Adventures in $200 Bra-Land

I have a dear friend who is on a mission to “Bring Sexy Back,” so in the name of said mission, I took her to Intimacy, a high-end bra store (Bra Fit Stylists, to be precise). Their founder, Susan Nethro, has been on Oprah, How to Look Good Naked, and any number of makeover shows, touting the fact that most women are wearing the wrong bra size.

Intimacy carries a wide selection of bras in extended sizes, so they are definitely the friend of the well-endowed. Intimacy is about more than bras–it’s about a shopping experience. You make a reservation for an appointment with a Bra Fit Stylist, who then determines your correct bra size and brings you a variety of bras in styles that best complement your breast needs.

So, my gal pal and I go off with our assigned stylists to our fitting rooms named after feminine icons (I in “Coco Chanel” room, she in “Greta Garbo”), and the experience begins. I probably should have warned my friend (this was not my first visit), but the first step in the fit experience is to get topless in the room with your Bra Stylist. Then, as you stand around topless, the Stylist trots out to pull a selection of bras for you to try on.

Rachel, my enthusiastic and talented Stylist, returns with a beautiful array of lace bras in 38D and starts strapping me in. (To properly try on a bra, according to the Intimacy philosophy, you slip the bra over your breasts, lean forward about half-way, and then attach the back. This way, the bra is hooked in the center of you back.) The very first bra I tried on, a black and white lace bra from the Prima Donna line, was a dream–I’d been lusting after such a bra for about a year. I try on several before Rachel leaves me with a stack to try on by myself.

Now, since I didn’t pick the bras off the shelf myself, I have no idea how much the bras cost (though $100 is an average price). I pick up the luscious Prima Donna lace bra–$200. Have I ever spent $200 on a bra? (I rarely spend $200 on any clothing item). But I tell you, that bra did something for me (so much so that I snapped this picture in the dressing room). I was ready to wear that bra out of the store, just as pictured here (and I did walk through the store to show my gal pal this bra). So, I bought it.

Later that day, I found a cute dress at Macy’s, one of those great, multiple-markdown deals, for $10, so I couldn’t resist posting on Facebook: Just bought a $200 bra to wear under a $10 dress. I had some very interesting comments on that subject. Had I posted: Just bought a $10 bra to wear under a $200 dress, it wouldn’t have been an issue at all. Yet, both combos total up to the same amount.

So, what do you think? Is a $200 bra a nutty purchase?