Building the Boutique

Q: I would like to open [a boutique] at the end of summer 2010. Should I be purchasing clothing now? As I do not currently have a storefront I am concerned that it will be hard to get my inventory which is obviously so essential. I love the idea of immediates, but I realize I can’t count on them. When I try to get wholesale information online from certain labels, they seem to want a location, a website or even a photograph of the store. There was also a trade show I had looked into ( The Pool Trade Show) which wanted to see two completed invoices as part of the application. I do have a tax id number, but that’s about it at this point! Any help or advice you can give would be so appreciated! Best of luck to you this coming weekend as the holiday madness begins!!

A: If you’re opening at the end of summer, rest easy for now because the Fall collections (and even though it’s the end of Summer, you’ll want to have Fall merch at this time) start showing in February (at MAGIC in Las Vegas), and will continue to show into the next month in other cities like LA.

Pool isn’t a trade show I’d recommend going to for your first time. Try getting into the Brighte Enk, Designers & Agents and some of the other smaller ones (like Transit, etc) that happen in Los Angeles all at the same time. There’s also Market Tuesdays at the California Market Center. I was able to go to these shows (specifically Brighte) before I had a website or any invoices; they basically want to see your business license and business cards. Easy stuff! A lot of times you can use a deed as well.

If all else fails, I’d recommend securing your domain name and putting up a “coming soon” graphic of some sorts. And make it look nice and creative; have your web designer do it, and put your logo on it and maybe a fun, colorful background so the reps take it seriously.

Best of luck to you too!

Here’s a great question from the comment section this morning:

Q: How do immediates work? How long does it take to get them, do all lines do immediates?

A: This is a good question, and one I get a lot, and for a good reason. It seems that a lot of people who are new to this business are interested in immediates, and it’s not surprising, because investing thousands of dollars 4-6mos ahead of time is VERY daunting. I, personally, change my mind like clockwork so it’s tough. Right now with my brick and mortar retail space I’m doing everything on an immediate basis.

Some lines have immediates and some don’t. I’m lucky to work with a couple of great labels who not only have plenty of immediates but also are VERY flexible about reordering. But what I’m hearing is that with the economy changing lines are starting to cut only what is ordered, making immediates a bit more scarce (funny story though…the west coast sales rep for a certain brand told me this, and then the east coast sales rep for the exact same line emailed me telling me there were TONS of immediates…interesting!) So you really need to get to know the line before you risk waiting for immediates. Feel them out a bit; of course ask the sales rep, but also see for yourself. Try and get on the mailing list for the showroom (if they have one) because that’s one of the quickest ways to find out whats available. Also, visit their showrooms and visit them during trade shows; usually lines will show their immediates along with the upcoming season, and it’s a good way to gage how much they tend to keep available.

The way immediates tend to work is pretty simple. The merchandise for a season will become available, and will ship out to the stores that already placed orders first. Then whatever is left over after that will become available. The amount of time it takes just depends on how long it takes them to ship out all the orders placed. Generally each collection will have a 15 day window (which is why some linesheets will say a delivery is open 3/15 – 4/01) or longer. Once they become available and you place the order, it should ship out to you right away. How quickly you receive it after that just depends on where you live. It’s great being 90 miles away from LA because I can order something and get it in stock the next day.

So if you know you’re going to want immediates, email your sales rep around the time the delivery is set to ship. Ask them to email you with what’s available when it becomes available. Hope that helps! And as always, feel free to email me with questions or leave them in the comments section!

OohLaLuxe.com Black Friday Ads (Online Only)

Black Friday – 30% off all Linea Pelle Handbags & Clutches, through Sunday. [code coming soon!]
Black Friday - 40% off everything else in the store (not on sale merchandise), through Monday. [code coming soon!]
Cyber Monday - Get a free Linea Pelle Long Zip Wallet with any Linea Pelle handbag, [code LPWALLET]

Ooh La Luxe! In Store Ads (closed on Friday)

Black Saturday - 30% off all Handbags & Clutches (not applicable on wallets)
Black Saturday - 20% off all merchandise

Fall Blogging Contest
We're looking for bloggers to post about our hot items and promos throughout the Holiday season! And we're giving three prizes away; one to the top referring blog and two others to bloggers at random. Each post equals one entry into the contest.

Prizes
$100 OohLaLuxe.com Gift Code
Love Quotes Scarf
Beauty Grab Bag (featuring Susan Hanover jewelry, Tarte beauty products and more!)

The contest starts now and ends December 31st, 2009. If you're interested email kimberly AT oohlaluxe DOT com.

Click for complete contest rules! (more...)

So for the last two weeks since I opened my retail space, I’ve spent a lot of my downtime trying to pick out the right kind of advertisement to get the word out on the opening. Considering I’m on a budget and I don’t have a ton of merchandise, I have to be very careful about the budget. The first ad I’m doing is with Bakersfield Life Magazine.

Initially I planned on doing a 1/8th page ad, which would feature my logo, address and whatever product shots I could fit; the usual. But I inquired about their products around town page, which LOOKS more like an editorial and it isn’t labeled as “advertisement”. As it turns out, this type of an ad is less expensive than the other. Basically I’ll have a short write up and photos of my products, as well as directions to the shop, etc. The only downside is that it doesn’t do as much for brand recognition, but I guess that will come with time.

Here’s a picture from the “set”…okay, not really, it’s just me in the middle of fiddling with everything and trying to decide the right way to merchandise the items for the photo. I decided to focus on the Linea Pelle handbags and the brand new Voom by Joy Han Eyelet Dress which is……amazing. As you can see! That dress actually isn’t on the floor yet (although it IS on the website), I’ll be putting it out after black Friday, right around the time the issue drops. Gotta keep rotating the merchandise to keep it fresh!

If you’re interested, here’s the press release I came up with for for my shop opening locally, with help from my friend Liza.

Ooh La Luxe! Brings Luxury Clothing Labels to Envy Salon

BAKERSFIELD, CA – Bringing just a little more style to the Rosedale area, Ooh La Luxe! fashion boutique opens its doors with celebrity-endorsed labels and a range of merchandise that includes cocktail dresses, tops, handbags, scarves and lounge wear.

Located inside Envy Salon on Flushing Quail Rd, the Ooh La Luxe! aesthetic focuses on fashion forward trends done in a tailored style. The well-edited assortment includes brand names that are coveted by Hollywood celebrities, such as Linea Pelle handbags, Gypsy 05 casual wear, Voom by Joy Han cocktail dresses, Onna Ehrlich clutches and Love Quotes Scarves.

Ooh La Luxe! is the exclusive retailer of many of these labels, including Plastic Island, a Japanese brand with a strong European sense of design and tailoring. On the other hand, brands like Voom and Vava add a bit of spunk and quirk to the range, while upholding the same level of quality. And for a bit of comfort, Gypsy 05 hoodies and sweatpants, seen on Miley Cyrus, will keep fashionista’s stylish and cozy.

On the accessories side, Ooh La Luxe! carries Love Quotes Scarves, which have been seen slung around the necks of the who’s-who of Hollywood starlets; Hilary Duff, Lauren Conrad and Rachel Bilson have been photographed several times in the scarves. Similarly, Linea Pelle Handbags is a celebrity magnet in its own right, with its Dylan line grabbing features in numerous magazines, as well as tabloid photos of celebrities like Desperate Housewives star Marcia Cross, as well as High School Musical stars Ashley Tisdale and Vanessa Anne Hudgens.

Kimberly Lawson, the owner of Ooh La Luxe!, started her clothing business online in May of 2008 and plans to continue her successful online shop, OohLaLuxe.com alongside the new brick and mortar location. Lawson is a graduate of the Fashion Institute of Design & Merchandising in Los Angeles, a school that is known for its recent stint on Project Runway and its high-profile alumni, including designer Monique Lhullier and MTV’s Lauren Conrad. “I couldn’t be more excited about bringing my eye for style and some of my favorite brands to Bakersfield,” Lawson says about her lifelong dream.

Ooh La Luxe! is located at 9510 Flushing Quail Rd, Bakersfield, CA 93312-2672 inside Envy Salon. For more information contact Kimberly at kimberly@oohlaluxe.com or visit http://www.oohlaluxe.com.

So this new product is one of my favorites I’ve gotten in stock in a long time — the Love Quotes Metallic Scarves. I bought these sight unseen, which is always a scary thing to do, but considering the fact that I’ve been carrying Love Quotes for about a year now and I know their quality, I was willing to take the risk. And I think it’s going to pay off easily, because these scarves are absolutely BEAUTIFUL. The Love Quotes metallic scarves are actually available in 6 colors, and we have 5 in stock at Ooh La Luxe, including bouqet (light pink), peace (silver), beach (off white), yoga (bright white), new earth (gray). My favorite is New Earth; the metallic just suits it perfectly, and I also love Bouqet, it’s so elegant and feminine.

The line retails for $95 a piece. Check it out now and save 30% off; but the promo won’t last too much longer!

Shop the Love Quotes Metallic Scarves >>

A couple of really good reader questions came in recently and I thought I’d share the answers with everyone

Q: I live in the Caribbean,meaning, only summer clothes and shoes is what I need during the whole year. So if I go to shows and showrooms in winter time can I still get summer dresses and sandals?

A. The answer to the first question is a big, huge YES. First off, most high end lines do Resort/Cruise collections, which are usually the first two deliveries of the year (right after holiday). The idea behind it is that people with money jet off to their exclusive resorts (the Carribean is probably one of those places!) and need swimsuits, shorts and other summer clothes. And even if you’re talking October/November/December, it’s still possible to get summery clothes, depending on the brand. See, I have the opposite problem that you have a lot of times; I have trouble finding warm clothes and sweaters because all the lines I work with are selling sheer dresses, maxi’s and halter tops during this time of the year. So don’t worry, it won’t be a problem at all. Just choose the right brands!

Q: I am planning on opening an online store next summer for fall, but am wondering how early I should start contacting reps? Do you have an office space or do you run it out of your home? Also, do you ever notice some brand reps who will not work with brand new stores? Thanks so much for your advice, you should write a book!

A. Buyers generally work 4-6 months ahead of the season. The Fall collections generally will start to show in mid February at MAGIC in Las Vegas (note that NYFW is also that month) and then they’ll show the next month in Los Angeles and New York. You’ll pretty much have that Febraury-April window to purchase for Fall, but I would recommend contacting the reps ahead of time to introduce yourself and find out what they’ll want to see from you in order to buy. That way you can have it ready for market.

I run everything out of my home. I do have RETAIL space now and I keep 90% of my clothes there and the rest I keep in my home or the trunk of my car!

It’s always different with reps, and it depends on the type of lines you’re looking for, and how exclusive or high end they are (but not, necessarily, how well known they are). And I’d love to write a book someday. Hopefully I will.

When I first set out to open my boutique, it took two full weeks of brainstorming for me to come up with and decide on the name Ooh La Luxe! To this day, that was the hardest decision I’ve had to make regarding my boutique. Although I do have a close second now. And that’s deciding on shopping bags.

Yes, shopping bags.

It seems almost trivial but when you think about it, a shopping bag not only tells customers (and potential customers) a lot about your store, and it can also be a highly influential marketing tool. Since I’m running a high end boutique I know that every little detail counts, and I want my packaging to be just as “luxe” as the clothes themselves.

So as I set out to choose the right packaging, getting branded bags were the first thing I crossed off my list. Eurototes with my logo printed front and back would be amazing, but spending $500 just on bags when I’m starting out? Not so awesome. But I knew I wanted something pink, eye catching and fun to match my logo. So I started requesting samples from sites like Uline, DiscountShoppingBags.com and PaperMart.com (oh wait….papermart won’t send out samples. I could write an entire blog complaining about this company.)

My first thought was to keep things as inexpensive as possible, which meant basic, colored kraft bags. I mean, hey, at least they were pink? But that didn’t change the fact that they were ugly and brown on the inside, and they were flimsy, and they had these weird raffia like handles that weren’t comfortable to hold on to at all. And on top of all that, Uline thought it would be a smart idea to fold the sample up when they sent it to me, which made the quality of the bag appear even worse. Nothing luxe about this, even when I experimented with zebra print tissue paper (which my dad hated, by the way).

The zebra print ended up looking great with a metallic silver bag, but it wasn’t the look I was going for, not to mention those bags are pretty expensive. And I also tried white glossy craft bags but those were just too plain.

Luckily, I stumbled upon DiscountShoppingBags.com and found these amazing tone on tone patterned shopping bags. So cute! They cost about $30 more than the craft but it’s money well spent. I ended up going with those and the smaller shadow striped kraft bags, which I got from PaperMart.com (against my better judgement). I also purchased hot pink tissue paper from Paper Mart, since they have the cheapest prices online and you can buy bags by the package and not in bulk. But still, it annoys me that they refused to send me samples and told me to buy and return if I wasn’t happy with the product….and pay $14 for shipping. Yeah, right.