I can hardly wait for Fall to start so I can wear my new Huff n Puff vest outside and NOT get strange looks... As it is, I wear it inside the office when the air conditioning is a wee bit on the chilly side – somehow it’s a little more accepted inside the office to be wearing a down filled vest in August. Good thing I work on the Product Team! And the thing is, I’m not alone – as you can see by the picture.

For me what sets this puffy vest apart from all others I’ve tried over the years is the magic combo of draw cords at the waist and the way the sides are paneled. Seems like such a little thing but it gives me shape and keeps me from looking like the dreaded Michelin Man.

What you can’t see is that the inside of the pockets are fuzzy and soft and beckoning for your hands to hang out in ‘em. And the same fuzzy warm fabric is all around the inside of the collar including the zipper garage. It’s also made of 600-fill-power premium goose down to keep me toasty, and the rip stop nylon is water resistant. Bring on Winter! ...or at least some cool Fall evenings!

Ready to brave Fall weather, or at least office air-conditioning? Visit our product page and learn more here.

Our bra designer (aka Chief Ta Ta Tamer) Melissa (on the right) with MelEesa, also a lululemon designer.

In less then 3 days time, I’ll begin a 60km journey through the streets of Vancouver. I’ll be one of a couple of thousand participants in The Weekend To End Breast Cancer which benefits The BC Cancer Foundation. This is actually my third time participating, but my first time walking in Vancouver. I walked for the first time in 2005 in Toronto, and last year I took my walk to the streets of Rome, Italy – accomplishing two goals in one weekend.

This year I’m excited to walk through a city that I’ve come to call my home.

The beauty of this walk is that it’s not about the walk at all. It’s really about the journey we all embark on when we initially sign up for the walk. Since that moment, I’ve been fundraising and talking up a storm. It’s amazing to me to see my community come together to support me in achieving this goal of mine. Between word of mouth, a few emails, selling bags of candy at the office (a little known fact about lululemon’s product team is that we’ve all got a sweet tooth), and holding BBQ lunches on the rooftop for the whole Store Support Centre at lunch time. Friends and colleagues came together to help with the planning, prepping and execution, and their selfless support humbles me continuously.

Although I am still a few dollars short of reaching my minimum (mandatory) pledge of $2000 I know it will all come together in time.

If you aren't familiar with the walk, we start bright and early Saturday morning at Rocky Mountaineer Station and walk throughout the city, camping overnight on Saturday at Killarney Park. Another early rise on Sunday and we finish right back where we started. I'll be surrounded by thousands of other walkers, including survivors, supporters, women who are currently fighting, oodles of family members that are walking for someone they loved and lost, and others like me who walk simply because we can. I may not be walking with friends but I won't be walking alone.

Vancouver, when you see us walking through your neighborhood this weekend, cheer us on. We worked hard to raise an awful lot of money for the BC Cancer Foundation and would love to hear your support.

I’ll be videoing portions of my walk and will be posting a little video blog in the coming weeks, as well as tweeting along the route all day long documenting the journey.

Much love,
Your favorite Ta Ta Tamer

Melissa

You can support Melissa here: www.endcancer.ca/goto/tatatamer2009
Follow The Weekend to End Breast Cancer on twitter: http://twitter.com/Wkend2EndCancer
Follow Melissa's journey this weekend at http://twitter.com/Miss_Content

Above: Melissa, the designer of the Ta Ta Tamer and author of this blog post, at her desk in our head office in Vancouver, BC. 

How exciting that the Ta Ta Tamer is making it’s online debut! I couldn’t be more excited to share this product with our online guests.

Let me tell you a little about this bad boy; The Ta Ta Tamer is lululemon’s very first Full Support Sports bra – honest to goodness ladies, Full Support! I’m on the small end of the big boob girls out there but I have enough that I used to wear 2 bras to be comfortable when running. So naturally when I was asked where I saw myself on the Design Team (I was working as a Product Developer, always with goals to move into Design) I couldn’t help but suggest I design Full Support bras for us. The Ta Ta Tamer is my first ‘baby’ and we’ve had such great response from the guests in our stores that I just couldn’t wait to be able to share this with everyone.

We receive regular emails from stores/guests/online community about women no longer needing to wear multiple bras to go for a run – these are the things that make my life and the stories that give me chills I print out and put on my cork board for daily inspiration.

The goal with the TTT was to have a bra geared at larger cup sizes C-DD’s (eventually going up to E cups online only – stay tuned!) specifically for high impact sports like running. One of my pet peeves with most sports bras available today is that they smoosh, I’m a girl and a curvy one and I don’t see any reason why I shouldn’t look like a girl when I’m running. The cups maintain your shape – say goodbye to uni-boob! The Ta Ta Tamer is available in regular bra sizes that fit true to size – if you don’t know your size you may want to go to a specialty bra store to get properly fitted, or if you are close to a lululemon athletica location we have fit experts there that would be happy to help you.  

Keep in mind this is designed specifically for full support – which means a snug fit – that’s how it works.

• Try to fit the bra on the middle row of hook & eye loops and a comfortable strap length for regular gym workouts and medium impact activities.
• Specific non stretch areas under the bust and under the arms take a lot of the weight off of your shoulders and keep it around the band – which is where it should be.
• Stabilized shoulder straps help control movement.
• The shoulder straps are also  lightly padded and a little wider to help distribute weight and be as comfortable as possible.
• Mesh around the cup areas not only helps with stability and motion control but also ventilation.
• Tighten up the shoulder straps and hook & eye closure for maximum support during your run

You know your bra is fitting you properly when:

• everything is feeling snug and secure
• there is no spillage out the armholes or top of the cups
• you can breathe
• your girls are front & centre – out of the way of your arms
• the rib cage band sits straight all the way around your torso – if your band is riding up your back then it’s too big and you likely need to go down a band size (*note* if the cups fit you well but the band is riding up, when you go down a band size you need to go up a cup size – so a 36C that is riding up the back may need to try a 34D)
• Jump up and down and make sure your bounce is minimal – adjust straps accordingly

Enjoy! And please send feedback! The Fall 09 colors (hitting stores somewhere close to August) will have adjustable straps in the back so you can easily hide the straps under your racerback tanks (you can see I like to colour coordinate my bras with my outfits).

Here's a peek at what we currently have available online:

In Black or Aruba: http://shop.lululemon.com/Ta_Ta_Tamer_II/
In Alarming: http://shop.lululemon.com/Ta_Ta_Tamer_II/

Or, as always, pop into your local lululemon and do the jump-up-and-down-in-the-change-room test.

Enjoy in good health!

To measure your inseam you'll need a friend and a measuring tape. (Easy enough, right?)

Wearing pants that are fairly fitted or shorts, and standing up straight, take the end of the measuring tape (the 1" end) and hold it at the top of your inner thigh.

(Make sure you're standing up straight! If you bend over a little you may end up with shorter pants than you want!)

Get your friend to pull the tape straight down the inside of your leg to the floor – the number that's hitting the floor is your inseam measurement! Make sure you're looking at the inches side of the tape.

**Tip - If you are planning on wearing shoes that have thick soles – like Shox - you may want to add 1" to your inseam length to ensure your pants aren't too short**

Want to find out the length of pants you'll need based on your newly discovered inseam? Check out our size chart here: http://www.lululemon.com/education/info/sizes If you're an inbetween length, don't forget we offer free hemming at all of our stores!

The Trend: Harem Pants (think high waist, dropped crotch, tapered ankles… basically a modern version of the [try not to cringe] ‘Hammer Pant’)

How to get it: The Jesus Pant, tied at the hem. Have the pants hemmed if you have more than an inch of excess length – keep them long though!

Originator: Janine Bouchard, Design Manager lululemon athletica.

Seen/Scene: I’m rockin it left right and centre, it’s spreading like wildfire through the lululemon Store Support Centre and most recently Victoria, British Columbia (check out Becky and I workin' it in Vic)… look for it in a store near you.

If you've watched Allison’s profile video, you know that lululemon has an elite ambassador program. This past year, Allison outfitted Team BC (Team Mallett) before they headed off to the Scotties Tournament of Hearts BC Women's Curling Championship. After their return, they had a thank you party for their family and sponsors and invited lululemon to join them...

If you've read my bio, you know I'm a curler. I’ve been curling for something like 7 years now, and I love it. I've only ever curled socially, never competitively, however I am a bit of a curling nerd and love watching it on TV and following all the incredible teams across Canada. As you can imagine, when I heard about this invite to curl with Team BC, I jumped at the chance (I think I may have scared Allison, I replied to her email so fast!).

We had an awesome day curling with Team Mallett, their families and other sponsors. The majority of people there had never curled before and for those of us who had it was a really exciting day to play with the pros. The highlight of my day (and I have a witness!) was when (Vice) Grace MacInnes told me I could curl competitively – because I'm "seriously good" !!!!!! What a huge compliment. I was walking on cloud nine for days…. Ok, I’m still pretty excited about it, can't lie.

One of the other lucky curlers that day was Shirley Glua (a very good friend of mine and also a blog artist). Shirley is famous for, well... jumping (I swear she does IT stuff too but it's not quite as exciting – sorry Shirls!). So true to form, as we now tend to do wherever we are, we launched a few times at the Vancouver Curling Club after the games were complete.

A big Thank You to team BC for the invite, it was really really awesome to curl with you, and thank you lululemon for all these once-in-a-lifetime opportunities.

Rock On (that’s a little curling humour for you).

Above: Shirley (our IT New Store Coordinator) aims for the button!

Nothing gets me more excited than when I'm working in our stores and I hear about guests falling in love with the TaTa Tamer. It may seem a little self-serving to name the TTT as my favourite piece of lululemon, but how can I not?

Any girl who's ever had to wear two bras just to go for a run knows exactly where I'm coming from. It's of course a lot more than that for me, being my first (read: more gorgeous supportive bras to come!) major contribution to lululemon in the world of full support sports bras.

I'm passionate about what I do: bras and underwear are fun and shouldn't be boring! I believe they should be a part of your outfit; they should look great and function for you no matter what you're doing.

I love solving problems in creative ways. Whether it's educators telling me about guest experiences or it's getting the opportunity to fit someone properly in the perfect sports bra for their needs, it makes my day. It's one thing to love what you do, another to do what you love, and it's something close to incredible when doing what you love changes the lives of women in the best possible way.

I wear my TTT all the time, co-coordinating of course with whatever outfit/activity I'm up to - working, running, jumping, dodgeballin'...(yes, I have specific outfits for these activities!). I've got various colours to work with my various outfits.

I love love love being a woman, I love being active, and I don’t believe that women should ever have to compromise one for the other. I'm proud of my shape, I like my curves and I want to still look feminine while running. No more uni-boob, AND I get the support I need! What else could I ask for? It's a fun, cute garment that functions. How could the TaTa Tamer not be my favourite piece of lululemon?

Melissa is our bra and swimwear designer. Her big, hairy, ambitious goal is to have Oprah talk about one of her bras on air.

In the photo above, Melissa and MelEesa (both on our design team) are wearing the Movement Tank over top of their TaTa Tamers. To try on and fall in love with a TaTa Tamer yourself, please visit your local lululemon store.