It’s uplifting work: Polo native a certified bra fitter

That’s one of the mottos used by her fellow bra fitters with Essential Bodywear.

The Sterling resident has been a certified bra fitter for 4 years. She is also an independent representative for the Commerce, Mich., company.

Duncan, 52, fit 100 women in order to get certified with the company. She is the only certified bra fitter in the area, as far as she knows.

Women hate to shop for bras, she said.

“If there’s not somebody there to fit you, you get tired of trying them on, and you take anything you think will fit.”

Eighty-five percent of women are wearing bras that are the wrong size, most of them too small, she said.

“I think it’s a size thing,” Duncan said, adding that customers are sometimes dismayed to find that they are a size 40, not a 36, or that they need G cups, not Cs or Ds.

But “putting the girls up where they belong can make you look 10 pounds lighter, and you look good, you feel good,” she said.

And that can make all the difference.

“A woman who looks good feels confident,” she said. “A confident woman can do anything.”

Although Duncan’s fittings are free, she encourages customers to try on Essential Bodywear bras. She offers a range, from 32A to 44H; strapless, underwire and wireless; and nude, black, or sometimes red – but not white.

“There is no need for a white bra,” she said. “The worst thing under white is a white bra.”

Essential Bodywear bras are more comfortable than others because they have molded cups and their underwires are shaped more like smiles, less like horseshoes, Duncan said.

“You don’t even know you’re wearing a bra.”

She works parties at which the hostess may get a discount on Essential Bodyear products. She also sells other Essential products, including panties, shapewear and tank tops.

Duncan, a 1979 Polo High grad, works for Scholl Insurance Agency in Polo. She and her husband, Dan Duncan, 47, have two children: Richard Jackley, 21, and Jakob Duncan, 23, both of Sterling.