If there was a magic potion that could make a woman look 10 pounds slimmer and her clothes fit better, would she take it? Unfortunately no such bottled solution exists, but finding the right bra to add some lift may do the trick.

Tina Karakourtis, owner of Tina’s Closet, an undergarment specialty shop in downtown Lisle, has been helping women find a great lift both physically and emotionally for more than two decades

“We have women who come in who can’t stand their bodies and think they have weird body shapes,” Karakourtis said. “I bring the self-esteem back. My customers keep coming back because they say, ‘Tina, this is the best bra I’ve had.’”

A self-proclaimed undergarment aficionado, Karakourtis boasts that she has fit more than 800,000 women and sold more than a million bras.

“There are so many girls who walk this Earth wearing the wrong size bra,” Karakourtis said. “They think something is wrong with their bodies because they are pulling on their straps or they have backaches and underwire jabbing their armpits.”

Karakourtis opened the store in 1987 after spending 16 years working in a maternity shop. She helped pregnant and nursing women who would complain of ill-fitting undergarments.

Frustrated, Karakourtis called the bra manufacturer to find out why the bras weren’t fitting properly. It was then she learned how to properly measure a woman for a bra. At times that wasn’t even enough to keep her customers fully supported, so she took the undergarments home and made alterations to achieve the perfect fit.

“There aren’t that many bra sizes out there and there are tons of women,” Karakourtis said. “We can’t all be the same bra size.”

What sets Tina’s Closet apart from department stores and other specialty shops is she offers a bra-fitting service, not a place to browse. All customers must take a number and wait for their turn to be fitted. Karakourtis personally helps every customer.

Once inside the dressing room,  Karakourtis wraps a tape measure around her customer with dizzying speed. It only takes her a few minutes to figure out their size and more often than not it is not the size they came in wearing. Case in point, a recent customer came in wearing a droopy 36C and left with a high standing 32 DD.

She then disappears into her back room—filled nearly ceiling to floor with bras in drawers, on hangers and in boxes— and she emerges like a magic bra fairy presenting the proper fitting bra to her customer.

“Customers come in, get measured, I select the styles,” she said. “We have seen so many different body types and different ages, and I know what bras are out there. I just saved the customer hours of shopping for a bra.”

This kind of service is what has helped Karakourtis develop her avid following. On an average day, she works with 75 to 150 customers. Most can expect to wait 20 minutes to an hour for a fitting.

“I don’t live in the area any longer, but whenever I am in town I make a stop here,” said Candace Kroese who resides in Minnesota. “I can’t find a shop like this anywhere else. I have even brought some of my friends here on a pilgrimage.”

During the fitting, Karakourtis makes sure to educate each customer on how a bra should fit. She gladly answers the same questions over and over. The most frequently asked always pertains to eliminating the squished shoulder flab that surrounds the back strap.

To avoid this, Karakourtis said a bra should fit low and snug on the back. Buying a bra that is too big in the back will cause the straps to fall off the shoulders. It should feel snug on the loosest hook.

“You want to feel like you are wearing support and your boobs are up on your chest not resting on your rib cage,” she said.

She also recommends making sure the back strap fits low over the latissimus dorsi muscles—between the shoulder blades and the waist.

“That helps hold the bra down,” she said. “When bras ride up and dig in the back, that is why it is sore. Most women buy a bigger back size than they need and their boobs end up sagging around their waist.”

She also cautions about laudering the bra. She insists on hand washing with a gentle detergent and hanging it to dry.

But most importantly during the fitting process, it is crucial to model the undergarment with clothes to get the full effect.

“Always put the shirt on over each bra,” she said. “A good fitting bra is like getting a new set of boobs.”

Tina’s Closet is located at 4745 Main St. in downtown Lisle. For more information, call 630-810-0046 or go to www.tinasclosetinc.com.
 

By Elizabeth Vassolo | Triblocal.com reporter