Following on from this special series Underlines had the opportunity to interview Jessica Johnson, Founder & CEO of Figiúra, a collection of perfect-fit bras designed exclusively for augmented breasts, developed over years of research and development. Jessica has always been a problem-solver and this challenge was one close to her heart! Inspirational, enthusiastic and determined Jessica is bringing her product to the wholesale market this year.
Life befoe Figiura?
Before Figiúra, I was in social work and founded a home care agency for seniors called No Place Like Home Companion Care. I’m also a wife to a first responder and a mother of three, so caregiving and supporting others has always been a huge part of my life, both personally and professionally. During COVID, when healthcare staffing became extremely strained, I made the decision to mentor many of our caregivers into building their own independent paths instead of scaling through temporary staffing models that didn’t align with our values. It probably wasn’t the most profitable decision, but it was the right one. Looking back, I think that experience shaped how I build businesses today. I’ve always cared deeply about solving problems in a way that still feels human.
How long have you had the business?
I’ve spent the last three and a half years building Figiúra. A huge portion of that time was dedicated to R&D, fit engineering, manufacturing development, and building out the operational infrastructure behind the brand. We’re incredibly proud to be working with Komar for logistics and distribution support as we scale into the U.S. market, alongside building a strong IP strategy around what we’re creating because no one is approaching this category the way we are.
At the beginning of this year, we officially began launching through wholesale and clinical partnerships, with our ecommerce channel becoming fully operational by late summer.
Why this sector?
Honestly, because I lived the problem myself. Fifteen years post augmentation, I still struggled to find bras that actually fit my anatomy properly. Like so many women, I found myself constantly defaulting to sports bras for comfort because traditional bras just never felt quite right.
The more I spoke to other women, the more I realized how many shared the exact same frustrations but had almost normalised the discomfort. There’s also still a strange stigma around openly discussing breast implants and the very different reasons women choose augmentation in the first place. Motherhood, reconstruction, asymmetry correction, confidence, reclaiming their body after major life changes. The journeys are incredibly personal.
For me, Figiúra became about more than bras. It was about creating emotional value for women who want to feel understood, supported, and represented in a category that has largely overlooked them. At the end of the day, I’m really just a woman who had enough and decided to solve a very specific problem the lingerie industry has ignored for a long time and I’m definitely not alone in that experience.
A typical week?
A typical week is a balance between building a company and raising a family, which means every week moves fast. Most mornings start around 4 a.m. because those quiet hours before the house wakes up are key at this early stage. I’ll answer overseas factory messages, work through strategy, review development updates, or clear tasks before getting the kids up and ready for school. First things first though, I always thank the big man upstairs and grab a coffee.
From there, the week can shift in a hundred different directions. Some days are focused on product development and fit reviews, others are wholesale meetings, clinical partnership outreach, ecommerce planning, logistics calls, or working through operational pieces behind scaling the business into the U.S. I’m also actively working through visas for the family and immigration processes as part of launching into the U.S. market. The U.S. is undeniably our market, so I’m committed to being fully immersed in it firsthand. We’re all in.
Evenings are usually kids jiu jitsu, soccer, homework, and trying my best to fully switch back into mom mode. Entrepreneurship can become all consuming if you let it, so I make a very conscious effort to stay present with my family. Also, my crock pot has become one of my greatest survival tools.
What is the best thing about your job?
Without question, it’s having a hand in creating an entirely new category while giving a voice and platform to women like me who have largely been forgotten in the fit revolution. There’s something really powerful about watching women realize they were never the problem, the product simply was never designed for their anatomy.
And honestly, nothing beats that first fitting moment. There’s this very specific look women get when they put the bra on and suddenly the pressure disappears, the fit makes sense, and they finally feel supported properly. They look up almost in disbelief. Watching that reaction never gets old.
And honestly, nothing beats that first fitting moment
What is different about working in this sector?
What surprised me most about this sector is how emotional lingerie really is. People often think of bras as purely fashion or aesthetics, but when you start speaking to women honestly, you realize how deeply fit impacts confidence, comfort, identity, and even how someone moves through their day.
I also think this industry has normalised compromise for a very long time. Women are incredibly used to “making it work,” especially women with implants. Interestingly, not coming from a traditional lingerie or design background was actually one of my biggest assets because I wasn’t swayed by long standing industry norms, specs, or assumptions around fit. I came into the sector from more of a problem solving and ergonomics mindset.
What are the particular challenges in your specialist area of bra fitting?
The biggest challenge is that women with implants are still largely trying to fit into bras engineered for completely different anatomy. Implant based breasts behave differently than natural breast tissue. The projection is different, the structure is different, the positioning is different.
What happens is women often experience pressure points, instability, wires sitting incorrectly, straps overcompensating, or constantly feeling like they need to size up and compromise somewhere else. A lot of women have honestly just normalised discomfort at this point.
There’s also a social challenge tied to it because conversations around augmentation still carry stigma in certain spaces. Women often don’t openly discuss the frustration because they feel they ‘chose’ the surgery, so they quietly accommodate the problem instead. Once we started speaking openly about it, it became very clear just how many women were experiencing the exact same thing.
Whom do you admire in the industry/in public life?
I really admire people who are willing to challenge industries that have operated the same way for decades and still maintain a strong point of view while doing it. Sara Blakely is obviously an incredible example of that. She built a category by solving a very real problem women quietly dealt with for years.
I also admire founders who stay deeply connected to the people they’re building for instead of simply chasing trends or growth at all costs. That balance between innovation, restraint and emotional understanding is something I respect a lot.
And honestly, outside of business, I have a huge amount of admiration for everyday women balancing careers, motherhood, relationships, pressure and personal identity all at once. I think women carry an unbelievable amount quietly.
If you were not working in this industry, what do you think you would be doing instead?
Honestly, it’s probably a toss up between becoming a farmer or somehow pitching Elon Musk to let me crew on SpaceX. I don’t really see myself sitting still either way. I think I’m wired to build, problem solve, and throw myself fully into things that feel a little crazy.
Any other ambitions?
Besides carving out an entirely new category and hopefully leading it globally, one of my biggest ambitions is to help shift the conversation around women’s bodies, fit and the way products are engineered for us in the first place. I think women have been conditioned for a very long time to quietly accommodate discomfort instead of expecting better design.
Personally, I also hope to show my kids what’s possible when you take a risk on something you deeply believe in, even when the odds feel stacked against you. That’s a huge driving force for me.
Your greatest challenge over the years?
One of the biggest challenges has honestly been continuing to build despite hearing “it’s probably a white space for a reason” more times than I can count. When you’re creating something people haven’t really seen before, there’s naturally scepticism around whether the market truly exists. I had to trust what women were telling me directly over industry assumptions.
There have also been huge operational challenges behind the scenes. Making major strategic production shifts, navigating product engineering and fit development from scratch, building an IP strategy in a highly saturated filing space and learning how to protect true innovation in an industry where many products look similar on the surface.
And honestly, balancing all of that while raising a family with a husband who is a first responder with a very demanding schedule, preparing for a move into a new country and carrying the emotional weight that comes with entrepreneurship has probably been the hardest part overall. Building something from nothing requires a level of resilience people don’t always see from the outside.
Building something from nothing requires a level of resilience people don’t always see from the outside
But truthfully, not everyone is supposed to do this. I think category creation requires a certain level of delusion, conviction and endurance. You build long before the rest of the world fully sees what you see.
Proudest moment …
I think my proudest moment has been watching something that started as a very personal frustration turn into real industry validation. Seeing surgeons, fit specialists, retailers and women themselves all independently recognize the exact same gap we identified early on was a huge moment for me. It was confirmation that we weren’t imagining the problem, women had simply been underserved for a very long time.
Walking into Curve New York and seeing Figiúra positioned within the industry conversation after years of quietly building behind the scenes was also incredibly surreal.
But personally, I’m probably most proud that my kids are getting to watch me build something from the ground up in real time. They’re seeing the hard parts, the risk, the pressure, the setbacks, and the persistence behind it all, not just the polished moments. That means a lot to me.
Also, the fact that my husband and I have survived three career changes, three kids, three houses, entrepreneurship and are now preparing for an international move after being together since high school feels like a pretty solid accomplishment too. Love you!
Worst move so far?
Spending almost nine months heavily focused on pitching investors before we had real traction in place. I pitched my ass off and travelled far and wide trying to raise capital early because I believed so deeply in what we were building.
In hindsight, I think I put too much pressure on outside validation too early instead of continuing to focus purely on scrappy ways to get to market.
That said, I don’t fully regret it because I built an incredible network through that process and many of those relationships will matter later when the timing is right. But at the time, I was honestly holding on by a thread trying to manage everything at once. It taught me that getting the product into women’s hands mattered far more than trying to convince a room full of investors first.
What do you think you will be doing in 10 years’ time?
Retired somewhere with dirt under my nails from my vegetable garden while spending my time travelling from college campus to college campus quietly spying on my kids because I’m an overly emotional squishy mom.
Realistically though, I don’t think I’ll ever fully stop building things. I just hope ten years from now it comes with a little more balance, a little more sleep and significantly less cortisol.
Time out?
Honestly, time out’ looks different depending on the kind of week it’s been. Sometimes it’s a cup of tea and a few verses from the Bible to keep me grounded and reconnect with what actually matters. Other times it’s a cold Guinness, a bag of pork rinds, and absolutely nobody needing anything from me for at least thirty minutes. Warm Guinness, for the record, is completely unacceptable.
I think when life and business move as fast as they do right now, I’ve learned that small moments of stillness matter more than elaborate ones.
You can find more about Jessica and Figiúraby contacting jj@figiura.com.
“Your Curve, Our Fit”
