Uplifting Tale

I get the distinct feeling that the subject of this entry (bras and the Jewish women who fill them) would make Professor Cohen blush. But that's the topic of my latest notable Jewish encounter, and I don't really think he reads these anymore, so here we go.

After months of conflicting schedules, I finally went to a StorySlam, hosted by The Moth. Brave souls put their names in a hat and ten are chosen to get up and tell a 5-minute story on a given topic in front of everyone. Teams of audience members vote, and a winner is announced. In this case, the winner was Eve. She told a tale about a lingerie shop called Orchard Corset here in NYC. Her opening line? "It's always a little unnerving to get fitted for a bra by a Chassidic man." When a woman walks into the store, he asks them to take off their coat and show him what they're workin' with. She describes how he would shake his fist in the air, insisting that she needed double-support straps with the same passion he would have had in a debate over Torah. I have to wonder what the Talmud says about his profession. Noble as it is, I have to think that it's not very often that Orthodox men in white shirts, black hats, and long sideburns can get away with asking strange women to show them what they got.

There is an explanation for his presence in the store. It was opened in 1968 by his mother, Ms. Bergstein, a Holocaust survivor from Hungary. After her husband died a few years ago, her son (the Chassidic man aforementioned) helped her run the store. She sounds like quite the character, pinpointing a woman's true bra-size with a single glance. Maybe Oprah should have invited her on her big Bra Show earlier this year.

Speaking of big bras, Orchard Corset apparently specializes in them, going up as high as a 58 I. That's right, I. As in the letter after H. I wonder if the background of the owners influence this decision since it's a common claim everywhere from the kosher caf. to the pages of Heeb that Jewish women tend to be a little bustier than average. Of course, I got my Nana's Russian arms instead.

After the story was told, the host got up and asked if owning a lingerie shop was a "Jewish thing," and a woman wearing a hat in the audience (Orthodox???) said it was and told her own Orchard Corset tale. "It's always a 'Jewish thing," responded the (Jewish) host.

Eve and her friends actually made a documentary on Ms. Bergstein and her shop. For an article in the NYTimes on this landmark, click here. Or stop by yourself on the corner of Orchard and Stanton.