In our 10 Minutes With ... Lisa Cheng, the Hong Kong-based lingerie store founder tells us about the Sheer Charity Bra Drive, which is set to return this month, and how your unused bras can uplift women in need
Having trouble finding a bra that fits properly and fitting services that help one feel comfortable—forgetting empowered—is something many women all around the world are familiar with. This challenge is what inspired Lisa Cheng to start her own lingerie business, Sheer, in Hong Kong in 2011.
Another challenge she experiences is that after years of trial and error to find the right size, she was left with a number of bras in good condition but of no use to her. “I hadn’t donated any of them to larger charities or second hand shops because I wasn’t sure where they were going to end up,” Cheng told Tatler last week.
“When I started researching bra donations, I learnt that it’s the least donated item, yet the most needed. I’d contacted a few charities [in Asia] that worked specifically with women, and I asked them if bras were something they were looking for—it was an unanimous yes.”
So the annual Sheer Charity Bra Drive was born in 2012 to get bras to women in need. The initiative was stalled for a few years due to the pandemic, but it’s back this year. Ahead of the Sheer Charity Drive, which will run from September 15 to October 15, we spoke to Cheng about the importance of bras to women, the charities Sheer is partnering with this year and what keeps her going.
Read more: 5 charities that are improving women’s lives in Hong Kong
Tell us about the Sheer Charity Bra Drive and its objectives
We collect gently used bras over a month, sort them by size and send them directly to organisations. This year we’re collecting them from September 15 to October 15 at our stores [in Landmark and Harbour City].
Our objective is to help women in need get this essential item of clothing, which actually symbolises wealth, status and financial stability in a lot of impoverished areas. We work with charities that rehabilitate sex trafficking victims, [help women dealing with] crisis pregnancies, young women without families to support them and so on.
Wearing a bra can [help] prevent women from being taken advantage of and provide them a sense of dignity. We also want to provide our Sheer customers a thoughtful way to donate their bras, as they can be certain that they will go directly to women that need them.
What challenges did you face when organising this campaign?
There aren’t really any challenges when it comes to collecting bras—for many women in Hong Kong, it’s a no brainer and they feel good about where their donations are going.
We’ve also been very lucky to work with great partners over the years who have helped provide financial support to ship these bras to various countries including Indonesia, Thailand and Nepal.
