May 1, 2025 • 34 mins
In this episode, Leslie sits down with Victoria Ferro, better know as the Bra Whisperer. Hear from the owner of a local Spokane boutique as they discuss the health benefits of a well-fitted bra and numerous style tips to help you dress for your age and your specific body type.
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Hear more from The Leslie's Lowdown on Life Podcast on KHQ here: https://www.khq.com/podcasts/lowedown/
#LeslieLowe #LesliesLowedown #TheBraWhisperer #Leslie #Lowe #NonStopLocalKHQ
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:00):
Hi, I'm Leslie low Welcome to Leslie's Lowdown on Life.
Speaker 2 (00:19):
Welcome everybody to Leslie's Low Down on Life. Today, I'm
hanging out with my friend Victoria Farrow. She owns Audrey's boutique.
You have for thirteen years.
Speaker 3 (00:27):
I know it's that long and I'm only thirty four.
Speaker 2 (00:29):
So that's pretty good. You started when you were just
a kid, just a baby. Yeah. I like that same here,
boob whisperer, that's what bra whisper. I'm going with, straight
up boob whisper.
Speaker 3 (00:40):
Men call me a boob whisper, but women understand, yeh.
Speaker 2 (00:44):
And I've got my cup here and I love that.
So I want to talk first about that because it's
kind of multifaceted. You've been involved in and helping women
who are going through difficult times and in just being
fitted for bra after misectomy to just us every day
people exactly. Yeah. So how'd you get the name bra Whisper?
Speaker 3 (01:05):
Actually a customer gave me that name because when I
go in and I fit women in bras, I don't
take a tape measure to them. And the reason is
is because eighty five percent of the time a tape
measure is wrong, and there's no standardization in bra sizing,
so I just go in, I look at them. You know,
you become an unconscious competent. So it's hard for me
to like step back and explain how I do this.
(01:27):
But I go out. I listen to what they tell me.
Their lifestyle is what, you know, the children, they're picking
them up, that sort of thing. And I go out
and I get them a bra, and probably ninety five
percent of the time, the first bras a fit. They
may not like the style of the bra, but it's
a fit, so that gives me my guidance. And a customer,
just one customer called me pastor Vic and I was like,
(01:49):
what the hell is that? And she goes, well, you
lift me up. I was like okay. But customers were like,
you like the dog whisper, the horse whisper, We're gonna
call you the bra spur. And it stuck, so sure,
why not. They could call me other things that are
not nice, so might as well the bra whisper.
Speaker 2 (02:08):
Well, you're a Jersey girls, so you're kind of spicy,
which I am.
Speaker 3 (02:11):
I'm going to be very careful about my vocabulary today because.
Speaker 2 (02:14):
I'm not going to worry about it like you and
you're spicy, so bra whisper and again multifaceted because you
do what does help the average And I think that's
a gift to be able to look at somebody and go, okay,
this is what you need.
Speaker 3 (02:26):
It is a gift. I mean, everybody has their own gifts.
Like I cannot decorate rooms. Amazingly enough, I decorate women.
I dress women, and I go from the bottom up.
And unfortunately, the one part of women and styling women
are it's like when you redo a room and you've
got to spend ten thousand dollars to redo your plumbing,
(02:47):
which is something you're not going to see, you know,
and you're like, I don't want to spend that on that.
Women don't want to spend money on bras. But really,
one of the things I got to hit stop hitting that.
One of the things that well make your clothes look
better is a well fitting bra. And you can't have
just one. You need a minimum of three bras because
(03:07):
you should never wear a bra more than two wearings
without washing it and air drying it. Got it good
to know. Yeah, sometimes there's just some and I get
if people don't understand they weren't taught this, or they're
like I don't want to spend the money on a bra,
(03:27):
and so I'll wear it for a week. I'm like, ew,
I'm not going to touch that bra. It's you know,
it's not good. It's like you don't wear the same
underpants every day.
Speaker 2 (03:36):
True story. And undergarments. I mean, really they make the outfit.
It starts underneath, and a lot of times it takes
a minute first to learn that exactly.
Speaker 3 (03:46):
I mean it's like everybody has to have, you know,
a good a good baseline, and to make It's like
you go to college so you can become whatever you
want to be, or you know, school, you have a
good base, and a good base in this case is
a good bra. Sometimes a little shape where it to
suck some stuff in, but you know, it just makes
a big difference. I get women coming in and they're
(04:07):
trying on gowns. They have a child, getting married or something,
and they don't want to look old, but they're wearing
a bra where their girls are down to their knees
and they're like, oh, I'm so fat. And I said, well,
if we pull those up, you have a waist under there,
can I put a new bra on you. You don't
have to like it, but at least we're trying on clothes,
it makes a big difference.
Speaker 2 (04:26):
And then they end up going, yes, I'll take that. Yeah.
Speaker 3 (04:29):
And it's also better for your health too to have
a well fitted bra, because your back is a very
important thing. And especially my ladies who are fuller cupped,
you know, they're they're you know, hunched over all the time,
and you know, they get to stand up straight and
it's amazing to see the expression on their faces goes
from kind of like to look at me, you know.
Speaker 2 (04:49):
So it's true those are things that sometimes we just
don't think about. So what should as ladies be looking
for in a good bra?
Speaker 3 (04:56):
First off, the support of your bra comes in the band,
not in the cup. That's the biggest misnomer. A lot
of women think that they buy an underwire bra, that's
what supports them. No, all an underwire does is shape
breast tissue. So here's the boob, here's the underwire. You
want the underwire right where the breast and rib cage
meat that band. When you're trying on bras, there's usually
(05:18):
three rows of hooks. The middle set of hooks is
the band measurement. So if it's a thirty six and
I'm putting that on you, I fit you in the middle.
Because this way and other places that have a name
similar to mine don't do this. I won't say who
they are. They'll just put a bra on you. Hopefully
that holds up your girls. They don't care if the
(05:38):
band is too big or if it's too small, or
they'll tell you to put extenders on it. Do not
do that. Don't buy a broth you're putting extenders on it?
Why bother them?
Speaker 2 (05:46):
Seriously, sounds uncomfortable. It's very uncomfortable.
Speaker 3 (05:49):
But yeah, So the band is the support. The underwires
shape the breast tissue, and the straps fine tune everything.
It's the basics. But I have other bras. I have gosh,
I've got a line of bras that I can't even
keep in stock now that are not under wirebras. They're
made out of scuba inet. And the woman who founded
the company actually started calling me, and I kept telling
(06:10):
her no, no, no, no no, And finally she goes,
I'm going to send you twelve bras, and I'm going
to send a thirteenth one for you, and she already
knew at this point because she'd been calling me so much.
They only wore blacker nude bras, and February if this
was twenty twenty, she said, I'm sending these to you.
So February of twenty twenty, I get this package and
(06:31):
there's twelve kind of normal colored bras and a thirteenth
one that's wrapped up with my name on it. So
I hand these bras out, young, old, thick, thin, pregnant,
not pregnant, and said, do me a favor. Call me
in a couple of days, let me know what you
think of these bras. And I'm getting phone calls the
same day from these women saying, please send me more.
Can you get me more? And I said, I better
(06:52):
open up my package and see what that's in there.
I open it up. It's an fing peacock blue bra
I was like, oh, I got I better try it anyway.
So I did it on a Sunday when I wasn't
in the store, and all I could think of was,
oh my god, I have a blue bra on. That's
all I concentrated on. And I kept saying to my
other half, do I still have two boops?
Speaker 2 (07:13):
Do I?
Speaker 3 (07:13):
Still have two boops. He was used to that because
I try bras, He's like, yes, I kind of went,
all right, she wins, I lose. I have to buy
these bras. But I was really glad I did because
that was twenty twenty, and I ordered the bras. Mid March,
three hundred and fifty bras arrived, and two days later
we were shut down for COVID, and I started bringing
the bras home and doing live videos from my house,
(07:36):
and I was selling these bras to the point I
had to reorder. So and now I've been with them
for five years and they're my number one selling bra
every day. Sixties to sixty five percent of the bras
I sell are this manufacturer, and I can't keep them
in stock.
Speaker 2 (07:53):
So I and We're going to go back to what
you did in twenty twenty because you amazing. The way
you kind of revolutionized shopping with your with your social
media was fantastic. So we are going to go back
to that because I really want people to go watch you,
because you're a lot of fun to watch. But I
(08:14):
want to talk about Okay, so we talked about like
the average both for the average lady, but you also
I mean your game changer for women who have gone
through breast cancer and reconstructive surgery or a full mis
stec to me.
Speaker 3 (08:28):
Yeah, I am a certified miss Steke to Me fitter. Unfortunately,
COVID made it so that we no longer process the
insurance claims and I thought I'm going to lose a
lot of our business, but I didn't. People preferred to
have me fit them and I forever grateful for that.
I mean seriously, but yeah, you know, breast cancer is
(08:49):
a horrible, horrible diagnosis for a woman, and I have
seen women go through so many different phases of you know,
it's almost like a grief process, and you know, you
get that odd thing where the husband comes in, and
you know, I will always want the husband to come
(09:10):
in so I can explain to him what I'm doing
and why we're doing this. And this is usually pre surgery,
and they may come in post surgery as well, and
I invite them as long as their wife or spouse
or partner says it's okay. But I've gotten things where
I am in a fitting room and I can't tell
you how many times I cry in a fitting room
(09:30):
with somebody, how many times we laugh. And these are
two women, maybe at both at the same stage in
their diagnosis, and it's just it's an up and down
seesaw for me. And then I get partners that they
they don't respect their wife or partner because of what
(09:52):
happened to them, and they're just they're mad about it
and they don't agree with the woman not having a
reconstruction or you know, and it gets to the point
that I actually have to play referee and then I
will remove the spouse. I have no bones about it.
(10:12):
That's just sorry. I know it came out.
Speaker 2 (10:15):
Sorry, you're good.
Speaker 3 (10:18):
The because this is a breast cancer is a journey,
but it's not a journey that your life stops. It's
just they got to put on a couple of different clothes.
And I respect every woman who sits there and says
to me, I don't want reconstruction. I you know, I
want to have just prosthetics. Or woman says I'm having
(10:40):
breast reconstruction, and I respect that. You know, you do
what you you do you but let's make it all
work because we've got pretty close to try on. And again,
it's their basis and that's what we do. I don't
dwell on it. I hug them, I give them love.
We get a lot of laughs. And I should probably
(11:01):
write the dictionary on what what to call boobs, because
I've heard everything, more referrals and different words and all.
But I don't want to treat that woman differently because
she's still a woman and she still needs to feel beautiful.
Because everyone who walks into Audrey's is beautiful. Sometimes they
don't know it. Even I don't know it. I know
(11:23):
I'm beautiful once in a while. You know, there are
days I walk in and I catch my glimpse of
myself in the mirror, and I go, yeah, you got
it going on. But then, you know, just like everybody else,
I have my insecurities and and you know, as you
get older, you go, oh, I got you know, flabby arms.
I call them angel wings and they are and they
are they are. I am my wings are so good.
(11:44):
I will zoom up there. But yeah, so it's it's all.
It's all a matter of being with that person and
just going you're okay, this is okay, You're on this
side of the grass. So that's just do it.
Speaker 2 (12:00):
And it is such a personal journey, such a personal journey,
and then just knowing that you have that connection with
them and you've got their back, meaning you'll remove any
negativity that's an absolutely and making it experienced exactly, I'll.
Speaker 3 (12:15):
Beat up anybody thats up my day or let's not
do that. No, it's it's just very important that a
woman feels whole. Yes, and it will take a while.
They'll have to get used to if they decide to
go to the prosthetic route, they have to get used
to that. I get women that come in and they've
had one breast removed and they're using a prosthetic on
the other and they come in maybe three or four
years later, and they're like, I think the other one's
(12:37):
going to go Okay, now what size do you want
to be? Because maybe they were very full busted and
I had to match the remaining breast and they're like,
I'd like to be smaller. Well, okay, we can do that.
Some women come in and go I want to be
like Dolly Barton. I'm like, sure, I got boxes of boobs,
let's just do it.
Speaker 2 (12:56):
Yeah.
Speaker 3 (12:56):
So it's it's a matter of I don't make, don't take,
I don't take what they're going through lightly, because in
my mind, I treat them like a fine piece of
bone china. And then once we've been through this for
a year or two or like, let's just go, let's
just do it, and it's fine.
Speaker 2 (13:13):
You're giving them the gift of feeling like themselves again.
Speaker 3 (13:18):
I try to.
Speaker 2 (13:19):
Yeah, which is amazing. And you really do. You dress
so many different women. I have dresses from you that
I have people who are like, where did you get that?
And I send them right over to you. But when
somebody walks in the door, because I always know when
I walk in the door, you can look at me
and go, okay, let's do this or that, and you're
very good at that. When somebody walks in the door,
(13:41):
what are what are the tips that you want to
give them as far as how to dress for your
body type or even your age, because I know I
have questions about that. You know, you get to that
age where you're like, can I still wear that? Should
I still wear that? Oh?
Speaker 3 (13:57):
Absolutely? So? First off, when a woman comes in, if
we're doing well, keep in mind I have dressed women
for everything from the Oscars, the Emmys, that Tony's, the
Grammys to presidential balls, that sort of thing. I have
dressed entertainers that have come into town. So everybody is different.
So you have your event most of the time, you know,
(14:19):
the most important time is a person coming in because
their child's getting married, and no woman wants to look
like an old lady.
Speaker 2 (14:28):
Amen to that one.
Speaker 3 (14:29):
Yeah, yeah, I get it. And so anyway, what I
do is I talk to them about the event. And
while I'm talking to them, and I'm looking them right
in the eye, but I'm also looking at them standing up.
They're a Barbie doll. Every woman that walks in is
like a Barbie doll to me. So as they're talking
to me and they're telling me about their event, and
we talk about is there a particular color, what's the formality,
(14:51):
where is it at, blah blah blah, all that stuff.
I try to mentally put myself into that event, but
I'm also mentally putting dresses on that person. So I
know when I say, okay, let's go in the fitting room,
and I'll grab four or five dresses and we go
in the fitting room. Sometimes I show it to the
client because I still don't get a read on what
their taste is. Like, I'll show them something really lacy
(15:13):
and I'll show them something very sophisticated and they'll go yes, no, whatever,
and I go, okay, now I know where I'm going.
And we start trying clothes on, and some of the
look at a women she's got a full hip, I
want to pull her shoulder line out, so I want
to open up her neckline, create that optical illusion that
her shoulders are wider than her hip, which creates a
smaller waist. Other women who are built like I am,
(15:34):
they've got big shoulders and no butt, we do something
that creates that optical illusion of a waste with hips,
and it's just Barbie dressing only on big people.
Speaker 2 (15:43):
Which is fascinating to me because I think so often
we just look at an outfit that's maybe in a
magazine or a catalog or on somebody else, and we think, oh,
I want that, But oftentimes maybe that outfit won't look
as good on you.
Speaker 3 (15:58):
Well, okay, short like I am, yea. I like to
refer to it as fun size. We're fun side, we're
fun size and everything. I really really like, I really
should be five foot nine, for I don't have the
height to pull off certain looks, and so sometimes I'll
get women that come in and they want that. They're
fund size like we are, but they want that five
foot nine look. So I try to find things that
(16:22):
can mimic that.
Speaker 2 (16:23):
So you're telling me you can make me look five
foot nine.
Speaker 3 (16:26):
Oh yeah, hey, you know what. Every morning, I get showered,
I brush my teeth before I put my makeup on,
I look in the mirror and I go, you're thirty
four or five foot nine and one hundred and ten pounds.
I put my bra on and I'm like, let's go.
Speaker 2 (16:41):
Or like that small little Shitzu dog that things that
they're they're great, dang exactly exactly.
Speaker 3 (16:47):
And it's funny because people sometimes when they meet me
that have never met me before but they've either seen
the videos or they've talked to me or what have you,
they go, oh my god, you're so short.
Speaker 2 (16:58):
I get that out all the time. Yeah.
Speaker 3 (17:00):
Or you see pictures of yourself with your friends and
you go and I don't think of myself as short,
but I look at pictures of myself with my friends
and I'm like, God, I'm like, up to her boobs,
that's it.
Speaker 2 (17:12):
I didn't know I was that short. That happen now,
I do. I think it's so to me, that's been
like a learning process is how to dress for your
own body type and even color, Like you may love
a particular color, but that color may not look good
on you exactly, and somebody sometimes needs to tell you that.
Speaker 3 (17:29):
And women who are our height are the hardest people
to dress. Seriously. First off, we need to know a
very good seamstress, because you know there's a ham. But
it's easier for me to dress a taller woman who
is a full figure gal than it is for me
to dress someone who's our height and smaller.
Speaker 2 (17:47):
And is that because patterns can be overwhelming, because length,
because of the way something's cut.
Speaker 3 (17:53):
Yep, exactly, yeah, exactly. And a lot of times it's
the shorter women that want the taller girl outfits. So
it's a learning process. And when and I I try
to make sure I am so against body shaming on
people because that's I think that's ridiculous. So I try
my very very best to explain. And when I put
(18:16):
something in a fitting room, I say, if I will
tell you if I like something on you, and I
will tell you if I don't, but I will tell
you why for both, And I try to teach them
how to dress to their silhouette.
Speaker 2 (18:29):
What are the three most important things that a woman
needs in her closet?
Speaker 3 (18:33):
Everyone, it's a little black dress. Every woman should have
a little black shift dress that the hem is a
third of the way down the kneecap, because this way
it creates the optical illusion of length no matter how
tall or short you are, and it also makes your
leg look thinner. You don't want a ham to hit
the fatty part of your calf because it'll make you
look stumpy.
Speaker 2 (18:54):
I did not know of that.
Speaker 3 (18:55):
And there you go. Did I teach you something?
Speaker 2 (18:58):
Oh my, you taught me something.
Speaker 3 (19:01):
Yeah, Okay, that's a big thing. No matter how tall
or short you are. That's something to think about. Okay,
you need a good, well fitting pair of jeans, and
you need a good white, buttoned down shirt that fits
you beautifully, because that can be everything from a jacket
to something you wear with a tank underneath it. With
a good well fitting pair of jeans, you can take it,
(19:23):
tuck it into a fabulous black pencil skirt, put some
pearls with it. Roll your sleeve up. You don't want
the sleeves down because you're not a nun. Roll them up,
pop the collar, pair of black pumps.
Speaker 2 (19:35):
You're done. And that's that goes everywhere, goes everywhere. Okay,
I'm gonna ask the question that and this is a
conversation that we'll have down in the newsroom or with
friends in general. Hate shopping for jeans or pants in
general because they're so difficult.
Speaker 3 (19:53):
Okay, So two things women hate shopping for are bras
and blue jeans. Yes and yes, and they every time
people come there, I can never find a pair of jeans.
I'm this. I'm kind of the same way. I'm not
a jeans store. I carry jeans, but I carry jeans
that I know I have a flat butt. You know,
it's just it goes without saying I don't have an ass,
(20:15):
but I carry jeans in different waists and sizes so
that I can fit the girl who has she's got
a Kardashian booty, or she's you know, gotten no ass
like me, or she's got she wants she needs the
higher rise. And a lot of women drives me crazy
when I see women who are a little fuller figured
and they wear pants that are hip huggers, like back
(20:37):
in the day, remember hip huggers. Yes, and they're tight
because they think, well, I could zip them down there.
But then when they've got Santa Claus belly coming out,
or a menopause belly, whatever you want to call it,
and that's just not attractive, it really isn't. You put
a T shirt on a woman like that and they
lift their arms, their bellies hanging out, come on.
Speaker 2 (20:57):
And it's got to be it's uncomfortable.
Speaker 3 (20:59):
It's uncomfortable, but they think that's what they're supposed to look, right,
And so we'll put some geenes on and the go, well,
it's up to here and the leg is bagging. I
get it. But let's balance you out. And so I
put different styles on them so they can see what
balances their silhouette. Some women they've got, you know, no button,
they got skinny legs, but they're a little fuller up top,
(21:19):
you know, tummy and everything. They look like lollipops. And
that's why I say, you look like a lollipop. Let's
not do that. Let's balance you all out. And that's
what we do. It's a trial and error thing.
Speaker 2 (21:30):
I always say, I like straight lines. I like the
straight lines look.
Speaker 3 (21:35):
Well when you're shorter like we are, monochromatic and straight
lines are the best, absolutely the best.
Speaker 2 (21:42):
So real, Okay, I'm gonna go back really quick because
dressing for your age, because as we get older, there's
that whole thing of should I wear this or shouldn't
I wear this? Is there something or is there anything
that stands out to you that you go hands off?
You gotta let that go as you get older.
Speaker 3 (22:00):
First off, as we get older, we talk.
Speaker 2 (22:02):
I'm asking for a friend.
Speaker 3 (22:03):
I bet you are. I Okay, listen, I grew up
in the miniskirt era, and if you've got great legs,
you know, knock your socks off. But honestly, don't do
a mini skirt where the skirt ends halfway through your thigh.
You are not fifteen or sixteen going to homecoming. I
(22:23):
find that really disconcerting when I see that you want
to wear a shorter skirt top of the knee, but
mid thigh, anything three or four inches above your knee
when you're mature. And it doesn't mean you can't be sexy. Okay,
Sometimes sexy is what you can't see what you suggest.
(22:47):
So you want to wear like a straight cocktail dress,
have a slit on the side. I don't care where
the slit goes as long as it doesn't go to
your woo woo. What do I care?
Speaker 2 (22:58):
But this is why I love her.
Speaker 3 (23:01):
But I would rather see a woman if they want
to be sexy, and I'd rather have them be more
suggestive than just stick it out there. That's a personal opinion.
We all have them. We have my gassholes, so you know.
But I've seen that, and I've seen it around here too,
and I'm like, I look at a woman and I'm like,
(23:23):
you were my freaking age. Really you went to a
prom store for that. Get over yourself. It's not prom more.
Women tend to look more elegant and sexy with a
less is more kind of a look.
Speaker 2 (23:37):
I was just gonna say less is more exactly. Yeah,
I like that exality you can do.
Speaker 3 (23:42):
You can do the sparkles, you can do the disco
ball look.
Speaker 2 (23:44):
I don't care.
Speaker 3 (23:45):
You know there's certain places then yeah, okay, go ahead,
knock your socks off. But when you're wearing something that
you would put on a sixteen seventeen year old mazled
tof good for you. You can wear it. How about
wearing some thing that was a little bit more your
age that's my biggest thing. And the other thing is women,
as we get older, we get into a uniform. Yes,
(24:07):
I wear black a lot. But the reason I wear
black is because when I'm working with a client, I'm
standing behind them. We're not looking at my clothes. I'm
kind of a backdrop. That's why I wear black a lot.
Speaker 2 (24:17):
Oh that makes sense.
Speaker 3 (24:18):
See a lot of people think I just wear it
because you know, I'm lazy, but no, but it is
easier to get dressed in the morning.
Speaker 2 (24:25):
I always just call you Johnny Cash.
Speaker 3 (24:26):
There you go. I can sing.
Speaker 2 (24:29):
I don't know.
Speaker 3 (24:30):
I don't like country music though, anyway. But women get
into a uniform. My mother, my mother was in the
beauty industry. She was a hairdresser and when she got
dressed up, she looked like Astro's pet horse. She was gorgeous.
But as she got older, lands in khaki pants and
knit T shirts became her uniform. And you know, it
(24:51):
would be like, mom, you got something else to wear?
She says, all I'm comfortable, it's fine. No no, no, no, no,
no no. And she was a beautiful woman, she really was.
I just you know, I think about that it was
her uniform, and I see women out there that they
get into a uniform and it's like, let's try something different.
Even I and when you see me on Saturday, I
(25:12):
will not be wearing black. And I'm going to do
that on purpose.
Speaker 2 (25:16):
Just so that you can pop. Right, You're going to
show us, You're going to show us you're not always
Johnny Cash.
Speaker 3 (25:22):
That's right.
Speaker 2 (25:22):
I have no fear. I love that. I've just less
my train of thought because I was just so fascinated
by everything you're saying. I'm just like, I'm like, Okay,
I'm thinking about the fact that I have my own
uniform and I think that we all do that, and
I'm thinking about that. As you were saying that, I'm like,
oh gosh, I do I make a joke of it
(25:44):
because I say I have two wardrobes, work out clothes,
and like dresses for on air, you do, ye do,
and then that's it and I forget how to dress otherwise, Well,
I have.
Speaker 3 (25:55):
To tell you, and now you wore one of my
dresses on air, this black dress, and ah, that made
so many people talk about it because it was different.
Speaker 2 (26:06):
Yeah, it was the long little stuff on the side.
Speaker 3 (26:09):
It was still the same basics, but it just had
a little bit of an edge to it, which is
what I like. And that and I remember seeing I
came home from work and in fact, I took a
picture of you and sent it to you.
Speaker 2 (26:22):
Look at you.
Speaker 3 (26:23):
You're wearing my dress. And I got more comments. People
would come to me in the store, not knowing that
you got the dress from Audrey's, but they said, did
you see Leslie Lowe on the news last night? She
had this dress on and they described this black dress
and I go, oh, this one is that the dress?
(26:43):
And they were like, it's so beautiful and they were
trying it on. And I know there's some people that
probably didn't.
Speaker 2 (26:49):
Like it because it's different.
Speaker 3 (26:52):
It was different.
Speaker 2 (26:52):
I would say ninety percent of the people liked it, yeah,
because it was You're right, it was just it had
all the basics, very well fitting. But then it just
a little bit of yeah.
Speaker 3 (27:04):
And I can understand because you're in the public eye
much larger than I am. I mean, I watch all
the girls on the news, and you know who's a
good dresser.
Speaker 2 (27:17):
Jenny. I love Jenny. She's got some nice outfits.
Speaker 3 (27:21):
Yep. I don't know her, but there's something she puts
on and I'm like.
Speaker 2 (27:25):
That looks fabulous, like that good job. Yeah, okay, we'll
dress us ladies. What would you do? What would you
do with us? And you don't have to name names,
just like in general, give us a tip, give us
a partying tip.
Speaker 3 (27:39):
Very rarely do I see anybody wearing a blazer. And
I know that probably the powers that be say no,
let's not go back to the eighties, but you know
that's the look.
Speaker 2 (27:45):
Well actually there I would love to find when the fit. Yeah,
and that's difficult.
Speaker 3 (27:50):
That's for you. That's difficulty, that's right. But I'd like
to see more jackets. I'd like to see. I'd like
to see less of that. It's called it actually, the
fabric is called tky or TV it wife sorry, different things.
It ty fabric, which is that knit?
Speaker 1 (28:12):
This?
Speaker 2 (28:12):
Okay?
Speaker 3 (28:13):
Okay, Yeah, there's sometimes I see newscasters, not just on
this channel but other channels, and you're all wearing it
y knit dresses and they're all kind of the same.
You know, it's like stop.
Speaker 2 (28:26):
That's our complaint too, by the way, is that they're
so we feel limited.
Speaker 3 (28:31):
Yeah, it's a very limiting thing. It's a uniform, yes, yeah,
or one thing Okay, now this is not you. I mean,
it's not just newscasters in general. Doesn't it annoy you
when you watch a newscaster and it's six degrees below
zero and the reporter has a sleeveless top on, I'm like, hello.
Speaker 2 (28:49):
It took me a minute to learn that it did it? Did?
I know? And it's been years since I've done that.
Like during the middle of winter, where a sleeveless thing.
I wait till certain time. Now, you know, when the
temperatures get to the start.
Speaker 3 (29:04):
Of if I see you wearing something sleeveless or short
or sleeped or something.
Speaker 2 (29:08):
Oh, it's going to be warm out in the sixties.
That's what I always think.
Speaker 3 (29:15):
But it would be nice because every every female and
even men too. If I ever see a man with
a mismatched suit on, again, God, that's my opinion.
Speaker 2 (29:27):
Well, thank you for having something to say about most
because we always say that they have it easy. Like
we are judged on what we wear on a daily basis,
and people remember what we were.
Speaker 3 (29:38):
But did you ever see a male newscaster stand up
and he's got a suit jacket, not a sport coat on,
a suit jacket on and a pair of pants that
doesn't even freaking match anywhere right often and you go
stop it, yes, or their jacket is too snug. Guys,
to me, that's important.
Speaker 2 (29:57):
Yes, that is something that fits well. It's important.
Speaker 3 (29:59):
That's important. So I mean, it's not just the women,
it's the men too, you know. And I know a
bunch of the guys. So it's it's like I would
never say anything to them because that's really not my place.
Speaker 2 (30:12):
But I don't know. I ask you for I do
ask you.
Speaker 3 (30:17):
Yeah, but but you see that and from my eyes,
that's my eye to me, that's unprofessional. It's you guys
are classier than that, you know, and and show.
Speaker 2 (30:29):
It just for the part.
Speaker 3 (30:30):
Dress for the part, just for the job you want,
dress for you know. I was always taught that dressed
for the job you want. And I was brought up
when women weren't breaking glass ceilings.
Speaker 1 (30:40):
You know.
Speaker 3 (30:40):
It was like the beginning back in the eighties. When
I first got into the retail industry, in the fashion industry,
I was very young, and seriously, I was in my
early early twenties and I was being hired in a
management position where I was the only woman. That was hard.
I didn't play golf. I still don't play golf, but
(31:03):
I was always, you know, had to make sure I
was dressed. And you want to call it the power suit,
you can call it the power suit. I was never bitchy,
but I was always confident, and I always went, Okay,
we're built a little different. But I still have a
say at the.
Speaker 2 (31:18):
Table, always say if you look good, you feel good.
Speaker 3 (31:20):
You feel confident.
Speaker 2 (31:21):
Yeah, it's true.
Speaker 3 (31:23):
I come to work sometimes when I know I've got
something going on like that makes me a little bit nervous.
I will wear an outfit that makes me feel powerful.
It may not look any different than what you normally
see me in, but there's certain pieces that I wear
that I go, that's a pretty bad ass. I look good,
my hair came out good, that's great, let's go. Yeah.
And that's you know, we all have that.
Speaker 2 (31:44):
We have that thing in the newsroom where we say,
I'll say I feel like a three today. Yeah, on
a scale from one to ten, I'm a solid three
or a seven. Maybe I feel like at ten that day.
And it really does depend on what you put on.
You feel in what you've.
Speaker 3 (32:01):
Got on exactly, yeah, exactly.
Speaker 2 (32:02):
So if you look good, you feel good. All right.
So for the ladies that are out there and they're like, Okay,
I'm stuck. I'm more in the uniform. I don't have
the confidence to step out of that. Let's end on.
What advice would you give them when they're ready to
make that change. They want to feel confident and they
(32:23):
want to feel good.
Speaker 3 (32:25):
Be open minded. First off, don't say no. I would
shop with my mother and she, excuse me, she would
pick out something and I was a buyer for Lord
and Taylor's at the time, and I'd be like, I
don't like that, and she would just try it on.
So to shut her up, I would try it on.
I'd be in the fitting room, go damn it, it
look good. If you come into the store and I
(32:46):
ask you about your lifestyle, not being nosy, I just
need to know, do you work, what do you do?
What do you do when you're not at work. Let's
build a wardrobe around that. And a lot of women
have been coming in with major weight loss. You know,
I don't know if it's the oze thing or whatever,
but now they don't know how to dress that body,
and they don't they're not introduced to it. So we
start out with. What do you do? What's your every
(33:07):
day like, let's talk about it. You know, well, I
like to wear these T shirts good. I have things
that feel like that T shirt but might look a
little bit better. And we do that, and we try
different pieces, and you just build a little basic wardrobe,
even if it's a fabulous pair of black slacks, a
great pair of jeans, a couple of good basic tops,
and a couple of blazers and a denim jacket. I
never thought those words would come out of my mouth.
(33:30):
A fabulous denim jacket.
Speaker 2 (33:32):
I love hearing that. I love mine.
Speaker 3 (33:36):
I gotta say I love mine too, because it has
four pockets, two inside and ton the outside. I'm all
about pockets. You can go really far with that. And
from there everything is just fun add ons, just good basics.
Speaker 2 (33:51):
Victoria, thank you so much for being here. Well, every
time I hang out with you, it's just like I
learned something new and I have a blast.
Speaker 3 (33:59):
I'm glad you do.
Speaker 2 (34:00):
So, ladies. You know what, if you look good, you
feel good, and you're worth it for sure. All right,
go make the rest of your days the best of
your days.
Speaker 3 (34:07):
Bye, everybody.
Hi, I'm Leslie low Welcome to Leslie's Lowdown on Life.
Speaker 2 (00:19):
Welcome everybody to Leslie's Low Down on Life. Today, I'm
hanging out with my friend Victoria Farrow. She owns Audrey's boutique.
You have for thirteen years.
Speaker 3 (00:27):
I know it's that long and I'm only thirty four.
Speaker 2 (00:29):
So that's pretty good. You started when you were just
a kid, just a baby. Yeah. I like that same here,
boob whisperer, that's what bra whisper. I'm going with, straight
up boob whisper.
Speaker 3 (00:40):
Men call me a boob whisper, but women understand, yeh.
Speaker 2 (00:44):
And I've got my cup here and I love that.
So I want to talk first about that because it's
kind of multifaceted. You've been involved in and helping women
who are going through difficult times and in just being
fitted for bra after misectomy to just us every day
people exactly. Yeah. So how'd you get the name bra Whisper?
Speaker 3 (01:05):
Actually a customer gave me that name because when I
go in and I fit women in bras, I don't
take a tape measure to them. And the reason is
is because eighty five percent of the time a tape
measure is wrong, and there's no standardization in bra sizing,
so I just go in, I look at them. You know,
you become an unconscious competent. So it's hard for me
to like step back and explain how I do this.
(01:27):
But I go out. I listen to what they tell me.
Their lifestyle is what, you know, the children, they're picking
them up, that sort of thing. And I go out
and I get them a bra, and probably ninety five
percent of the time, the first bras a fit. They
may not like the style of the bra, but it's
a fit, so that gives me my guidance. And a customer,
just one customer called me pastor Vic and I was like,
(01:49):
what the hell is that? And she goes, well, you
lift me up. I was like okay. But customers were like,
you like the dog whisper, the horse whisper, We're gonna
call you the bra spur. And it stuck, so sure,
why not. They could call me other things that are
not nice, so might as well the bra whisper.
Speaker 2 (02:08):
Well, you're a Jersey girls, so you're kind of spicy,
which I am.
Speaker 3 (02:11):
I'm going to be very careful about my vocabulary today because.
Speaker 2 (02:14):
I'm not going to worry about it like you and
you're spicy, so bra whisper and again multifaceted because you
do what does help the average And I think that's
a gift to be able to look at somebody and go, okay,
this is what you need.
Speaker 3 (02:26):
It is a gift. I mean, everybody has their own gifts.
Like I cannot decorate rooms. Amazingly enough, I decorate women.
I dress women, and I go from the bottom up.
And unfortunately, the one part of women and styling women
are it's like when you redo a room and you've
got to spend ten thousand dollars to redo your plumbing,
(02:47):
which is something you're not going to see, you know,
and you're like, I don't want to spend that on that.
Women don't want to spend money on bras. But really,
one of the things I got to hit stop hitting that.
One of the things that well make your clothes look
better is a well fitting bra. And you can't have
just one. You need a minimum of three bras because
(03:07):
you should never wear a bra more than two wearings
without washing it and air drying it. Got it good
to know. Yeah, sometimes there's just some and I get
if people don't understand they weren't taught this, or they're
like I don't want to spend the money on a bra,
(03:27):
and so I'll wear it for a week. I'm like, ew,
I'm not going to touch that bra. It's you know,
it's not good. It's like you don't wear the same
underpants every day.
Speaker 2 (03:36):
True story. And undergarments. I mean, really they make the outfit.
It starts underneath, and a lot of times it takes
a minute first to learn that exactly.
Speaker 3 (03:46):
I mean it's like everybody has to have, you know,
a good a good baseline, and to make It's like
you go to college so you can become whatever you
want to be, or you know, school, you have a
good base, and a good base in this case is
a good bra. Sometimes a little shape where it to
suck some stuff in, but you know, it just makes
a big difference. I get women coming in and they're
(04:07):
trying on gowns. They have a child, getting married or something,
and they don't want to look old, but they're wearing
a bra where their girls are down to their knees
and they're like, oh, I'm so fat. And I said, well,
if we pull those up, you have a waist under there,
can I put a new bra on you. You don't
have to like it, but at least we're trying on clothes,
it makes a big difference.
Speaker 2 (04:26):
And then they end up going, yes, I'll take that. Yeah.
Speaker 3 (04:29):
And it's also better for your health too to have
a well fitted bra, because your back is a very
important thing. And especially my ladies who are fuller cupped,
you know, they're they're you know, hunched over all the time,
and you know, they get to stand up straight and
it's amazing to see the expression on their faces goes
from kind of like to look at me, you know.
Speaker 2 (04:49):
So it's true those are things that sometimes we just
don't think about. So what should as ladies be looking
for in a good bra?
Speaker 3 (04:56):
First off, the support of your bra comes in the band,
not in the cup. That's the biggest misnomer. A lot
of women think that they buy an underwire bra, that's
what supports them. No, all an underwire does is shape
breast tissue. So here's the boob, here's the underwire. You
want the underwire right where the breast and rib cage
meat that band. When you're trying on bras, there's usually
(05:18):
three rows of hooks. The middle set of hooks is
the band measurement. So if it's a thirty six and
I'm putting that on you, I fit you in the middle.
Because this way and other places that have a name
similar to mine don't do this. I won't say who
they are. They'll just put a bra on you. Hopefully
that holds up your girls. They don't care if the
(05:38):
band is too big or if it's too small, or
they'll tell you to put extenders on it. Do not
do that. Don't buy a broth you're putting extenders on it?
Why bother them?
Speaker 2 (05:46):
Seriously, sounds uncomfortable. It's very uncomfortable.
Speaker 3 (05:49):
But yeah, So the band is the support. The underwires
shape the breast tissue, and the straps fine tune everything.
It's the basics. But I have other bras. I have gosh,
I've got a line of bras that I can't even
keep in stock now that are not under wirebras. They're
made out of scuba inet. And the woman who founded
the company actually started calling me, and I kept telling
(06:10):
her no, no, no, no no, And finally she goes,
I'm going to send you twelve bras, and I'm going
to send a thirteenth one for you, and she already
knew at this point because she'd been calling me so much.
They only wore blacker nude bras, and February if this
was twenty twenty, she said, I'm sending these to you.
So February of twenty twenty, I get this package and
(06:31):
there's twelve kind of normal colored bras and a thirteenth
one that's wrapped up with my name on it. So
I hand these bras out, young, old, thick, thin, pregnant,
not pregnant, and said, do me a favor. Call me
in a couple of days, let me know what you
think of these bras. And I'm getting phone calls the
same day from these women saying, please send me more.
Can you get me more? And I said, I better
(06:52):
open up my package and see what that's in there.
I open it up. It's an fing peacock blue bra
I was like, oh, I got I better try it anyway.
So I did it on a Sunday when I wasn't
in the store, and all I could think of was,
oh my god, I have a blue bra on. That's
all I concentrated on. And I kept saying to my
other half, do I still have two boops?
Speaker 2 (07:13):
Do I?
Speaker 3 (07:13):
Still have two boops. He was used to that because
I try bras, He's like, yes, I kind of went,
all right, she wins, I lose. I have to buy
these bras. But I was really glad I did because
that was twenty twenty, and I ordered the bras. Mid March,
three hundred and fifty bras arrived, and two days later
we were shut down for COVID, and I started bringing
the bras home and doing live videos from my house,
(07:36):
and I was selling these bras to the point I
had to reorder. So and now I've been with them
for five years and they're my number one selling bra
every day. Sixties to sixty five percent of the bras
I sell are this manufacturer, and I can't keep them
in stock.
Speaker 2 (07:53):
So I and We're going to go back to what
you did in twenty twenty because you amazing. The way
you kind of revolutionized shopping with your with your social
media was fantastic. So we are going to go back
to that because I really want people to go watch you,
because you're a lot of fun to watch. But I
(08:14):
want to talk about Okay, so we talked about like
the average both for the average lady, but you also
I mean your game changer for women who have gone
through breast cancer and reconstructive surgery or a full mis
stec to me.
Speaker 3 (08:28):
Yeah, I am a certified miss Steke to Me fitter. Unfortunately,
COVID made it so that we no longer process the
insurance claims and I thought I'm going to lose a
lot of our business, but I didn't. People preferred to
have me fit them and I forever grateful for that.
I mean seriously, but yeah, you know, breast cancer is
(08:49):
a horrible, horrible diagnosis for a woman, and I have
seen women go through so many different phases of you know,
it's almost like a grief process, and you know, you
get that odd thing where the husband comes in, and
you know, I will always want the husband to come
(09:10):
in so I can explain to him what I'm doing
and why we're doing this. And this is usually pre surgery,
and they may come in post surgery as well, and
I invite them as long as their wife or spouse
or partner says it's okay. But I've gotten things where
I am in a fitting room and I can't tell
you how many times I cry in a fitting room
(09:30):
with somebody, how many times we laugh. And these are
two women, maybe at both at the same stage in
their diagnosis, and it's just it's an up and down
seesaw for me. And then I get partners that they
they don't respect their wife or partner because of what
(09:52):
happened to them, and they're just they're mad about it
and they don't agree with the woman not having a
reconstruction or you know, and it gets to the point
that I actually have to play referee and then I
will remove the spouse. I have no bones about it.
(10:12):
That's just sorry. I know it came out.
Speaker 2 (10:15):
Sorry, you're good.
Speaker 3 (10:18):
The because this is a breast cancer is a journey,
but it's not a journey that your life stops. It's
just they got to put on a couple of different clothes.
And I respect every woman who sits there and says
to me, I don't want reconstruction. I you know, I
want to have just prosthetics. Or woman says I'm having
(10:40):
breast reconstruction, and I respect that. You know, you do
what you you do you but let's make it all
work because we've got pretty close to try on. And again,
it's their basis and that's what we do. I don't
dwell on it. I hug them, I give them love.
We get a lot of laughs. And I should probably
(11:01):
write the dictionary on what what to call boobs, because
I've heard everything, more referrals and different words and all.
But I don't want to treat that woman differently because
she's still a woman and she still needs to feel beautiful.
Because everyone who walks into Audrey's is beautiful. Sometimes they
don't know it. Even I don't know it. I know
(11:23):
I'm beautiful once in a while. You know, there are
days I walk in and I catch my glimpse of
myself in the mirror, and I go, yeah, you got
it going on. But then, you know, just like everybody else,
I have my insecurities and and you know, as you
get older, you go, oh, I got you know, flabby arms.
I call them angel wings and they are and they
are they are. I am my wings are so good.
(11:44):
I will zoom up there. But yeah, so it's it's all.
It's all a matter of being with that person and
just going you're okay, this is okay, You're on this
side of the grass. So that's just do it.
Speaker 2 (12:00):
And it is such a personal journey, such a personal journey,
and then just knowing that you have that connection with
them and you've got their back, meaning you'll remove any
negativity that's an absolutely and making it experienced exactly, I'll.
Speaker 3 (12:15):
Beat up anybody thats up my day or let's not
do that. No, it's it's just very important that a
woman feels whole. Yes, and it will take a while.
They'll have to get used to if they decide to
go to the prosthetic route, they have to get used
to that. I get women that come in and they've
had one breast removed and they're using a prosthetic on
the other and they come in maybe three or four
years later, and they're like, I think the other one's
(12:37):
going to go Okay, now what size do you want
to be? Because maybe they were very full busted and
I had to match the remaining breast and they're like,
I'd like to be smaller. Well, okay, we can do that.
Some women come in and go I want to be
like Dolly Barton. I'm like, sure, I got boxes of boobs,
let's just do it.
Speaker 2 (12:56):
Yeah.
Speaker 3 (12:56):
So it's it's a matter of I don't make, don't take,
I don't take what they're going through lightly, because in
my mind, I treat them like a fine piece of
bone china. And then once we've been through this for
a year or two or like, let's just go, let's
just do it, and it's fine.
Speaker 2 (13:13):
You're giving them the gift of feeling like themselves again.
Speaker 3 (13:18):
I try to.
Speaker 2 (13:19):
Yeah, which is amazing. And you really do. You dress
so many different women. I have dresses from you that
I have people who are like, where did you get that?
And I send them right over to you. But when
somebody walks in the door, because I always know when
I walk in the door, you can look at me
and go, okay, let's do this or that, and you're
very good at that. When somebody walks in the door,
(13:41):
what are what are the tips that you want to
give them as far as how to dress for your
body type or even your age, because I know I
have questions about that. You know, you get to that
age where you're like, can I still wear that? Should
I still wear that? Oh?
Speaker 3 (13:57):
Absolutely? So? First off, when a woman comes in, if
we're doing well, keep in mind I have dressed women
for everything from the Oscars, the Emmys, that Tony's, the
Grammys to presidential balls, that sort of thing. I have
dressed entertainers that have come into town. So everybody is different.
So you have your event most of the time, you know,
(14:19):
the most important time is a person coming in because
their child's getting married, and no woman wants to look
like an old lady.
Speaker 2 (14:28):
Amen to that one.
Speaker 3 (14:29):
Yeah, yeah, I get it. And so anyway, what I
do is I talk to them about the event. And
while I'm talking to them, and I'm looking them right
in the eye, but I'm also looking at them standing up.
They're a Barbie doll. Every woman that walks in is
like a Barbie doll to me. So as they're talking
to me and they're telling me about their event, and
we talk about is there a particular color, what's the formality,
(14:51):
where is it at, blah blah blah, all that stuff.
I try to mentally put myself into that event, but
I'm also mentally putting dresses on that person. So I
know when I say, okay, let's go in the fitting room,
and I'll grab four or five dresses and we go
in the fitting room. Sometimes I show it to the
client because I still don't get a read on what
their taste is. Like, I'll show them something really lacy
(15:13):
and I'll show them something very sophisticated and they'll go yes, no, whatever,
and I go, okay, now I know where I'm going.
And we start trying clothes on, and some of the
look at a women she's got a full hip, I
want to pull her shoulder line out, so I want
to open up her neckline, create that optical illusion that
her shoulders are wider than her hip, which creates a
smaller waist. Other women who are built like I am,
(15:34):
they've got big shoulders and no butt, we do something
that creates that optical illusion of a waste with hips,
and it's just Barbie dressing only on big people.
Speaker 2 (15:43):
Which is fascinating to me because I think so often
we just look at an outfit that's maybe in a
magazine or a catalog or on somebody else, and we think, oh,
I want that, But oftentimes maybe that outfit won't look
as good on you.
Speaker 3 (15:58):
Well, okay, short like I am, yea. I like to
refer to it as fun size. We're fun side, we're
fun size and everything. I really really like, I really
should be five foot nine, for I don't have the
height to pull off certain looks, and so sometimes I'll
get women that come in and they want that. They're
fund size like we are, but they want that five
foot nine look. So I try to find things that
(16:22):
can mimic that.
Speaker 2 (16:23):
So you're telling me you can make me look five
foot nine.
Speaker 3 (16:26):
Oh yeah, hey, you know what. Every morning, I get showered,
I brush my teeth before I put my makeup on,
I look in the mirror and I go, you're thirty
four or five foot nine and one hundred and ten pounds.
I put my bra on and I'm like, let's go.
Speaker 2 (16:41):
Or like that small little Shitzu dog that things that
they're they're great, dang exactly exactly.
Speaker 3 (16:47):
And it's funny because people sometimes when they meet me
that have never met me before but they've either seen
the videos or they've talked to me or what have you,
they go, oh my god, you're so short.
Speaker 2 (16:58):
I get that out all the time. Yeah.
Speaker 3 (17:00):
Or you see pictures of yourself with your friends and
you go and I don't think of myself as short,
but I look at pictures of myself with my friends
and I'm like, God, I'm like, up to her boobs,
that's it.
Speaker 2 (17:12):
I didn't know I was that short. That happen now,
I do. I think it's so to me, that's been
like a learning process is how to dress for your
own body type and even color, Like you may love
a particular color, but that color may not look good
on you exactly, and somebody sometimes needs to tell you that.
Speaker 3 (17:29):
And women who are our height are the hardest people
to dress. Seriously. First off, we need to know a
very good seamstress, because you know there's a ham. But
it's easier for me to dress a taller woman who
is a full figure gal than it is for me
to dress someone who's our height and smaller.
Speaker 2 (17:47):
And is that because patterns can be overwhelming, because length,
because of the way something's cut.
Speaker 3 (17:53):
Yep, exactly, yeah, exactly. And a lot of times it's
the shorter women that want the taller girl outfits. So
it's a learning process. And when and I I try
to make sure I am so against body shaming on
people because that's I think that's ridiculous. So I try
my very very best to explain. And when I put
(18:16):
something in a fitting room, I say, if I will
tell you if I like something on you, and I
will tell you if I don't, but I will tell
you why for both, And I try to teach them
how to dress to their silhouette.
Speaker 2 (18:29):
What are the three most important things that a woman
needs in her closet?
Speaker 3 (18:33):
Everyone, it's a little black dress. Every woman should have
a little black shift dress that the hem is a
third of the way down the kneecap, because this way
it creates the optical illusion of length no matter how
tall or short you are, and it also makes your
leg look thinner. You don't want a ham to hit
the fatty part of your calf because it'll make you
look stumpy.
Speaker 2 (18:54):
I did not know of that.
Speaker 3 (18:55):
And there you go. Did I teach you something?
Speaker 2 (18:58):
Oh my, you taught me something.
Speaker 3 (19:01):
Yeah, Okay, that's a big thing. No matter how tall
or short you are. That's something to think about. Okay,
you need a good, well fitting pair of jeans, and
you need a good white, buttoned down shirt that fits
you beautifully, because that can be everything from a jacket
to something you wear with a tank underneath it. With
a good well fitting pair of jeans, you can take it,
(19:23):
tuck it into a fabulous black pencil skirt, put some
pearls with it. Roll your sleeve up. You don't want
the sleeves down because you're not a nun. Roll them up,
pop the collar, pair of black pumps.
Speaker 2 (19:35):
You're done. And that's that goes everywhere, goes everywhere. Okay,
I'm gonna ask the question that and this is a
conversation that we'll have down in the newsroom or with
friends in general. Hate shopping for jeans or pants in
general because they're so difficult.
Speaker 3 (19:53):
Okay, So two things women hate shopping for are bras
and blue jeans. Yes and yes, and they every time
people come there, I can never find a pair of jeans.
I'm this. I'm kind of the same way. I'm not
a jeans store. I carry jeans, but I carry jeans
that I know I have a flat butt. You know,
it's just it goes without saying I don't have an ass,
(20:15):
but I carry jeans in different waists and sizes so
that I can fit the girl who has she's got
a Kardashian booty, or she's you know, gotten no ass
like me, or she's got she wants she needs the
higher rise. And a lot of women drives me crazy
when I see women who are a little fuller figured
and they wear pants that are hip huggers, like back
(20:37):
in the day, remember hip huggers. Yes, and they're tight
because they think, well, I could zip them down there.
But then when they've got Santa Claus belly coming out,
or a menopause belly, whatever you want to call it,
and that's just not attractive, it really isn't. You put
a T shirt on a woman like that and they
lift their arms, their bellies hanging out, come on.
Speaker 2 (20:57):
And it's got to be it's uncomfortable.
Speaker 3 (20:59):
It's uncomfortable, but they think that's what they're supposed to look, right,
And so we'll put some geenes on and the go, well,
it's up to here and the leg is bagging. I
get it. But let's balance you out. And so I
put different styles on them so they can see what
balances their silhouette. Some women they've got, you know, no button,
they got skinny legs, but they're a little fuller up top,
(21:19):
you know, tummy and everything. They look like lollipops. And
that's why I say, you look like a lollipop. Let's
not do that. Let's balance you all out. And that's
what we do. It's a trial and error thing.
Speaker 2 (21:30):
I always say, I like straight lines. I like the
straight lines look.
Speaker 3 (21:35):
Well when you're shorter like we are, monochromatic and straight
lines are the best, absolutely the best.
Speaker 2 (21:42):
So real, Okay, I'm gonna go back really quick because
dressing for your age, because as we get older, there's
that whole thing of should I wear this or shouldn't
I wear this? Is there something or is there anything
that stands out to you that you go hands off?
You gotta let that go as you get older.
Speaker 3 (22:00):
First off, as we get older, we talk.
Speaker 2 (22:02):
I'm asking for a friend.
Speaker 3 (22:03):
I bet you are. I Okay, listen, I grew up
in the miniskirt era, and if you've got great legs,
you know, knock your socks off. But honestly, don't do
a mini skirt where the skirt ends halfway through your thigh.
You are not fifteen or sixteen going to homecoming. I
(22:23):
find that really disconcerting when I see that you want
to wear a shorter skirt top of the knee, but
mid thigh, anything three or four inches above your knee
when you're mature. And it doesn't mean you can't be sexy. Okay,
Sometimes sexy is what you can't see what you suggest.
(22:47):
So you want to wear like a straight cocktail dress,
have a slit on the side. I don't care where
the slit goes as long as it doesn't go to
your woo woo. What do I care?
Speaker 2 (22:58):
But this is why I love her.
Speaker 3 (23:01):
But I would rather see a woman if they want
to be sexy, and I'd rather have them be more
suggestive than just stick it out there. That's a personal opinion.
We all have them. We have my gassholes, so you know.
But I've seen that, and I've seen it around here too,
and I'm like, I look at a woman and I'm like,
(23:23):
you were my freaking age. Really you went to a
prom store for that. Get over yourself. It's not prom more.
Women tend to look more elegant and sexy with a
less is more kind of a look.
Speaker 2 (23:37):
I was just gonna say less is more exactly. Yeah,
I like that exality you can do.
Speaker 3 (23:42):
You can do the sparkles, you can do the disco
ball look.
Speaker 2 (23:44):
I don't care.
Speaker 3 (23:45):
You know there's certain places then yeah, okay, go ahead,
knock your socks off. But when you're wearing something that
you would put on a sixteen seventeen year old mazled
tof good for you. You can wear it. How about
wearing some thing that was a little bit more your
age that's my biggest thing. And the other thing is women,
as we get older, we get into a uniform. Yes,
(24:07):
I wear black a lot. But the reason I wear
black is because when I'm working with a client, I'm
standing behind them. We're not looking at my clothes. I'm
kind of a backdrop. That's why I wear black a lot.
Speaker 2 (24:17):
Oh that makes sense.
Speaker 3 (24:18):
See a lot of people think I just wear it
because you know, I'm lazy, but no, but it is
easier to get dressed in the morning.
Speaker 2 (24:25):
I always just call you Johnny Cash.
Speaker 3 (24:26):
There you go. I can sing.
Speaker 2 (24:29):
I don't know.
Speaker 3 (24:30):
I don't like country music though, anyway. But women get
into a uniform. My mother, my mother was in the
beauty industry. She was a hairdresser and when she got
dressed up, she looked like Astro's pet horse. She was gorgeous.
But as she got older, lands in khaki pants and
knit T shirts became her uniform. And you know, it
(24:51):
would be like, mom, you got something else to wear?
She says, all I'm comfortable, it's fine. No no, no, no, no,
no no. And she was a beautiful woman, she really was.
I just you know, I think about that it was
her uniform, and I see women out there that they
get into a uniform and it's like, let's try something different.
Even I and when you see me on Saturday, I
(25:12):
will not be wearing black. And I'm going to do
that on purpose.
Speaker 2 (25:16):
Just so that you can pop. Right, You're going to
show us, You're going to show us you're not always
Johnny Cash.
Speaker 3 (25:22):
That's right.
Speaker 2 (25:22):
I have no fear. I love that. I've just less
my train of thought because I was just so fascinated
by everything you're saying. I'm just like, I'm like, Okay,
I'm thinking about the fact that I have my own
uniform and I think that we all do that, and
I'm thinking about that. As you were saying that, I'm like,
oh gosh, I do I make a joke of it
(25:44):
because I say I have two wardrobes, work out clothes,
and like dresses for on air, you do, ye do,
and then that's it and I forget how to dress otherwise, Well,
I have.
Speaker 3 (25:55):
To tell you, and now you wore one of my
dresses on air, this black dress, and ah, that made
so many people talk about it because it was different.
Speaker 2 (26:06):
Yeah, it was the long little stuff on the side.
Speaker 3 (26:09):
It was still the same basics, but it just had
a little bit of an edge to it, which is
what I like. And that and I remember seeing I
came home from work and in fact, I took a
picture of you and sent it to you.
Speaker 2 (26:22):
Look at you.
Speaker 3 (26:23):
You're wearing my dress. And I got more comments. People
would come to me in the store, not knowing that
you got the dress from Audrey's, but they said, did
you see Leslie Lowe on the news last night? She
had this dress on and they described this black dress
and I go, oh, this one is that the dress?
(26:43):
And they were like, it's so beautiful and they were
trying it on. And I know there's some people that
probably didn't.
Speaker 2 (26:49):
Like it because it's different.
Speaker 3 (26:52):
It was different.
Speaker 2 (26:52):
I would say ninety percent of the people liked it, yeah,
because it was You're right, it was just it had
all the basics, very well fitting. But then it just
a little bit of yeah.
Speaker 3 (27:04):
And I can understand because you're in the public eye
much larger than I am. I mean, I watch all
the girls on the news, and you know who's a
good dresser.
Speaker 2 (27:17):
Jenny. I love Jenny. She's got some nice outfits.
Speaker 3 (27:21):
Yep. I don't know her, but there's something she puts
on and I'm like.
Speaker 2 (27:25):
That looks fabulous, like that good job. Yeah, okay, we'll
dress us ladies. What would you do? What would you
do with us? And you don't have to name names,
just like in general, give us a tip, give us
a partying tip.
Speaker 3 (27:39):
Very rarely do I see anybody wearing a blazer. And
I know that probably the powers that be say no,
let's not go back to the eighties, but you know
that's the look.
Speaker 2 (27:45):
Well actually there I would love to find when the fit. Yeah,
and that's difficult.
Speaker 3 (27:50):
That's for you. That's difficulty, that's right. But I'd like
to see more jackets. I'd like to see. I'd like
to see less of that. It's called it actually, the
fabric is called tky or TV it wife sorry, different things.
It ty fabric, which is that knit?
Speaker 1 (28:12):
This?
Speaker 2 (28:12):
Okay?
Speaker 3 (28:13):
Okay, Yeah, there's sometimes I see newscasters, not just on
this channel but other channels, and you're all wearing it
y knit dresses and they're all kind of the same.
You know, it's like stop.
Speaker 2 (28:26):
That's our complaint too, by the way, is that they're
so we feel limited.
Speaker 3 (28:31):
Yeah, it's a very limiting thing. It's a uniform, yes, yeah,
or one thing Okay, now this is not you. I mean,
it's not just newscasters in general. Doesn't it annoy you
when you watch a newscaster and it's six degrees below
zero and the reporter has a sleeveless top on, I'm like, hello.
Speaker 2 (28:49):
It took me a minute to learn that it did it? Did?
I know? And it's been years since I've done that.
Like during the middle of winter, where a sleeveless thing.
I wait till certain time. Now, you know, when the
temperatures get to the start.
Speaker 3 (29:04):
Of if I see you wearing something sleeveless or short
or sleeped or something.
Speaker 2 (29:08):
Oh, it's going to be warm out in the sixties.
That's what I always think.
Speaker 3 (29:15):
But it would be nice because every every female and
even men too. If I ever see a man with
a mismatched suit on, again, God, that's my opinion.
Speaker 2 (29:27):
Well, thank you for having something to say about most
because we always say that they have it easy. Like
we are judged on what we wear on a daily basis,
and people remember what we were.
Speaker 3 (29:38):
But did you ever see a male newscaster stand up
and he's got a suit jacket, not a sport coat on,
a suit jacket on and a pair of pants that
doesn't even freaking match anywhere right often and you go
stop it, yes, or their jacket is too snug. Guys,
to me, that's important.
Speaker 2 (29:57):
Yes, that is something that fits well. It's important.
Speaker 3 (29:59):
That's important. So I mean, it's not just the women,
it's the men too, you know. And I know a
bunch of the guys. So it's it's like I would
never say anything to them because that's really not my place.
Speaker 2 (30:12):
But I don't know. I ask you for I do
ask you.
Speaker 3 (30:17):
Yeah, but but you see that and from my eyes,
that's my eye to me, that's unprofessional. It's you guys
are classier than that, you know, and and show.
Speaker 2 (30:29):
It just for the part.
Speaker 3 (30:30):
Dress for the part, just for the job you want,
dress for you know. I was always taught that dressed
for the job you want. And I was brought up
when women weren't breaking glass ceilings.
Speaker 1 (30:40):
You know.
Speaker 3 (30:40):
It was like the beginning back in the eighties. When
I first got into the retail industry, in the fashion industry,
I was very young, and seriously, I was in my
early early twenties and I was being hired in a
management position where I was the only woman. That was hard.
I didn't play golf. I still don't play golf, but
(31:03):
I was always, you know, had to make sure I
was dressed. And you want to call it the power suit,
you can call it the power suit. I was never bitchy,
but I was always confident, and I always went, Okay,
we're built a little different. But I still have a
say at the.
Speaker 2 (31:18):
Table, always say if you look good, you feel good.
Speaker 3 (31:20):
You feel confident.
Speaker 2 (31:21):
Yeah, it's true.
Speaker 3 (31:23):
I come to work sometimes when I know I've got
something going on like that makes me a little bit nervous.
I will wear an outfit that makes me feel powerful.
It may not look any different than what you normally
see me in, but there's certain pieces that I wear
that I go, that's a pretty bad ass. I look good,
my hair came out good, that's great, let's go. Yeah.
And that's you know, we all have that.
Speaker 2 (31:44):
We have that thing in the newsroom where we say,
I'll say I feel like a three today. Yeah, on
a scale from one to ten, I'm a solid three
or a seven. Maybe I feel like at ten that day.
And it really does depend on what you put on.
You feel in what you've.
Speaker 3 (32:01):
Got on exactly, yeah, exactly.
Speaker 2 (32:02):
So if you look good, you feel good. All right.
So for the ladies that are out there and they're like, Okay,
I'm stuck. I'm more in the uniform. I don't have
the confidence to step out of that. Let's end on.
What advice would you give them when they're ready to
make that change. They want to feel confident and they
(32:23):
want to feel good.
Speaker 3 (32:25):
Be open minded. First off, don't say no. I would
shop with my mother and she, excuse me, she would
pick out something and I was a buyer for Lord
and Taylor's at the time, and I'd be like, I
don't like that, and she would just try it on.
So to shut her up, I would try it on.
I'd be in the fitting room, go damn it, it
look good. If you come into the store and I
(32:46):
ask you about your lifestyle, not being nosy, I just
need to know, do you work, what do you do?
What do you do when you're not at work. Let's
build a wardrobe around that. And a lot of women
have been coming in with major weight loss. You know,
I don't know if it's the oze thing or whatever,
but now they don't know how to dress that body,
and they don't they're not introduced to it. So we
start out with. What do you do? What's your every
(33:07):
day like, let's talk about it. You know, well, I
like to wear these T shirts good. I have things
that feel like that T shirt but might look a
little bit better. And we do that, and we try
different pieces, and you just build a little basic wardrobe,
even if it's a fabulous pair of black slacks, a
great pair of jeans, a couple of good basic tops,
and a couple of blazers and a denim jacket. I
never thought those words would come out of my mouth.
(33:30):
A fabulous denim jacket.
Speaker 2 (33:32):
I love hearing that. I love mine.
Speaker 3 (33:36):
I gotta say I love mine too, because it has
four pockets, two inside and ton the outside. I'm all
about pockets. You can go really far with that. And
from there everything is just fun add ons, just good basics.
Speaker 2 (33:51):
Victoria, thank you so much for being here. Well, every
time I hang out with you, it's just like I
learned something new and I have a blast.
Speaker 3 (33:59):
I'm glad you do.
Speaker 2 (34:00):
So, ladies. You know what, if you look good, you
feel good, and you're worth it for sure. All right,
go make the rest of your days the best of
your days.
Speaker 3 (34:07):
Bye, everybody.
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