Boutiques for midlife chic
Teenyboppers aren’t the only ones who can score great fashion finds. Once you hit forty, you just have to know where to look. Forget the mall; for a midlife woman who knows what she wants, a boutique may be the place to go.
Getting started
Boutiques are often a labour of love, with owners starting businesses based on their personal passions. When midlife women start boutiques, it spells fashion heaven for other 40+ fashionistas.
Nancy Smart is the latest addition to the boutique scene. The owner and operator of Quirky Specs in Oakville, Smart sells ready-to-wear reading glasses (also known as readers). At 52 and on her third career, Smart always wanted “do retail,” but never imagined personal style would lead to a burgeoning business.
After being told she should get reading glasses, Smart was struck by how ugly the drugstore-reader frames her ophthalmologist recommended were. Unsatisfied, she searched the internet, and began ordering funky frames online. Years after constant compliments planted the seed of a business idea in the back of her head, she opened Quirky Specs, one of two stores in Canada devoted solely to selling readers, in March 2009.
More than just a business, Quirky Specs is a mission: Smart is determined to turn reading glasses into a fashion accessory. Carrying designers like Betsey Johnson, converting the masses is not out of the question; Smart says many of her clients walk out of the store with three and four pairs. And while the store may seem more appealing to women, midlife men are coming for the funky frames, too.
Boutique appeal
Unlike commercial optical stores, with frames everywhere and a bustling atmosphere, Smart says a boutique is all about leisure. “Here, you try them on—try on as many as you want—I don’t care if you take half an hour. I have chairs here, a coffee machine where you can pick your own kind of coffee, so I’m perfectly happy for people to look. And if they don’t want to buy at that time, that’s fine. I just want to provide a good shopping experience for them.”
A good shopping experience in a hallmark of the boutique, and something Charlene Walker can relate to. The owner of Sweet Nancy’s boutique in Victoria, BC, Walker specifically designed her store to encourage leisure: “We wanted to have a place where a woman could bring her mother or her daughter. And that’s what we’ve achieved that no one else has done; I frequently have the three generations come in together and make an afternoon of it,” she says.
Next page: bringing fashion and passion together.
