Corky’s Elite Ocean sandal

Market week is finished, and we came home to begin our next big project – an online store.  Saturday and Sunday were both dedicated to hand selecting our 25 inventory items that will constitute our online presence when we open up sometime in the next two weeks.

The important thing about going online is trying to preserve the character that makes you successful as a brick and mortar.  For us, the combination of our inventory mix, our mission to serve the working woman, and our ability to draw from all the lines we have to make truly unique outfits has been our recipe for success.  Thus, we really tried to focus on our best lines for today’s busy women – the one’s that can take us from work to evening to weekend.

As we were creating our online inventory, some lines were obvious: Sympli, Tribal, Foxcroft, Clara Sun Woo, and Aventura.  But we are also known for carrying lines that aren’t typical like Corky’s (the shoe to the right and below). We love Corky’s shoes because they are unique and not something usually found outside of a boutique.  After all, isn’t that why we shop boutiques?  We want a selection of great brands to choose from but also things we cannot find at our local mall.  Just look at these beautiful shoes!

Corky’s Elite Bay

Today I took our rather large box of clothes and shipped them to New York to be professionally photographed.  I sent style notes along with the ways we envisioned the outfits appearing on the models.  As I was writing the descriptions, I tried to add that brick and mortar touch of making suggestions how the customer can combine items from several brands to create unique looks and to extend their wardrobe.  I hope that our personality as a store comes through.  This is an adventure and a learning process.  I’m sure we will make some mis-steps, but you don’t stay in the women’s retail clothing industry for forty years without having figured out a thing or two.  I’m sure we will figure this out as well.