Saturday, May 21, 2016

Bras Plus--A Reno, Nevada store review

I've become spoiled by the boutiques that I've already been in and I really had to take a step back before I wrote this review.  Other stores that I've been in have been brightly painted and/or have very snazzy shelves and/or other furniture.  Bras Plus is decorated in a very spartan manner: very few and just simple pictures around the showroom--which isn't very large but isn't tiny either; one wall is all face-out displays and there are three or four racks of bras, nightgowns, and robes along the center of that side of the store--you can see what I'm talking about on their current cover photo of their facebook page.  The other side of the showroom has some clearance racks but is dominated by the sales desk.  The walls are painted a pale, pale blue (or they're white and just look that way from the light coming through the front windows.

They carry a few select brands--Fantasie, Elomi and Goddess--which is perfect for the wide-rooted customer--and have between two and five styles for each brand.  Their size range appears to be between 30B (and C) and 46H; though that H might be in the Goddess brand and, therefore, a U.S. H and not a UK H.  I did see a few Elomi bras in JJ cups.  They also carry some cup-sized swimwear, mastectomy camis, and longline corsets/bustiers.

The owner was very nice.  She wasn't knowledgable on many aspects of fit but she knew her stuff when it came to sister sizes and what-not.  We discussed the selection in the store and how long they'd been in business--almost 60 years; as well as the opportunity for such a store in Reno.  Reno has a population of more than 200,000 with its surrounding county having more than 400,000 so there is quite the pool of available customers and very few places, in general, to buy bras.  The city has the standard presence of department stores and stores for bras in the mall but Bras Plus is the only one with any selection of extended (read: non-matrix) sizes.

So, even though the store isn't all that fancy and isn't decorated in bright colors or with snazzy furniture, they do offer quite the selection for ladies who size out of matrix-sized bras.