OBERLIN, Ohio — A former Cleveland fashion editor has taken a leap of faith and opened another boutique during the pandemic.
Kim Crow has been giving fashion advice for years ever since she was a fashion editor in Cleveland. She opened her first women’s boutique in Tremont back in 2010 and just a few weeks ago, she opened another in downtown Oberlin.
During this pandemic, Crow knew she took a big gamble.
“I was scared—I’m still scared, but I always felt that fortune favors the bold and when everyone ‘zigs,’ it’s kinda smart to sometimes ‘zag.’”
Crow says she took a big risk opening another boutique, especially while big fashion stores are going bankrupt, so she had to pivot and follow the trends like people working from home who say they still want to look sharp.
“We are getting requests for ‘cozy on the bottom, Zoom-ready on top,’ so we are doing more fancy sweat pants that we have ever done before and try and look for things with interesting colors and soft colors that with photograph well,“ said Crow.
The new women’s boutique is more than 3,000 square feet with everything from dresses to necklaces. Crow’s business has been slowed by the pandemic, so she uses that extra time to spend with her clients.
“When people come in, they are leaving their house sometimes for the first time, I mean outside of the grocery store, in months so this is going to be an event. Come in, and it’s nice to have more one-on-one time that we might not have had when the store was busier. A lot of people are making appointments.” Crow said.
The owner of “Evie Lou” is planning on expanding her boutique to the second floor so she’ll have more space for people to shop and she can display more products.
“One thing that is nice about having all this space that we can see how things work out and if the body care section gets a lot of response, we can (add) more gifts upstairs. It could be lingerie, which is something I’ve always dreamed about having,” Crow said.
