The months of April, May and June are Bra Tender’s busiest, with proms, weddings, graduations, numerous theatrical awards shows and galas. The fitting rooms are booked from open to close, and we even just changed our shop hours because more folks want to shop after work than before. We accommodate walkins when possible.
Today we had a walk in. a tiny wisp of a woman, 4’10, maybe 80 pounds. She mentioned that she’s a costumer, and all the folks she works with have been telling her for years to visit Bra Tenders to solve her brablems. I agreed to help her, if she was OK working in the stock room corner. She was.
Grace was upbeat and chatty. She wears, and designs her own vintage style dresses from the 40’s and 50’s, and likes the torpedo tit look of sweater girls like Lana Turner and Kate Hepburn.
She wanted the impossible: a circular stitched, cone shaped cup, in her proper size, that was also smooth and didn’t have seams or texture in the cup. Well, that is a mouth full of contradictions!
First, those bullet bras are shaped that way because of the circular stitching. It isn’t possible to create such a pronounced forward projection without the circular stitching. The “sweater girls” of the 1950’s became known as such because they wore them under sweaters, the fashion of the time.
Second, those old fashioned bras weren’t made in a size 28 anything, they started at size 34. Grace’s best size was 28DD. She has a very petite frame.
Surprisingly, I had 17 different bras in her size. Many were the one-piece-left at the end of a season that didn’t sell, and 3 were core product for us. 2 actually gave her the forward projection she wanted, and fit her perfectly! She was happily uplifted.
She mentioned she was on tour, and was on a layover in NYC, catching up on many things she wanted to do. I asked, “what tour are you on?”
She said, “Cher.”
I said, “The Cher show has a tour already?” It’s common for a Broadway show to put out a tour, but this seemed early in the run for that step.
The Cher Show only opened a few months ago on Broadway, with Bob Mackie designing the costumes. One of my Broadway favorites, the Pirate Queen herself, Stephanie J Block, starred as one of the 3 Chers. Every night people jumped out of their seats and danced in the aisles. I mean c’mon, it’s Cher! When I was a kid, Cher and Sonny were a pair. I Got You Babe was a huge hit.
Grace smiled and said, “No, not the Broadway Cher Show. Cher Cher, the actual Cher. Tony nominations this week”
Just a snippet from my life behind bras.
