Most women know they should be probably be properly measured for a bra. However, finding the time to have it done and screwing up the courage to be seen naked and felt up by a total stranger can be difficult. If you have been professionally fit, sizes may vary: You might be a 34B at Victoria’s Secret but a 32C at a fancy lingerie shop. Ampere, a brand-new lingerie company, is striving to bring customers quality lace and fabric coupled with an accurate fit that you take at home. (Read: No well-meaning little old ladies with their hands in your business.)
Sign up at Ampere’s website, and you’ll soon be mailed a free measuring kit, complete with tape measure and instructions on how to arrive at your perfect number — in centimeters, not inches. Smaller increments mean a better, more accurate, and personal fit. In fact, Ampere encourages its customers to update their size every six months to account for normal weight fluctuations. (We love that body-positive attitude.)
Recently I sat down with Ampere’s founder, 28-year-old Jiabei Chen, who ditched her job as a lawyer to pursue her love of lace, and she gave me the scoop on the brand. Meant to strike a perfect balance between a soft pair of cotton panties and something more outrageous (think crazy straps or garter belts), the silk-lined bras and all-silk rompers that Ampere sells are comfortable enough to wear all day. Seeing as how Chen used to be a desk jockey who was required to follow a strict dress code, that was important to her: “I always like to have something on underneath even if I can’t choose what I’m wearing on top,” she says.
Here are a few of Ampere’s unique benefits:
• When you order a bra, you’re shipped three different sizes to try on to ensure you get the proper fit. Return the other two for free.
• Each bra comes with a free panty.
• Ampere stocks 28 sizes total, up to a standard size 36 — but women who usually wear a 38 will likely be able to wear the lingerie, Chen says.
• The brand is New York City–based, so the lace is designed in a studio the city and sourced from Manhattan’s Garment District. Further proof of the brand’s love affair with the Big Apple: Each piece is named for a New York location.
• The lace on Ampere’s garments is leavers lace, a fine-textured lace manufactured on a leavers loom — only a handful of the machines are still left in the world; most reside in Europe. (La Perla uses this lace too, so you know it’s good stuff.)
For now, the site sells two different bras, two different panties, and one romper, but Chen says more stock is coming soon, including nude colors and additional loungewear pieces. Our personal favorite piece? The silk charmeuse Madison romper, on the lovely model up above.
[bras, panties, and rompers $25–$145, amperenyc.com]
Photos: Sarah St. Clair Renard (romper), Frank Wang
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