Intimacy-AKA the Bra Whisperer

Intimacy in Fashion Valley is one of the most talked about lingerie stores in San Diego.

Between the local buzz and the Oprah show, I decided to take “the girls” in and get fitted for a new bra.

The philosophy of Intimacy is that eighty percent of women are wearing the wrong bra size, so being fitted is very important.

The founder and owner, Susan Nethero, was trained under the Queen of England’s bra fitter, June Kenton.  Nethero is known in the lingerie world as the “bra whisperer.” With fifteen years of experience, she opened her first store in Atlanta in 1992.  The store took off.  More stores have opened across the country.

She has appeared on Oprah, What Not To Wear, Tyra Banks and the Today Show.  She’s also the author of Bra Talk: Myths and Facts.

The first thing they asked me to do was to fill out the “Bra needs” questionnaire—Recent life changes?  Weight gain or loss?  Pregnancy?  How many bras do you own?

I was then ushered into the dressing room, which was, as the website promised, “circular and lit from floor to ceiling–in an effort to give each woman a beautiful and unique glow.” Left unmentioned was the color- purple.

Next, my personal “bra fit stylist” for the next thirty minutes, Chrissy Mikhail, asked to see me in my bra and then without it, not for the faint of heart.  After looking me over, Chrissy proclaimed that my size, 34 C bra was definitively the wrong size.  I am actually a 30 D.  What a shock.

She left and returned with a handful of bras in the “correct” size.  Chrissy does not mince words. She is stern. She pulled, shimmied and “windshield wiped” my breasts into every bra.  She insisted that I needed lace bras, preferably with seams at the nipple line.  These would offer the shape and support that best suited me. She called these bras “balcony style.”  They are designed to be wider on the sides and narrower in the front, to look like your breasts are hanging slightly over the balcony.  I imagine a balcony overlooking a Parisian street.

“Every woman should own at least seven to ten bras,” Chrissy says. Most of the bra lines in the store are from Europe.  The best bra she gave me to try was the Bahia by Aubade, made in France.  It was crimson, all lace, and with seams in all the right places.

Now, I just have to bite the bullet and spend the dough—but I think that “the girls” are worth it.