Drive by the unassuming strip mall next to Trader Joe’s and across from Best Buy in Sarasota, and you’ll see Bambola’s cheerful green awning advertising its lingerie, swim and sleepwear. But what you might not know is that Bambola is run by designer Kristin Bear, whose career includes roles as design director at the high-end, internationally known lingerie brand Cosabella and designer for Madonna’s “Material Girl” junior girls’ clothing line at Macy’s. After years of working for others, Bear struck out on her own to launch Kilo Brava, her own line of size-inclusive, accessibly priced intimate apparel. Kilo Brava is sold direct to consumers online and at Bambola, but Bear also has wholesale deals with national retailers like Nordstrom and Anthropologie.   

What’s in a Name?

Kilo Brava may sound like a fancy Italian phrase, but the name of Bear’s line is actually a nod to her father, an Army veteran who served in Vietnam. “He was always joking around in the NATO phonetic alphabet,” Bear says, referring to the system the military uses to spell out letters over the radio or phone. “So when I started to think about naming my line and using the letters KB, Kilo Brava came to mind, and I felt like it sounded good.”

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Number of people employed at Kilo Brava/Bambola

Command Center: Sarasota

Bear designs everything here in Sarasota. That includes the aesthetic work of the design itself as well as the technical specifications, like fitting, providing measurements for how long or wide a garment should be, and instructions for sewing methods.

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The number of collections Bear designs for Kilo Brava each year—spring, summer, fall and winter. At press time, she was working on her spring/summer 2027 collection.

Size Matters

Bear’s pieces are made for a range of sizes, from small to 3X. “I wanted to have every fun, cute style in as many sizes as I could afford to make,” she says. Kilo Brava pieces are priced from about $21 to $165.

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“We have about seven different overseas factories that we work with,” Bear says. Each has a different focus or specialty, like lace or embroidery.

Tough on Tariffs

“When tariffs [took effect], I thought, ‘We either have to close, or we have to stop importing our designs,’” Bear says. “The cost of the tariffs were more than the cost of the actual goods. We couldn’t pay that.” She started making phone calls to the White House, news companies and different civil liberties organizations, and ultimately connected with the New Civil Liberties Alliance (NCLA), a Virginia-based nonprofit. “They filed the first case in the country against Trump for the tariffs, and I was able to join in on it,” she says. While Bear’s case wasn’t the one that ultimately went to the U.S. Supreme Court and overturned the tariffs, it was included in the amicus briefs, or supporting documents, in that case to prove that the tariffs were having a negative effect on small businesses like Bear’s.