Lingerie for the less endowed FASHION

Ellen Shing is the owner of a cute San Mateo lingerie store, Lula Lu, where she is both owner and designer of a line of bras and panties for petite women. July 22, 2009 Ellen Shing is the owner of a cute San Mateo lingerie store, Lula Lu, where she is both owner and designer of a line of bras and panties for petite women. July 22, 2009 Photo: Lance Iversen, The Chronicle Photo: Lance Iversen, The Chronicle Image 1 of / 8 Caption Close Lingerie for the less endowed 1 / 8 Back to Gallery

Ellen Shing wants you to know that in a society where bigger is flaunted as better, at least where the bustline is concerned, there are plenty of small-chested women who beg to differ.

Shing's Lula Lu lingerie in San Mateo specializes in bras whose cups are so small and shallow they are not quite cups, and almost not even saucers.

And yet there is so much demand for sizes from 30AAA to 38A that Shing has done what any entrepreneur would do: failing to find as much as she needed at trade shows, she's begun designing and selling her own line of lingerie to supplement the 14 lines she stocks.

Shing said that her best-selling size is 34AAA and that many women do not - repeat, do not - want padding. Are you listening, Hugh Hefner?

"T-shirt bras are usually heavily padded, if they're geared toward smaller-busted women, based on the assumption that anyone who is small-busted wants to become big-busted, and that's really not always the case," said Shing, 41 and a 36A herself. "A lot of our customers are happy with their bodies. They find the bra shopping experience wrong because nothing fits."

Lula Lu's new line includes plain-Jane, smooth cotton styles in nude and white, coquettish styles in bubblegum pink with white polka dots, and racier styles in black lace with blue or fuchsia satin underneath. Some have underwires; bralets do not. There are corsets, too.

They supplement the national brands she carries: Wacoal petite, L.Z., Spank, Mary Green and Timpa. She stocks full cups, demi cups, push-ups, racer backs, sports bras, strapless bras, T-shirt bras and lace bras, as well as underpants, camisoles, pajamas and swimsuits. The store also carries interchangeable beaded, bejeweled bra straps that are meant to be seen, not hidden; water-resistant pads for swimsuit tops; and jewelry by local artisans.

Customers of all ages

Shing's customers range in age from their late 20s to their 50s. Many have tried boutiques, chain stores, department stores and online stores, with varying degrees of success.

One customer, Trina Enriquez, 30, a copy editor in Menlo Park, has purchased two of Shing's designs. She notes that fashion magazines and department stores rarely celebrate the small-chested woman.

"When you've lived for so long without something, you sometimes just become subconsciously resigned to the idea that that something either just doesn't exist or isn't for you, until a place like Lula Lu comes along and basically says, 'Um, honey, let me show you what you've been missing ...,' " she said in an e-mail.

Shing worked in marketing for the NBA in Hong Kong and in San Francisco as a buyer for Duty Free Stores before opening shop in 2005.

Store clerks can measure incorrectly. One customer, she said, was 36AA, but had been told at a department store she was 32B and was urged to buy a bra that didn't fit. It was squeezing her back so badly that it hurt, the customer said.

"She bought the bra anyway, thinking that was the way it was supposed to be," Shing said.

Attitude adjustment

Other store clerks tell them they don't need to wear bras, or send them to the kids' department. But some small-busted women want coverage while at work; others want a little padding for gowns and sexy dresses; still others don't want to go braless just because they're smaller.

"I get a lot of women telling me the bra fitter sighed and said, 'Oh, how sad,' " Shing said. "One woman said, 'No, sad is starving children in Africa. I just need a bra.' "

"Satisfaction is one thing that definitely keeps me going," she continued. "Emotionally, for a lot of women, it cheers them up and makes them feel better."

Lula Lu Lingerie, 212 E. Third Ave., San Mateo; (650) 348-8858, www.lulalu.com.