any one of the girls in the campaign or has been through a cancer diagnosis, whether they’ve had breast removed or not can go and buy the exactly same lingerie as their mates. It’s inclusive, it's not separate.

As someone who is embedded in the community, there is a lot of pinkwashing that goes on. It’s like people think let’s throw something pink out there and let's raise money for charities. This collection is 100% profits, plus a huge donation from each of the collections with PLT. So not only does it help us as an organisation but also we are creating a collection that is going to make a difference to the cancer community. We’re not just putting a pink ribbon on it and saying this is for cancer, there will be a lot of lingerie that comes out for Breast Cancer Awareness month but is it created with the patients in mind? No.

What else can we expect from the Girl Vs Cancer and PrettyLittleThing's new partnership?

I would love to tackle swimwear, you have people with bad scarring, breast augmentations, how do we create something that would make people feel really good so that they are walking around with their bodies on show?

So, I’m hoping this it the beginning of something very impactful. It’s amazing to work with PLT and reach millions but more than anything, for me, I want to show that this can be done and other brands need to do better.

What is your favourite piece from the collection?

It’s so hard to decide but I’ve got two sets that I’m obsessed with. The first is one with a covered cup which then has really sheer fake boned panel then it comes with a sheer skirt with a thong underneath. The second is the wavy lace bodysuit which is stunning. It’s all giving me that underwear as outerwear vibe which the community struggles with, whereas now, they don’t have to.