The Bottom Line
Pros
- Extremely beautiful original designs
- Very helpful and personalized customer service
- Plenty of bras that are particularly flattering to more petite bustlines
- Well-made lingerie with integrity
- Tasteful packaging (ideal for gifts)
Cons
- Mostly 'Hollywood starlet' sizes--usually suited to slim and busty physiques
- Difficult to find pretty, sexy but more everyday panties/knickers
- Because it is a small-ish shop, Agent Provocateur does not stock certain sizes and styles in-store
Description
- Open Mon.-Sat., 11 a.m.-7 p.m.
- Panties/knickers run from about $30 to $200.
- Bras run from $110 to $200.
- 'Babydolls' are in the $250-$400 range.
Guide Review - Review of Agent Provocateur Designer Lingerie Boutique in Los Angeles
As you saunter into this heavily perfumed Melrose Ave. boutique, you are greeted by sales ladies in pink retro beautician-style button-down dresses. This is obviously not your average lingerie shop.
With its sultry and demure designs, Agent Provocateur usually manages to straddle the line between naughty and nice while maintaining an undertone of class. That’s not always easy when your wares consist of studded hold-up stalkings, black pasties and exposed (quarter-cup) bras. But when your garments are as well-made as these, quality fuses with fantasy to create a Lolita-meets-Lady Marmalade sensibility.
My favorite Agent Provocateur styles are its cute 'country coquette' looks (think Gilligan's Marianne in Paris). The boutique brand--as well as one of its main outsource brands, Fifi Chachnil--is at its best with these adorable, romantic classic French styles. Unique items like a white and Delft blue 'babydoll' with Louis XIV style patterns on it, are really special. If you’re into 'babydolls,' this is the place to go.
They have a breathtaking collection of bras, many beautifully accented with ribbon-work and/or delicate lace touches. I would love to see more frilly yet practical bottoms that could be worn on days beyond “date night.” My preference is to mix and match elaborate padded and underwire bras with comfortable g-strings, full panties, boxer briefs, etc. When I went looking for lace-trimmed Fifi Chachnil girl boxer bloomers the sale lady informed me that they were not regularly in stock but occasionally available based on season.
Agent Provocateur has clearly slightly strayed from simpler accented, girlish designs to more out-and-out vixen looks. I suppose even Lolita has to grow up eventually.
Agent Provocateur
7961 Melrose Ave.
Los Angeles, CA 90046
323-653-0229
