Underwire: May ’23 ‘Mothers Day’

When my brother and I were five and seven, my mother would take us on walks through the neighborhood just as the sky darkened and the inside lights came on. The timing of this was essential, because our purpose was to get a good look into the the living rooms of our Beverly Hills neighbors.

We were students of interior decoration, looking at how each family had arranged their furniture, decorated their walls, created their home. We had to look intently but quickly, so as ...continued

Underwire: April Fool’s 2023

I’m pleased as punch to offer my clients an exclusive curated experience! In collaboration with Savage X Fenty, we have created an immersive 48-hour adventure: discover yourself on an expansive inward journey as you assemble your own bra at our weekend bra crafting retreat!

Experience the magic and sisterhood of laboring side by side (hour after hour!) with women of all ages and residency statuses. Challenge yourself to master the varied sewing ...continued

Underwire: March ’23 ‘La Dolce Vita’

I was invited last month by the Italian Trade Agency to attend the Immagine Italia Lingerie Market in Florence as their guest. What a gruesome fate, I thought, to be flown halfway across the world and put up at a hotel in an ancient city center, surrounded by crumbling old cathedrals and cavernous municipal art collections, with nothing to eat but noodles and chianti. But, as you know, my pursuit of fine lingerie is unceasing.

Compared to the Paris show, Florence offered less of the full ...continued

Underwire: Feb ’23: ‘We Contain Multitudes’

Queen of Cups

Tomorrow I will turn 63. Some days I feel wiser, some days just older. I miss my collagen. I don’t miss menstruating. Mostly I feel like the same girl, sometimes filled with fury at the world and sometimes filled with awe. As I commence my Power Crone phase, I wish for you all the love and lingerie that befits your current archetype.

Photo by Amanda Majors from the Jenette Bras Pin-Up Planner

Underwire: Jan 2023 ‘Risks & Rewards’

I was the third girl in my third grade class at El Rodeo Elementary reckless enough to do a Cherry Drop. That’s when you sit balanced on a straight bar and throw yourself backwards, catching the bar in the crook of your knees, with enough force to swing through and drop off the bar and land on your feet and not your face. I got the idea from watching Diana Isaacs and Joanna Fields (later to achieve glorious infamy as Joanna Stingray). They were on the YMCA gymnastics team and ...continued

Underwire Dec ’22: The Female Gaze

The representation of the feminine is, of course, an evergreen topic around these parts. When we began—seems like yesterday—in 2009, we were the first bra store in the US to focus on the full cup sector. The notion of using diverse body types in fashion modeling was barely beginning to percolate in the industry, and all the editorial images we got from our vendors featured the same standard model body, plus one full-cup model who was ever-so-slightly bigger. We could scarcely ...continued

Underwire: Nov ’22 ‘Jenette Bras Pin-Up Planner’

I think I’ve mentioned before the idea that Jenette Bras is a hybrid of business and art project. The pressures of pandemics and economic downturns may at times—for years!— force us toward the bottom line side of the equation, but through it all, we’ve always kept at least half an eye on the aesthetic vision. Each new buildout has been a study in shaping idiosyncratic old storefronts into arenas for the social theater of bra fitting, always at a cost that most retailers ...continued

Underwire: Sept/Oct ’22 ‘Pencil Vs Pixel’

paper flyer for Jenette Bras

Being an old broad, I regularly pat myself on the back for my nominal computer skills–every digital signature is a victory over adversity. My husband, Aaron, is similarly hanging on by his fingertips in our significantly virtual workplace. His drawing and design skills are entirely a relic of the lost analog age, developed out of his childhood love of comic books–a great many read by flashlight under the covers. As a young man he assembled punk zine pages by pasting ...continued

Underwire: August ’22 ‘Out of the Mouths of Babes’

For those who have met me, two things might stand out: my unruly curly hair and my untamed tongue. I love to talk. Get me started, especially about bras, brafitting, and the ethno-cultural-political-feminist underpinnings of, uh, underpinnings and I’m off! One of the reasons I’m dedicated to spreading this knowledge is because I received very little of it myself as a young girl.

‘Health Class’ as it was called back in the day, consisted ...continued

Underwire: July ’22 ‘Wild Beauty Under Discipline’

Well, the Covid finally caught us. After more than two years of masking up and laying low in sleepy South West Atlanta, and literally two days after (barely) launching Jenette Bras Buckhead, we got cocky and attended a Tiki party. I guess I don’t have to draw you any more of a picture than that.

I suspect the virus found us easy pickings. The last weeks of opening a new store are invariably draining, both emotionally and physically. But it also comes with a deep sense of accomplishment.

Each ...continued