Fayreform

Fayreform is an Australian fuller-bust bra brand owned today by the New Zealand lingerie company Bendon, which sells it alongside its own Bendon and Pleasure State labels. The line is built around supportive, engineered bras running up to a J cup. Fayreform is often described as one of Australia's oldest lingerie names, with a founding date of 1926 in Melbourne, but no source available for this entry confirmed that date or city, so this account sticks to what can be shown.

What the name means now

Anyone who types the old Fayreform web address now lands on a collection page inside the Bendon Lingerie Australia store. There is no separate Fayreform site, no standalone history page and no list of stores. The brand has become a label within a portfolio, the way many 20th-century foundation names ended up: kept alive for the customer loyalty attached to the name, produced and marketed by a bigger owner.

Bendon presents Fayreform as its specialist range for fuller busts. The collection is sold as bras engineered for support across an extended size range, up to J cups, with an emphasis on fit at the larger end. In practice that places it in the territory of the full-cup bra and the minimizer, the workhorse styles of the full-figure market, rather than in fashion lingerie.

The Bendon connection

Fayreform's owner has a well-documented history of its own. Bendon was founded in 1947 on Auckland's North Shore by Ray Hurley, a former naval officer, and Des Hurley, a pattern cutter. Like many foundation firms of that generation it started with corsets and only later moved into bras and underwear. The company's own story is that the name came from the idea of lingerie that would "bend on" the body, moving with the wearer instead of fighting her.

Bendon's ownership changed several times:

Year	Owner of Bendon
1947	Founded by Ray and Des Hurley, Auckland
1987	Ceramco Corporation
2002	Pacific Retail Group, for about NZ$58.7 million
2017	Naked Brand Group, listed on NASDAQ
2021	Management buyout, reported at a nominal NZ$1

Bendon now says it has sold more than 20 million bras and runs stores and outlets in both New Zealand and Australia. Its brand list includes Bendon, Me by Bendon, Pleasure State, Lovable and Hickory for women, and Bendon Man and Davenport for men. Fayreform is the label in that list assigned to fuller cup sizes.

When and how Bendon came to own Fayreform is not recorded in the sources checked. The encyclopedia article on Bendon lists Fayreform only as part of the current portfolio, without an acquisition date.

What could not be confirmed

The museum's database lists Fayreform as founded in Melbourne in 1926 and calls it one of Australia's oldest lingerie brands, known for full-cup bras. The second half of that claim matches what Bendon sells today. The first half may well be right, but the date and the city could not be traced to any accessible source while this entry was being written. They are reported here as unconfirmed rather than repeated as fact.

The same is true of the early owners, the factories and any mid-century advertising. Those details may survive in Australian newspaper archives and trade directories rather than on the web.

Fayreform beside other fuller-bust labels

The fuller-bust market in Australia and New Zealand is crowded. Fayreform competes with specialist imports such as Elomi and Curvy Kate, both British labels sold on wide size ranges. Fayreform's pitch is more conservative: dependable support, a familiar local name and a place on the same shelves as Bendon's main line. The museum archive holds no Fayreform products at present. What survives of the brand online is a single collection page and a promise of cup sizes to J, which is a long way from a heritage label's usual story, and probably closer to what its customers actually came for.

Last updated October 7, 2026