Aintzane, the Basque 'model' chosen by Mango for his 'uniteta' clothes after overcoming cancer

Aintzane Artola lost a breast to overcome breast cancer and decided not to rebuild it. And, over time, live without hiding it. This 35-year-old from Tolosa is one of the 14,000 women in Spain who start a new life with only one breast after having undergone a mastectomy. And today she is also one of the three protagonists of Mango's new underwear and swimwear collection for single-breasted women. His photographs appear in the online store of the Catalan firm throughout the world. And they have jumped to the main fashion magazines. A loudspeaker with which she intends to help other women to face their new physiognomy naturally. And incidentally shout to the world "that you can go out with only one boob to the street and nothing happens." «I decided that I did not want to return to the operating room, in the end it was something aesthetic. For a year and a half, I wore an external prosthesis, but for me it was a burden, like carrying a backpack. I started playing sports, all day with the kids up and down... I only thought about getting home to take off my bra," she says.

She was found to have a three-inch tumor and "two or three other lumps" while breastfeeding her young son, in late 2016. After half a year of chemotherapy, she had to undergo a radical mastectomy of her breast right and subsequently received radiotherapy, so breast reconstruction could not be done immediately. "The first thing I thought about after the diagnosis was those in my house, in my family, but I said 'that's it, there's treatment, so I'll go ahead and do what they tell me to do,'" she recalls.

After deciding she didn't want to have her breast reconstructed or take her prosthesis out of the drawer again, she ran into a situation she didn't expect. She was not able to find a bra that suited her on the market. Lingerie or bathing suits were reduced to the unsightly models of orthopedics. And no firm had paid attention to those women who, like her, live with only one breast. «What I did was take a normal bra and cut it or remove a cup to adapt it to my body. There were only options with a pocket to put a prosthesis in, it seems that you cannot go with only one breast through life.

In 2019, Idoia Miranda, who also overcame breast cancer, and the Teta&Teta collective created Lola, the first post-mastectomy bra for 'uniteta' women. They started a crowdfunding campaign to finance it and managed to put it up for sale on October 6. But, in addition, they decided to challenge big brands to make their own version to give more and better options to all women who have only one breast. Of the 16,000 mastectomies performed each year in Spain, only 4,800 women have their breasts reconstructed and only 1,920 of them do so immediately, according to data from the Spanish Society of Plastic and Reconstructive Surgery (SECPRE).

The textile chain Mango accepted the challenge and presented the first collection of underwear and swimwear in April. «The association told me that a firm was looking for 'Uniteta' women who lived in Europe, I sent some photos of myself and they took me. I did the photo session in Barcelona, ​​with two other women, Jasmina, from the Canary Islands; and Andrea, Catalan. It took us a whole day, from nine in the morning to six in the evening, but I was calm, it was all very easy, "says Aintzane. His goal was to make this reality visible, “because something that cannot be seen seems to not exist”. "A couple of years ago I was super lost, that's why I wanted those women with doubts or fears to have someone to reflect on."

The collection is made up of three bras, two swimsuits and a bikini in different colors and fabrics that have a single-cup format that can also be adapted in case of wearing prostheses. The six garments, designed and made in Spain, are now available from size S to XXXL in the countries where Mango's online store is present. «I love the bikini, it's super cool, I'm happy because I was looking for a collection like this. But the important thing is that in a few years this won't be news and it's normal to find 'one piece' bras in the supermarket”, points out Aintzane.

One of the objectives of the Catalan firm was to guarantee a product that would be affordable for any woman -prices range from 19.99 to 39.99 euros-, since this type of garment is usually expensive. All models are reversible and the entire profit will be donated to the Teta&Teta association. A necessary gesture considering that every 20 minutes a Spanish woman hears that she has breast cancer.