As more shops close in remote areas, Philippa brings women a crucial form of support

SPOTLIGHT / Support act

Philippa Mitchell clocks about 25,000 kilometres per year to reach women in remote areas in her bra-shop caravan.

In the city, we tend to forget that not everything is available to everyone all the time. Like getting a pad Thai at midnight in Brewarrina, for example. Or, for legions of country women, organising a proper bra fitting. This was weighing on Philippa Mitchell’s mind in 2017, when the last department store in the NSW central west city of Orange closed. She established The Fitting Studio, she says, because, “There was virtually nowhere for women in remote regions to get professionally fitted for a bra. Even if they drive to a major centre, there aren’t many options and, alongside shopping for essentials, there’s not much time for bra-shopping.”

As well as serving the Orange region, Mitchell adds about 25,000 kilometres to her odometer each year, visiting towns like Coonamble, Gunnedah, Guyra and Coonabarabran in her retro caravan. Last year, she took on her biggest assignment yet: fitting bras to almost 60 students at Gilgandra High School after staff noticed fewer younger women were engaging in sport. The reason? No decent sports bras within cooee. And the outcome? A 20 per cent increase in girls’ participation in the athletics carnival. No one was more thankful than one year 9 student with 12FF breasts, who was wearing a crop top the day she encountered Mitchell. “I put her into a really good sports bra,” says Mitchell. “She couldn’t believe how comfortable it was.”

Equally grateful to Mitchell was a woman who’d had a bilateral mastectomy nine years earlier and hadn’t worn a bra since. “She left [with a prosthesis bra] saying, ‘I feel normal again!’ ” Deborah Cooke

An imperfect mother of the bride features in Anne Tyler’s 25th novel.

READ / Bridal party

Much-loved American novelist Anne Tyler has won, or been nominated for, multiple awards (including a Pulitzer in 1989 for Breathing Lessons) over a career spanning more than 60 years. Three Days in June ($33), her 25th novel, is vintage Tyler: a heartfelt take on love, marriage and family written with wit and insight in a warm, intimate tone. Over three days, Gail and her ex-husband, Max, reunite for the marriage of their daughter, Debbie. When Debbie has pre-wedding doubts, this leads Gail to rethink her own choices. A bittersweet novel about regret, forgiveness and second chances. Nicole Abadee

WEAR / The long and jort of it

‘Jorts’ – minus the hemline chaos: Shona Joy’s “Jacques” patch-pocket shorts.

Jorts – or jean shorts – are subject to terrible abuse: cut-off hems fraying to oblivion on the thighs or, even worse, pockets flapping around beneath the hemline. Now, these “Jacques” patch-pocket shorts ($240) – tailored, in dark-indigo denim, with crisp, white overstitching – are single-handedly bringing them out of the style wilderness. All the while, practical flap pockets on the sides create a flattering silhouette, reminiscent of another favourite fashion portmanteau: the skort. Damien Woolnough

Luke Quinton’s podcast traces the story of two men who met at work – and discovered they were switched at birth. 

LISTEN / The big switch

When Craig Avery turned 52, he was surprised to discover that another guy at work, Clarence Hynes, was also turning 52 that day. More surprises were on the way. It turned out they were both born in the same tiny hospital in a dot-on-the-map town called Come By Chance, in Newfoundland, Canada. Eventually, they discovered something else: as babies, they were each given to the wrong family. At home, Avery had always felt like the odd one out: everything, from the way he looked to his demeanour, was different to his parents and siblings. In Come By Chance, host Luke Quinton investigates how each man dealt with the news of this twist of fate that upended both their lives. Worryingly, he also discovers that the mix-up wasn’t an isolated case. Barry Divola

SHOP / Sofa so good

King Furniture’s kid-size take on its classic modular design from the ’70s.

Australian furniture house King Living is proving that good design really is timeless, thanks to its championing of repairability, which it’s been doing since 1977 (long before product circularity was a thing). It was this repair service that prompted my own purchase of its Delta sectional sofa 25 years ago; in all that time, it’s only needed one new cover and a bit of replacement foam. I actually think it looks better today than when I bought it. These days, I’m loving the reissue of its iconic 1977 Sofa (from $3191 for Package 11), as well as this super-cute 1977 Mini Sofa (three-piece Playhouse from $1093). You might never need to buy another sofa again. Frances Mocnik

SEE / Diving belle

Snowball, 2024. Pigment print on cotton rag: part of Tamara Dean’s exhibition at Michael Reid Sydney, until March 8.

Toby Meagher, from the art gallery Michael Reid Sydney, describes photographer Tamara Dean’s work as theatrical. And, indeed, the works in her new exhibition, The Flower Duet, feature ethereally beautiful scenes photographed against painted backdrops, the kind you might find in a theatre. They’re colourful, other-worldly and intense – a world away from her former work as a photographer at The Sydney Morning Herald. Or are they? As she says in her 2022 self-titled book, in her 13 years at the SMH, most subjects asked, “What do you want me to do?” when she turned up. That is, they expected to perform. At Michael Reid Sydney, until March 8.

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