The following is an article featured in The Palm Beach Post
August 07, 2010,
By Staci Sturrock | Style
When you think of bountiful behinds, which names spring to mind? J.Lo? Beyoncé? Kim Kardashian?
Bringing up the rear might be Karen Jones, but add her to the list of possibilities.
Over the past seven years, the Lake Worth resident has built a business by boosting backsides with strategically placed foam and silicone. In her case, charity began at home. “I was always really, really little and really skinny, and I was a late bloomer. And I was made fun of every day. That stuff sticks with you,” said Jones, who is 37.
Nicknamed “Jones Bones,” she had such a tough time filling out a pair of bluejeans that, in her 20s, she didn’t own any. “They just looked that bad,” she said.
Years ago, Jones experimented with Ace bandages, athletic-wear fabrics and pantyhose until she created the prototype of her patent-pending Bubbles Bands, which act like a push-up bra for the tush.
“My first attempts were … not very comfortable, but they worked,” she said. “So then it was about finding the right fabrics to make it comfortable and stay in place.”
Jones has gone from three products to a website (LoveMyBubbles.com) bursting at the seams with roughly 350 different styles of padded panties and seamless bras, shapers and slimmers, tank tops and tights, and fashion fixes like invisible belts and adhesive underwear — roughly 25 percent of her own design. She also carries such well-known brands as Sassybax, Yummie Tummie and Hollywood Fashion Tape.
Bubbles Bodywear was showcased last summer in a multi-page spread in French Vogue, the products have been featured on NBC’s Today show and the Rachael Ray Show, and last month Jones was flown to New York by The Early Show on CBS.
Not bad for an entrepreneur with no formal background in fashion or retail.
Born and raised in Vero Beach, Jones earned an art degree from Florida State University, always thinking she’d own a gallery or a store selling her hand-painted items. She learned web design during a stint at an office job, which helped her launch LoveMyBubbles.com six years ago this month.
As founder and CEO of Bubbles Bodywear, Jones wears many hats: She’s a manufacturer, a retailer, a wholesaler, and she runs a call center and distribution facility in Lake Worth. “Most companies are one or two of those, but we’re all of them.”
Jones comes up with the website’s cute catchphrases (“Take Your Gluteus to the Maximus!”) and paints the pinup girls that decorate the site and boxes of products such as Boobles Silicone Push-up Pads.
“I spend more time on (the artwork) than probably most CEOs do,” she said.
She’s almost obsessed with performing well in each area, said Ramon Karessa, her husband and business partner.
“When she starts something, she’s an extreme perfectionist, which I think comes from being an artist,” said Karessa, who previously worked in the field of advertising.
Jones is not only highly knowledgeable about the fashion business and how to leverage the Internet for it, said one of her friends and suppliers, but she also has vision.
“Karen is one of those people who sees what the need is in the marketplace, creates something to meet that need, and then goes out and sells it,” said Tony Taylor, owner of Look from London hosiery, whose tights are sold on LoveMyBubbles.com.
Jones has created her own niche in the apparel market, Taylor said. “That’s very unusual. Most people just tap into trends and follow them.”
Said Karessa: “In the beginning, there wasn’t a market for this. She had to build a market.”
And she built it for “all the right reasons,” he said. “She doesn’t want people to be made fun of, if you don’t have the perfect this or perfect that … ”
Jones is looking for a bigger distribution facility and hopes to hire more employees so she can focus on the creative side of the business. A Bubbles Bodywear store is a possibility, and Karessa said they’d like department stores to carry the line.
Although Jones won’t share specific figures, she said sales have increased more than 50 percent year over year.
“It’s difficult to make money in retail and compete with the big guys,” Jones said, “but I can confidently say we know butt-boosting better than anybody in the world.”
Build a better booty
Best sellers at LoveMyBubbles.com, which Bubbles Bodywear founder Karen Jones has dubbed ‘Your One-Stop Booty Shop,’ include:
BubbleBuns Boyshorts ($34): Padded panties with removable, lightweight foam pads that the website says are ‘perfect for weight-loss champions who lost their booty when they lost the weight.’
Foxy Fanny Silicone Padded Panty ($36): A shaper with a mid-rise waistline, it flattens the tummy and smooths the waist while filling out the fanny.
Non-adhesive Silicone Nipple Covers ($12): Washable and reusable silicone pasties ‘make it possible to wear almost any top without putting on a peep show.’
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Staci Sturrock, Style writer, The Palm Beach Post
Read the article at The Palm Beach Post
