This is the sixth post in my series about Support1000, and it’s good news for those of you in the Chicago-area looking for a bra fitter with experience who loves to help people and has a giant inventory.

Support1000′s founder Oz du Soleil is another one of those rare men who “gets” bras and women, but even he needed a little help at the beginning. He got a LOT of it from Tina Karakourtis, the owner of Tina’s Closet in Lisle, Illinois. Besides teaching him everything she could about bras, she installed the first Support1000 Bra Depot in her store, and she has donated more than $50,000 in new bras to the organization.

Tina has been in the lingerie business for 37 years. She began in a maternity shop that carried only one bra style. When she herself became pregnant, she began creating 34GG’s from 40 bands. She continues making alterations today in her own shop. For Tina, altering a bra is about more than taking in the band. For instance, she created a 26F for a teenage customer by completely re-engineering the original bra. The alterations she makes depend on the manufacturer. If you stop by her store and have a bra re-engineered, I would LOVE for you to guest post about it here–especially if you have more than one brand altered. I only wish I could pop over and watch her in action!

Tina’s Closet carries bras in sizes 28-56 A-L. It isn’t uncommon to hear happy screams coming from the dressing room after a woman is finally fit into the right bra. Her employee Teri, who I interviewed for this post, used to run to the back with a first-aid kit when she first began working at the store and heard the screams. Now she realizes it’s just another happy customer.

Where is this bra-fitting Utopia? According to Mapquest, it’s only a 35 minute drive west from the Sears Tower to Lisle. If  you decide to visit, Teri recommends that you make it a Spa & Bra Day with the following itinerary:

1. Have breakfast at the John Dough Bakery.
2. Go to Tina’s Closet for your fitting.
3. Stop by Sanly Beauty for one of “literally the world’s best facials”.
4. Lunch on authentic Mexican cuisine at Yurbabuena (by the nephew of a Mexican tequila producer who infuses his recipes with his family’s tequila).
5. Walk off your lunch at the gorgeous Morton Arboretum (or take the cute walk behind Main Street).
6. Snack on “gelato to die for” at Traviatta or
7. Have a fun supper at Johnny’s Red Hots before your drive home–their chicken on pita with honey mustard is Tina’s favorite.

Hmmm . . . is anyone else thinking this would be a fun meetup for Hourglassy readers who live in or near Chicago???

As summer comes to an end, the completely volunteer staff of Support1000 is surging forward with a giant new goal:  ship 15,000 bras to women all over the world on August 25. In other words, this coming Saturday they plan to ship in a single day the entire number of bras that they have shipped over the last three years!

Do you want to help? They don’t need your actual bras this time. They need your money to help cover the cost of packing materials and shipping.  You can make a donation as low as $10 through the Support1000 Fundly page, or you can go to the Support1000 website and click on their PayPal donation button.

Of course, if you’re in Chicago this weekend, Support1000 could definitely use your help packing bras.  The thought of making boob and bra jokes with over 200 amazing Bra-La-Palooza volunteers sounds like a lot of fun, as well as imagining the joy that the bras you are packing will bring to the women who wear them. If you can make it, register for a time on the Support1000 EventBrite page, and show up here:

Bodhi Spiritual Center, 2746 N. Magnolia Ave, Chicago, IL 60640

Will you also help by spreading the news about the Bra-La-Palooza to your friends, relatives and co-workers? You can tweet about it or share a link to this post on your Facebook page. As women who know the cost and value of a good bra, let’s do what we can to help Support1000 put good bras on the women who need them the most.