Jenette Bras Caters to Full-Figure Dames
Like many women, Jenette Goldstein was wearing the wrong-size bra. The band had slack to spare, and the straps dug into her shoulders from carrying the weight of her ample bosom. Goldstein found her correct size with the assistance of a professional bra fitter at a shop 20 miles away from her home in the Silver Lake neighborhood of Los Angeles. Now, her new lingerie shop, Jenette Bras in Los Angeles, is dedicated to helping fellow well-endowed women get fitted in the correct bra for their shape.
Goldstein wanted to provide a personally measured fitting experience for each customer, which is why there are few bras in sight when you first walk into the front “waiting room” of the store. The majority of merchandise is located in the spacious fitting-room area, where the proprietress sizes each customer up and offers a range of styles from inventory drawers organized by size in the fitting-room salon.
“You want to make sure—it sounds kind of crazy—but that they know how to wear a bra,” Goldstein said. “Like how it should fit, where the band should lay on their back. The band should be level. It’s not supposed to be tipping. So many women are used to wearing it loose. It could feel a little bit snug at first.”
Retail prices range from $40 to $100 by brands such as Freya, Fantasie, Panache, Anita, Le Mystegrave;re, Elomi and Bravado nursing bras.
There is also some sleepwear and panties by Hanky Panky and vintage-inspired slips by Watsonville, Calif.–based Farr West that Goldstein calls “Cat on a Hot Tin Roof” slips, named after the 1958 movie starring Elizabeth Taylor.
Learning about bra fitting has been a process for Goldstein, who has worked as a film and theater actress in Los Angeles and London for most of her life. Her reacute;sumeacute; includes roles in “Aliens,” “Titanic,” and “Terminator 2: Judgment Day.” She briefly worked at an innerwear store in Hackney, a borough of London, and thoroughly learns the features of each bra style she carries, but she mostly relies on her instinct when fitting. “I’m an end customer. I know what it feels like on me, what I would buy,” Goldstein said. —Rhea Cortado
