Lots of brands have hit the road in the past two years to sell clothes in the compact digs of a kitted-out truck or RV, including Cynthia Rowley, Alice + Olivia, Michael Stars, and Soludos, plus vintage sellers and indie boutiques. But underpinnings haven't been on the move — until January. That's when lingerie e-tailer True&Co. will launch its Try-On Truck; the journey will begin in San Francisco on January 12.
Expect gratis 30-minute bra fittings based on your breast shape in lieu of the band or cup shape; there are no measuring tapes involved. The customized space is meant to evoke a boutique filled with "the breezy warm feel of California sun on weathered wood," according to a press release. The pint-sized digs include four fitting rooms for sampling a selection of True&Co.'s well-curated bras, which are selected based on the fitting as well as the results of a five-minute Fit Quiz that customers will take before hopping aboard. You can book a free appointment here; any bras you buy will be shipped to your home.
"We created a live version of our personal fitting experience, inspired by the 'tiny homes' movement. We wanted women to feel at home in our mobile shop," Michelle Lam, True&Co.'s CEO and founder, told Refinery29. "We're pioneering 'nomadic retail' to transform the way women shop for lingerie."
After an inaugural stop in San Francisco, the Try-On Truck will hit a few stops in Northern California and then head south to Los Angeles. Next up, it'll stop in other SoCal spots, like San Diego and Orange County, followed by a cross-country journey. Visits to Arizona, a trio of Texas cities (Austin, Houston, and Dallas), and Chicago will be made by the bra purveyor, and then there will be a handful of East Coast stops, including Washington, D.C., New York, New Jersey, Connecticut, and Boston.
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A particularly crappy bra-fitting experience was the impetus for Lam to start the company in 2011; the fixation on fit followed suit. "I believe that all women should feel beautiful in their own skin, appreciating their own individual size and shape, and it seemed that the lingerie industry tried to treat all of us the same way," Lam told Refinery29.
There's a True&Co. private label, launched in 2013, which is designed by Nikki Dekker, the lingerie maven behind The Lake & Stars. You can also shop à la carte from roughly 40 lingerie lines, with suggestions for which styles will fit you best based on those Fit Quiz results. The Quiz stats are also used by the company as insight-packed data about women's silhouettes, spanning 6,000 body parts, according to Mashable. (The site also makes the very best strapless bra around, per the internet.)
"When our fit therapists guide our guests through a personal lingerie fitting experience, we find that women have the confidence to try many more new things and commit to a bra that truly fits," Lam says. "They look at their bodies in a whole new light, a much more positive one, which is the ultimate reason why I founded True&Co."
We can't quite say that getting topless in a truck (albeit one that closely resembles a boutique) is exactly what we've been lacking in the lingerie shopping experience. But it's definitely a different way to scour for new bras. Who knows — with the right, exceptionally fit-savvy customer service, it might be exactly what we never knew we needed from stocking up on skivvies.