The Best Lingerie Stores In Los Angeles

We’ve been known to burrow through boxes of garish rhinestone G-strings and weird foam-filled bras to find a slinky gem at Victoria’s Secret’s annual undies sale just like every other bargain-minded babe, but the mall juggernaut is not where we go when we want something special for a seductive evening.

But spending serious money on sexy under-things is an indulgence every woman should give into from time to time, and it should be a fun and sensual experience. Lucky for us Angelenos, Los Angeles’ specialty lingerie stores are bountiful—kind of like the bosoms and booties they cover, enhance and support in this town. When it comes to unmentionables you actually want to mention, here are the best for your boudoir.

Photo courtesy of Agent Provocateur

Agent Provocateur

The popular British brand has been a hit with Hollywood starlets, fashionistas and would-be doms alike since it opened its Melrose shop over a decade ago. It’s anything but cheap (a bra can go for hundreds) but A.P.’s couture-like craftsmanship makes every piece worth it, from garter belts to corsets, to bra and panty sets in a variety of shades and unique styles. Best investments tend to be in black, evoking a sinful sophistication and power even in delicate lace and satins. The high-fashion vibe here makes it one of the nicest (and naughtiest) places to purchase knickers. No surprise, the company was founded by Joseph Corré, none other than Vivienne Westwood’s son. Viv designed the Melrose store itself so it’s definitely the one you want to go to.

Agent Provocateur is located at 7961 Melrose Ave., Los Angeles. (323) 653-0229.

Photo courtesy of What Katie Did

What Katie Did

Curve-hugging retro fashion requires curve-enhancing under garments and when you’re a gal who likes her heels with height and her red lipstick bright, Spanx just seem wrong somehow. What Katie Did lets you work your pin-up allure inside and out. Bullet bras, corsets, cinchers, high-waisted panties that are anything but mom-style, and girdles, yes girdles, that are actually sexy, all available in bigger, curvy gal styles (as well as more petite ones) for under a C-note. Some bras even go up to FF+. Garter belts and black or flesh-colored seemed stockings are a must here to complete the vintage va-va-voom vibe.

What Katie Did is located at 7970 Melrose Ave. in West Hollywood. (877) 221-2472.

Kiki’s multi-lingual ‘Touch Me’ panties/Photo by Lina Lecaro.

Kiki de Montparnasse

Like Provocateur, Kiki is a super high-end lingerie boutique that few can afford often, but it’s a splurge that is likely to pay off… in the bedroom. The brand is more provocative than Provocateur in fact… and we’re not just talking about the price tags (their best bras are in the $200-300 hundred range) . There’s nothing subtle or demure about the classy/kinky atmosphere or the sumptuous under-things here, but there is a cheeky sensibility throughout that’s refreshing. Whether it’s an intricate cage bra, a silk blindfold or “instruments of pleasure” that look like art pieces, attention to detail is key. Most of their line is black and white only and some of it is gorgeous enough to wear out, but everything is designed for indoor fun. Set up an appointment to book a fitting room and bring along your significant other! They’ll serve you champagne and chocolate covered strawberries while you model your favorite pieces in privacy.

Kiki de Montparnasse is located at 8481 Melrose Pl. in West Hollywood. (323) 951-9545.

Photo courtesy of Panty Raid

Panty Raid

From the minimalist chic of Calvin Klein to the enchanting moxie of Huit brand, this small but well-curated shop has lingerie lines that will inspire the matchy-matchy girl in all of us. The adorable sets in this Los Feliz store are geared toward the very put-together, slightly more petite shopper, but there are some sexy exceptions. Panty Raid doesn’t measure your bra size like many lingerie purveyors do, and we like that. We always get a different number for some reason. The lines they carry are so diverse, it’s kind of pointless to go by a number anyway. Try if you wanna buy. Better yet, after those mimosas at Alcove next door, bring your partner and try.

Panty Raid is located at 1953 Hillhurst Ave. in Los Feliz. (323) 668-1888.

Photo by Marc Evans via the LAist Featured Photos pool on Flickr

Trashy Lingerie

The La Cienega landmark has always been known for its huge selection of corsets and costumes, but what sets it apart from the Hollywood Boulevard hordes is the custom-work done right there in house. Most of the merchandise in this members-only store (just pay $2 and you’re in) is designed and made by the owners and can be fitted to your form. Beyond the typical “sexy [fill-in-the-blank]” costumes for Halloween, Trashy’s the place for unique lingerie and sleep wear (that you have no intention of sleeping in, of course). Everything in here is made to be seen with bold details like ribbons, bows, ruffles, fringes, mesh, vinyl, fishnet and on and on. Basically, if you ever get invited to a slumber party at the Playboy Mansion, this is your one-stop shop.

Trashy Lingerie is located at 402 N La Cienega Blvd. in Los Angeles. (310) 652-4543.

Bizzy B/Photo by Lina Lecaro

Bizzy B

We wrote about all the “bawdiest stores in Hollywood” last year and this shop earned best on the boulevard hands down. With underwear and clubby outerwear for everyone from raver girls to goths, to dancers and tourists looking to bring out their tarty side, this shop has it all. Everything here is about fantasy. But the reasonable prices for everything from bras to tights to G-strings to sex toys is very real.

Bizzy B is located at 6548 Hollywood Blvd. in Hollywood. (323) 469-4309.

Photo courtesy of Pure Delish

Pure Delish

Culver City cuties like to get crazy in the bedroom (and half-naked at festivals) too. The owners of Pure Delish (one of whom happens to work at infamous Hollywood bikini bar, Jumbo’s Clown Room) knows it! Though they have costumes and sex shop stuff (lube, “massagers,” etc.), the lingerie selection sizzles, too—bridal sets, fetish wear, nighties, and bras and panties ranging from racy to romantic by brands such as Felina, Patrice Catanzaro, Savage and more. Delish attracts dancers from all around town and ravers alike; they specialize in skimpy underwear as outerwear for parties like Electric Daisy Carnival and Burning Man, and can help you dress (well, undress) your best for the big bashes and the bedroom alike.

Pure Delish is located at 10746 Washington Blvd. in Culver City. (310) 591-8792.

Frederick’s of Hollywood

Though they closed all their brick and mortar boutiques earlier this year (including mall shops and their Hollywood Blvd. flagship), we can’t talk lingerie in L.A. without a mention of this iconic glamorama. Opened by Frederick Mellinger in 1947, the racy underwear fave was known for their exotic/erotic mail order catalogs and their original pink and purple HQ on Hollywood Blvd., later taken over by a nightclub. Freddy’s attempts to compete with Victoria were seemingly its downfall, but the brand’s eye for enhancing busty bodaciousness was always better. Check out their online store for great deals (look like they’re still clearing out stock from their store closures).

Related:
The Best Places In Los Angeles To Find A Bra That Actually Fits
Hollywood Stripped: The Most Bawdy Boutiques On The Boulevard

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Secrets of a Brazen Belle: Rhythm, Attitude & Lingerie

MINFIN PHOTOGRAPHY/COURTESY BRAZEN BELLES
The current Brazen Belles troupe is made up of six women plus the master of ceremonies, Curtis Suede.

FALMOUTH – Aanjes Larkin Hershfield loves lingerie. She also loves performing.

Lingerie plus performing with a sprinkling of humor equals burlesque and, that is the short answer to the question of what led Hershfield to form the Brazen Belles, the Cape’s one and only burlesque troupe.

The Brazen Belles are performing a benefit concert for the Falmouth Theatre Guild Saturday, September 12, at 8 p.m. This is their last performance before they head out to Las Vegas to perform at the Las Vegas Burlesque Festival to prove that Cape Codders can bump and grind with the best of them.

Hershfield, 36, is founder of the Belles, leader of the troupe and artistic director. A hair stylist by day, she performs in the Belles as Pepper Grinds.

MINFIN PHOTOGRAPHY/ COURTESY BRAZEN BELLES
Aanjes Larkin Hershfield, founder and artistic director of the Brazen Belles, performs at Pepper Grinds.

The daughter of a musician and a NOAA fisheries marine biologist, Hershfield performed music and acted in high school and college. But she wanted a outlet that allowed more creativity and that combined music, acting, singing and comedy.

“When I was performing music, there’s only so much you can do with it,” she said.

Four years ago, she found that outlet in burlesque, an old performing art form that has had a resurgence in recent years with the likes of Dita Von Teese and, two big influences for Hershfield, the Atomic Bombshells Burlesque from Seattle and Sugar Blue Burlesque from Australia.

Hershfield said the form of burlesque can encompass a wide array of performance styles.

“We’re burlesque but we’re very vaudevillian and cabaret,” she said of the Belles.

Besides Hershfield, the Belles troupe includes Katie Meyer, a nurse who performs as Sundown Shenanigans, and Jody Edwards, who works at the Kettle Ho! in Cotuit and at a real estate office, and performs as Bobbi Pins. A couple of the Belles, namely Savannah Boudreau and Ophelia Love prefer to keep their real identities more under wraps, so to speak.

Besides the main troupe of Belles, usually six or eight ladies, there are two “stage belles,” stagehands, who go by the names Ginger St. Stevens and Rita Men Weep.

There is also the master of ceremonies, the mysterious Curtis Suede, who prefers to keep his identity a secret.

Hershfield has a quick answer for what the members of the Belles get out of the experience.

It is about something she calls, “womanship.”

Hershfield said, “It’s a sense of camaraderie and friendship but also a place to feel excited about their bodies in a positive way. To put themselves out there and show women that they can be sexy and smart and funny and show women we are all different and we are all beautiful.
Mostly it’s just a lot of fun. For everyone, it’s a way to get outside the box. It’s something different.”

Assuming the affinity for lingerie and the enthusiasm for performing, what, dare we ask, are the other qualities of a Belle?

MINFIN PHOTOGRAPHY/COURTESY BRAZEN BELLES
Isel Garcia-Renart, a local musician, performs as Olive Mia in the Brazen Belles.

If you speak to two of the other Belles who will be performing at the benefit show, Isel Garcia-Renart, who performs as Olive Mia, and Leah Trafford McRaven, who performs as Mini Teasecake, the experience of being a Belle is all about having fun.

Garcia-Renart, who is 32 and is returning to the troupe seven and a half months after having a baby, said being in the Belles serves as “a creative outlet for all my crazy ideas.”

A musician whose family moved to Falmouth when she was 10 years old, Garcia-Renart said choreographing routines, dressing up and performing is like a return to childhood.

But what keeps her with the Belles and what brought her back to the troupe after having her daughter is the camaraderie of being with the group of women in the troupe.

“It’s a strong group of women. It’s refreshing. It’s over the top. We’re trying to bring joy to people and make people laugh. We take what we’re doing seriously but we don’t take ourselves seriously,” she said.

Like Hershfield, she has an affinity for what Hershfield calls “old-timey” music. For Garcia-Renart, that means performing to the music of some of her favorites—Billie Holiday, Nina Simone and Ella Fitzgerald—who have influenced her as a musician.

MINFIN PHOTOGRAPHY/COURTESY BRAZEN BELLES
Leah Trafford McRaven says for her character, Mini Teasecake,” she “channels a slightly deranged Vegas performer, like Miss Piggy.”

McRaven, 28, studied all types of dance, including ballet, tap and jazz, as a child and teenager, so she enjoys the performing aspect of the Belles. But more than that, “it is about performing with that group.”

Born in Ontario, Canada and growing up “all over,” she came to Woods Hole to work as a technician in the physical oceanography department at the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution. She heard about the Belles troupe and decided it might be fun to join them.

After being in the group for two years, she left in 2014 to attend Columbia University to work towards her Ph.D. in physical oceanography.

The contrast of being a scientist/burlesque performer is something she thinks about a lot.

“I don’t fully understand it. I definitely grew into myself with the Belles. It’s a fuller expression of myself. I’m much more confident,” she said.

She described her character, Mini Teasecake, as also one of contrasts. “I’m channeling a slightly deranged Vegas performer, like Miss Piggy, plus channeling old-fashioned elegance through classical dance,” she said.

She said, for her, returning as a featured performer at this weekend’s benefit is all about being around the women of the troupe.

As Belles have come and gone, moving out of town or not having time for the activity, Hershfield has occasionally held open auditions for members, putting the word out on social media.

Those auditioning are asked to wear something comfortable and learn a basic dance routine.

Though some of the Belles, like McRaven, have classical dance training, it is not required.

“You have to have some rhythm and know how to dance,” Hershfield said. “Most are self-taught.”

The main requirement is attitude.

“The requirements aren’t anything crazy—they just have to be comfortable with themselves and comfortable with what we do. There’s a general attitude of camaraderie. Ideally someone is ready to go and is interested in doing a solo right away,” Hershfield said.

And of course, it helps to have a strong affinity for lingerie.

 

– Laura M. Reckford

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