monokini 2.0 Monokini 2.0 is hoping to raise $ 55,000 by the end of June so the designers can make more swimsuits for post-mastectomy patients. 
monokini 2.0 Monokini 2.0’s website says it ‘re-examines popular culture’s narrow idea about woman’s ideal appearance.’ 
monokini 2.0 The designs are cheeky and fun, while still relaying an important message. monokini 2.0 ‘We strive to expand what is accepted and considered beautiful,’ Monokini 2.0 says.
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Women who have undergone mastectomies still want to look hot in a bathing suit.
Monokini 2.0 is a Kickstarter-funded line of swimsuits that wants to help them do so.
The bathing suits, designed in Finland, proudly showcase where a cancer survivor’s breast used to be. Katriina Haikala is the line’s creator and art director – she and her design partner, Vilma Metteri, designed two of them themselves, and enlisted seven other designers to create other edgy, fashionable swimwear.
Haikala and Metteri are artists and performers, but were inspired to make bathing suits because much of their art focuses on female body images. With their new swimwear, they hope to further their mission of changing perceptions of beauty.
“You can be sexy, beautiful and feel whole, (like a) total woman, with or without breasts,” Haikala said. “You are allowed to feel good about yourself, even though society thinks you are imperfect. You are not.”
Monokini 2.0 was inspired by Rudi Gernreich, who created the original monokini bathing suit.
You can be sexy, beautiful and feel whole, (like a) total woman, with or without breasts.
The collection’s models have all gone through breast cancer and did not opt for full reconstructive surgery.
The Kickstarter campaign has 60 backers. It aims to raise $ 55,000 by June 30 so that the company can get its bathing suits into the hands of more women.
Also hoping to change fashion for breast cancer survivors is Dr. Elizabeth Thompson, a radiation oncologist at Northern Westchester Hospital in Mount Kisco, N.Y., and the founder of BFFL Co., which makes products for breast cancer patients.
Dr. Thompson knew firsthand that post-mastectomy bras weren’t as good as they could be -she had undergone a preventive mastectomy herself.
When women come out of the operating room post-mastectomy, they’re fitted with a little garment that pales in comparison to what women really need in terms of support and comfort, she said.
BFFL Co. Dr. Thompson designed the Elizabeth Pink Surgical Bra to make life easier for doctors and patients immediately after mastectomies.
“The bras were made in the ’70s by men who had never seen the modern procedure,” she said.
It took her years to design and bring to market a new bra that offers comfort and ease for women adjusting post-procedure. Her Elizabeth Pink Surgical Bra has an opening on the side for drainage tubes to exit so that they do not pinch under the bra’s elastic. Drain bulbs hang from rings attached to the bra, so the patient doesn’t need to wear a fanny pack or use safety pins to hold up the drains.
The bra also has a Velcro front closure so that doctors can take a peek at the healing process easily when their patient is on the exam table. The Velcro front closure also means the patient doesn’t have to pull anything over her head, which can be very difficult post-surgery.
Thompson hopes to one day have her bras on every mastectomy patient post-surgery.
mengel@nydailynews.com
Lifestyle – NY Daily News