Bra Heaven is About To Get Bigger

A couple of years ago, I took off almost twenty pounds.  The weight came off between July and December, so I didn’t have to deal with the fallout until spring arrived. Once my bulky sweaters were shed, I had no choice but to face the honest truth: My bras had to go.

For my entire adult life, my bra-buying technique went something like this:  Go to a department store.  Find a comfy bra. Buy a half dozen.  Wear them for a decade until they all disintegrate.  Repeat.

For some reason, this time around I ended up going to 47 S Park Street in Montclair, and now it’s the only place I’ll go. The women who work there are breast wizards and one of them (I’ll call her Dee) has spent so much time assessing and adjusting me that I feel like we should be dating. 

I walked in that fateful spring day and announced, “I lost 18 pounds and my breasts really took a hit.”  Dee came out from behind the counter like a soldier called to arms.

“Off with your shirt,” she commanded, and sent me back to the fitting room. She looked me hither and yon and then made her pronouncement: “Let’s start with a 34C.”

She was already out in the racks when I called after her. “Don’t bother,” I said. “I’m not a 34 and I’m not a C.” My old bras were 36Bs and they’d become just a touch roomy. But my protests were ignored.

Dee brought back four bras, all 34Cs and each one fit as if it were custom made. This is because Dee has been trained to find you a bra that fits perfectly.  When you’re with a woman who has this skill, you should stop whatever you’re doing, cast your gaze skyward and offer up a suitable quantity of thanks.  Because this is a woman who can change everything for you. 

Shop owner Deborah Furr has not bestowed this gift to Dee alone.  All the clerks at Johari have been thus trained.  Furr, who opened the store 11 years ago, has been in lingerie (so to speak) for 28 years.  She did buying for Newport News (a division of Spiegal catalog), Lerner catalog and Alexander’s before opening Johari in 2000.  Even as a buyer, her employers required Furr herself to be trained in the technical aspects of brassiere fitting.  

Furr continues to take classes from manufacturers on how to achieve the perfect fit.  “Each company is different and the fit is different,” she explains.  “It’s best to be trained specifically for the products I’m selling.”

Johari prides itself on its “perfect-fit” techniques and customers seem to agree.  The small boutique has completely outgrown its real estate and the store is moving, Sept. 1 to 465 Bloomfield Ave., former home of Semplice.   “We’re going from 575 square feet to 2,000,” says Furr.  “This move will more that triple our space for lingerie and swimwear.”

Furr maintains that the most important aspect of a well-fitting bra is that it be comfortable the minute you put it on.  “The wire shouldn’t poke you and the straps should feel good,” she says.  Here are some of the things she looks for in her fittings:

• The front of the bra should touch the chest and separate the breasts.
• It should not have to be hooked on the tightest clasp.  Ideally, it should be hooked on the loosest.
• The straps should not dig into the shoulders.
• If you raise your arms up and down, the bra should stay in place.

Furr adds, “If you lose weight, especially if you lose over 15 or 20 pounds, you should really be refitted. It’s hard to get the right bra without a good fitting.  I have women who come in wearing a 34B bra and they really need to be in a DDD.”

Does everyone know this?  I’ve been wearing bras for almost 37 years and this information is brand new to me.

Thankfully those naïve days are behind me.  I now know that the $80 I spend on two good bras is going to make me feel like I just had an $8000 boob job.