Lingerie shop expands its Bayview Village home

[attach]6656[/attach]While on vacation Liliana Mann, lingerie expert and owner of Linea Intima, visits every lingerie shop she comes across.

“On my days off, I still go by the store and I help customers,” Mann says. “I am very passionate about it. I love making women feel better about themselves.”

On Dec. 5, Mann celebrated her 15-year anniversary as an independent specialty lingerie retailer, the launch of a selection of products aimed at a younger clientele, which is called elle aime, and, after eight years in Bayview Village, a new location with in the shopping centre that double their existing retail space in the shopping centre and serves as the biggest of seven Linea Intima stores.

“It was time to grow, we were bouncing out of our walls it was so small,” Mann says.

While they’ve expanded their offerings, a main goal for the store remains to teach women how important the foundations are under their garments.

“Even though nobody sees them they’re the thing that everyone sees because when you don’t have the right bra, the right underwear, the right shaper, it influences how the clothes look and how you look,” she says.

In addition to bras, undergarments, sleepwear and bathrobes from around the world, the stores are known for their expert bra-fitting consultations. New to this location are services for women who have undergone mastectomies.

“I hope they find the experience of doing a mastectomy fitting in a store like ours, surrounded by the beautiful merchandise and being able to get anything they like and being ‘normal’ again will give them such an experience that they will be happy about,” Mann says. “They like to share their stories and how they feel touched that somebody has the time and the understanding to relate to them and to give them good advice.”

Although Mann has a hard time narrowing down her selection, which includes brands like La Perla, PrimaDonna, Chantelle, Simone Perele, with a background in architecture and as a sleepwear designer she’s able to visualize how items will fit, she says.

“I am absolutely sure that we’re carrying way too many labels, we’re carrying way too many products and lines and that we have too much inventory,” she says. “As a buyer for our stores and as a personal consumer I cannot stop, I have to have everything. I have to give people so many choices so in that respect I know I overdue it. We have a lot of lines, we carry the best lines in everything.”

According to Mann, a regular contributor on CBC’s Steven and Chris, only eight percent of her customers are already wearing the proper bra size before they get fitted, a process which should be done at least once a year.

“We have people hugging and kissing us in the changing room telling us they never felt like this,” she says. “I hope I’m giving women an inspiration to take care of themselves, of feeling good, of improving their lives or improving their looks and therefore improving their overall well being.”