Understanding Undergarments: Michelle Russell has an unusual but satisfying profession
By Leslie Rovetti, The Westerly Times, Oct. 28, 2005
Westerly – Unlike other professionals, Michelle Russell has no license for what she does, and no advanced degree in her area.
Russell is a professional bra fitter, a woman who, through much experience, has learned how to match customers with the exact foundation garments that they need. It is a rare remnant of personal service in an increasingly online world.
“We’re performing a good service, not just selling goods,” explained her boss, Bruce Prescott, owner of Zoe” & Co., the High Street lingerie store.
A young, genteel blonde who speaks passionately about her chosen profession, Russell has fit more than 1,500 women in the over two years she has worked at Zoe” & Co.
“This is what I do for a living. I’m 25, and this is where I want to be,” she said.
Her career began when she went in as a customer and found out she had been wearing the wrong size bra for years.
“I got fitted, and I couldn’t be happier,” she said. “It sounds corny, but it literally changed my life.”
She spent about four months telling every woman she knew to get fitted.
“I couldn’t understand why so many women are buying bras that don’t fit,” she said.
When she spied a help wanted ad for Zoe” & Co. she quickly responded, and she has been there ever since.
The in-store training that Russell and the other fitters have received consists of fitting 100 women under the watchful eyes of an experienced fitter. Only then could she work alone.
Russell reached her 100-women mark in December 2003.
“It was very exciting. It takes a few months,” she said.
But the learning didn’t stop there. She said she is still “learning every single day.”
That is because “the bras are the same size but each woman’s body is slightly different,” Prescott added.
All this experience has shaped Russell into a fount of undergarment knowledge.
Roughly 80 to 85 percent of all women do not wear a properly sized bra, she said, and she blames that high number on “all that misinformation out there.”
Typically, she said, women wear a band size that’s too large to compensate for cups that are too small.
Because of the staggering range of sizes in stock at the store, Russell can fit women who wear a band size between 28 and 54, and a cup size between AA and JJ. Nursing bras also come in sizes K and L.
“A lot of women haven’t heard of these sizes,” she said.
Not only do many women not realize that the world doesn’t end at DD, they also don’t realize that a cup size is a ratio and not an absolute dimension.
“The cup size is not generic all the way through,” she said. The cup in a 34B bra is not the same as the cup in a 36B bra. However, it is the same as the cup in a 32C or a 36A bra.
And if that’s not confusing enough, “the difference between cup sizes is usually less than a square inch of material,” she added.
Russell is a Westerly native, and said she often sees people she has known from childhood on up come into the store. Because customers need to remove their blouses to be properly measured, it could create an uncomfortable situation if Russell wasn’t a true professional.
“It’s very discreet,” she said, “because I know I wouldn’t want anybody else to talk about my bra size and what I wear for underwear.”
And, “it’s not like I stand there and watch you change,” she added.
Russell said the best part of her job is seeing the look on her customers’ faces when they finally feel comfortable in their own clothing. Some women have returned and said that people have told them they look like they’ve lost weight, or had surgical augmentation.
“You can just see it in their eyes when they get the right size,” Prescott agreed.
“It’s seeing that little spark in people’s eyes,” Russell said. “That’s why we do this. And it truly is a rewarding job.”
For men who don’t understand the pain of wearing an ill-fitting bra, Russell uses a simple analogy.
“We tell guys it’s like being in the wrong shoe size,” she said.
And you wouldn’t buy shoes without getting your feet measured, would you?
