Gigi Bralette Elli Bralette authority on nipple concealment,” Connelly said. NDA also stocks petal-less versions for women who need unique fitting. When she launched Gigi, a full-coverage style fitting up to a G cup, her stepmother’s unilateral mastectomy inspired her to make it customizable for post-mastectomy needs: women choose petals or pockets for breast forms. Her ties to MUSC Hollings Cancer Center and after-care breast centers shaped it. Connelly customized a bralette for her stepmother: one cup with a petal, the other a pocket for her breast form. That work has expanded beyond NDA’s own bras. Customers mail in bras from other brands, swimwear included, marking their nipple location so Connelly can place a petal exactly there. “These women want nipple coverage without the bulk. That’s what I specialize in,” she said. That cross-brand work convinced Connelly the petal has wider application, and that this next chapter feels natural. “I always knew there was a next for NDA, just not if I’d be the one,” she said. “The petal is bigger than me. My purpose was bringing it into the world.” She made it public to customers this summer: her focus is a bridge to a partner who can take it further than she can alone. “I’ve proved the concept. The IP is documented and patented, ready for someone with the scale to carry it forward,” she said. Currently, Connelly said, “NDA is a boutique answer to a global problem, and whoever takes it from here will keep expanding the message: nipple coverage without bulk, backed by more products and a marketing engine to reach the women looking for it.” Learn more at ndapparel.com. THE BRA COMPANY BUILT ON A PROBLEM NO ONE SAYS OUT LOUD BY BECKY CONNELLY For some women, the word nipple itself feels off-limits, too personal to talk about. Yet self-consciousness about concealing nipples through clothing is universal, and women privately type some version of “best way to hide nipples” into a search bar. That taboo is what Becky Connelly, founder of Charleston’s Non Disclosure Apparel, built her small business on. “I was a preteen when I became hyperaware of my nipples poking right through my T-shirt,” Connelly said. As an adult, she hunted for the perfect bra, but every one she found was either unlined or padded. Yet she settled on molded cupped bras for years, since the gap where the cup met her body never touched her skin, the lesser of two evils. “Even still, they distorted my shape, were rigid and scratchy,” she said. Fed up with limited options, she took six years to build the bra she wanted: a bralette made in the USA, with a thin concealing petal sealed into each cup. “No padding, no gaping, just concealing. And comfortable,” she added. “A bralette in a category all by itself.” NDA offers two styles: the Elli, a classic bralette silhouette, and Gigi, a full-coverage lounge bra. “Even with intimates retailers wall-towall with padded bras, women find us online looking for this solution, and search engines trust us as an 27 WWW.CHARLESTONWOMENPODCAST.COM | WWW.READCW.COM | WWW.INSTAGRAM.COM/CHARLESTONWOMEN Concealing Petal FASHION & STYLE Photo Provided Becky Connelly, founder of Charleston’s Non Disclosure Apparel
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