“No one wants to go bra shopping, let’s face it.”
Nanette Parsons, the owner of Best Rack Around in Leesburg, is pretty matter of fact. She sees an issue and makes it her mission to do something about it. Coming out of the corporate world, she never dreamed of getting into retail.
“I swore I would never get into retail,” she says. “My grandparents owned a retail store, but I had an inclination to help people.” Her corporate job had her working with fundraising, mainly for breast cancer, and she wanted to do more to help—her own mother is a survivor.
Parsons did end up getting into retail, but she made her store more than a stop in, buy something and leave type space. Best Rack Around has two focuses: one, creating a space where any woman or girl can come in and get help with every day and special occasion undergarments; two, a focus on giving back to the community by helping those who have breast cancer find needed undergarments.
Parsons started her business model with a focus on community, mainly helping those who were looking for mastectomy and compression wear garments. Seeking out training was difficult and pointed to her correct assumption that there was a need in the area. Eventually she found training with a company called Anita and sought out area plastic surgeons and oncologists to make her business known. She has grown from offering fittings and undergarments to working with numerous charities, like recycling bras through an annual event with the Ashburn Rotary and Free the Girls (last year the event recycled 4,000 bras), recycling prosthesis and wigs by working with Loudoun Breast Health Network and she is working with the newly opened Peterson Family Breast Center as well. She has even started her own charity, Bras Raise Awareness, to raise funds for Loudoun Breast Health Network.
For the woman looking for the necessities, Best Rack Around offers more than just the merchandise.
“I want this to be an experience where [women] feel good about themselves,” says Parsons, who adds that when she used to go to a department store for a bra she felt like just a number.
At Best Rack Around, shoppers get one-on-one attention, and they get a selection of curated brands (Eveden, Freya, Fantasie, Elomi, Goddess, to name just a few) mainly from Europe and Canada because Parsons likes that these brands are focused on excellent fit and have been around for about 150 years. Staff members start by taking 30-40 minutes making a chart for each customer after having a fitting, noting the perfect size in each brand and types of bras. But they go beyond this. They welcome those potentially awkward questions like what to do when one breast is larger than the other; sweating from menopause; nursing; and pretty much anything else that comes up.
“There is a lot women don’t talk about when it comes to bras,” says Parsons. “We like to let everyone know that this is a safe space and it’s OK to talk about things and ask questions.” They even teach customers the best way to put a bra on and how to wash them correctly.
Parsons is constantly adding more to the shop too. She’s added lounge and swimwear, and she offers bra fitting parties and sip-and-shop events with area artisans throughout the year. // Shops at Crescent Place, 454 Madison Trade Plaza SE, Leesburg; bestrackaround.com
