Anette Togo Thyrsted

The story

In 2025 Anette boarded – as she describes it herself – an express train she would not wish anyone to be a passenger on.

She was diagnosed with high-grade precancerous changes in the breast together with an inherited BRCA mutation. That meant a long series of operations in which both breasts and her ovaries were removed, and with that she also entered the menopause from one day to the next. 

In the same period she was being treated for skin cancer in several places on her body.

In a short space of time her body went through marked changes. She had large scars after the many operations, her skin needed more protection from the sun, and she had to find her way in a body that felt quite different.

When she started looking for swimwear that took account of her new needs, she was surprised by how hard it was to find.

She was missing swimwear that united function, protection and feminine design. Swimwear that took account of the changes in her body, but that above all she wanted to put on, because she felt comfortable in it.

And it dawned on her that she was hardly alone.

Women's bodies change through life. With age, after illness, operations, pregnancies or the menopause. But the wish to feel comfortable in your own body does not go away.

That realisation became the beginning of Avera Studio. A swimwear brand created from the needs of real women. With an ambition to unite aesthetics, comfort and protection – and to give more women the chance to find peace in the body's changes.