Bill adding up for Pevely taxpayers over lingerie store court battle

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By Alex Fees

PEVELY, Mo. (KSDK) - A local battle over decency has ended in Pevely with a lingerie store winning a federal court case to open a retail outlet here.

Pure Pleasure Boutique is located just off Interstate 55. Attorney Bob Kister represents the owners of the store locally.

“What they were planning to do in Pevely, a new concept, was have a store that sold lingerie, marital aids, lubricants, things of that nature,” Kister said. “But not have any pornography; nothing that would be embarrassing, such that women wouldn’t want to go into the store, things like that.”

In late December, Kister said a federal court decided in favor of Pure Pleasure Boutique.

“The store actually opened in 2010,” said Kister. “They’ve been there but without any signage, without water or sewer hooked up to the building. And unable to get building permits to complete about four-fifths of the square footage of the store.”

Kister said the court ruling came December 21.

“The court ruled completely in our favor because the Constitution prohibits any government entity from denying First Amendment rights. My clients have been in full compliance with all of the city’s ordinances from the outset and although we sell lingerie and marital aids and so forth, under state law they are not what they state statutes describe as a sexually-oriented business. And therefore the city’s efforts to regulate the store as a sexually-oriented business were off-base.”

Now comes the penalty phase of the court proceeding.

“So the attorney fees will be a big part of it and we have a store accountant working on getting us some figures on what the damages are,” said Kister. “It’s what the store would have been able to take in if it had proper signage and licensing.”

Kister said the court has also ordered that Pevely violated the store owners’ civil rights, entitling them to recover their attorney fees. Kister said his office has billed about $28,000. Kister said a Constitutional law attorney out of Florida has billed more than $40,000.

Then there’s the question of damages.

“It’s been 2 years that the store has not been making that much compared to other, comparable stores that are being looked at. I’m sure that’s going to run into many thousands of dollars.”

Tens of thousands? Hundreds of thousands?

“I would expect tens,” said Kister.

Kister said city officials were concerned because of the other stores his clients operate. But he says they needed to consider what’s being sold in the store located within their city limits.

“The other stores are called Megacenters and there’s one in North Broadway in St. Louis, there’s one in Fairview Heights in Illinois, and they sell some racier things.”

He said some of the merchandise in those stores would be considered pornographic under state statutes.

“And sexy is not the same as sex,” he added.

NewsChannel 5 contacted Pevely Mayor John Knobloch and City Administrator Jason Eisenbeis regarding this story.  Neither returned a voicemail.

 

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Double Divas on Lifetime follows LiviRae Lingerie owners Molly Hopkins …

Double Divas on Lifetime opens the doors to Atlanta-based LiviRae Lingerie, a specialty store that touts: “Got Boobs? LiviRae’s Got Bras.” Molly Hopkins and Cynthia Richards are the owners of LiviRae Lingerie and have long-been a standout with their custom bras and hands-on approach to fitting a woman correctly. Double Divas, which aired a sneak peek earlier this month, is officially added to the Lifetime lineup this Thursday, Jan. 10 at 10pm ET/PT.

The series comes from the producers of Say Yes to the Dress and follows Hopkins and Richards in action at LiviRae’s as they interact with clientele in a funny, touching and completely candid way.

Cynthia is the Thomas Edison of custom lingerie. A self-taught seamstress and designer who interned under London’s Rigby Peller  — the “people who make the queen’s bras” she shares. “I’ve been designing since I was little,” crafting custom bras from A to N cups.

Bra sizes go up to N cups??? I didn’t realize that …

“Nobody in America does,” Cynthia tells. “Molly and I thought by doing this show that you educate the American woman out there that you don’t need to suffer anymore. There is something larger than double Ds and triple Ds and you all need to have access to it.”

Cynthia wants to change woman’s fears on the letter size of their bra. “Our goal was to let the American woman know [that] D is not big, D is small. If you are looking at an alphabet where is D? In everywhere else outside of America they go to N and make custom bras, we have to change the fear that women have of the letter.”

Her partner, Molly, is known as the bra whisper (a therapist of sorts) who claims that once the clothes come off, the mouths start talking. “A lot of times they tell us a lot more than we bargained for and it becomes intense,” Molly shares. “We become therapists — were not just fixing your bra, we’re fixing your mindset.”

And a lot of fixin’ in store, as Molly says 85 percent of the world’s women are wearing the wrong size bra.

“If you wear the right size bra you’ll be thinner, you’ll look 10 pounds lighter,” Cynthia says. “That’s just one of the benefits that come with wearing the right size bra. One of the crucial things is it prevents calcification and cells and lumps in your breasts, it keeps your breasts perky, it also takes the strain off the back of your neck.”

The woman wear a lot of hats from custom designers, therapists, even doctors?

“We’re the doctors of lingerie because were writing prescriptions and filling bras with breasts, that’s what we do,” Mollys says. “We are your doctor in every way. Mentally we build up your confidence level, because when you get a women in a room all of their vulnerability and their insecurity come off with their shirt– they are exposed when their shirt comes off. You have to use human and compassion – you have to find a way to and let them know they’re not different than anyone else. Let’s fit you right.”

Double Divas on Lifetime, Thursdays at 10pm ET/PT

Photo Credit: Lifetime

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