With the Holidays fast approaching – we decided to get a head start on sharing our holiday spirit!
With all the joy Sophie brings to us at Flaire- we decided to share our joy with those animals still waiting for a home.
Shop instore at Flaire between November 30th and December 13th and 10% of our sales will be donated to the Wisconsin Humane Society.
Pet Goodies Bags will be given out with purchase.
So Shop for Him, Shop for Her and Benefit our Friends with Fur!
![Sophie's_Friends[1]](http://www.shopflaire.com/blog/wp-content/uploads/2009/11/Sophies_Friends1-1024x682.jpg "Sophie's_Friends[1]")
Compliments of Real Simple Magazine
Year after year, the Holidays always appear to get here quicker and quicker. This year, especially for me. Thanksgiving is already here, which means Christmas is right around the corner and I couldn’t be more behind. Not only in my Christmas shopping, but decorating, planning and don’t even get me started on what I am going to wear!
What makes me happy about this Holiday season is that I have so much to choose from in terms of solving my last dilemma. I could not be more excited about all the sequins and studs, the metallics, the ruffles – all of it makes me smile. Holiday dressing is always such fun, and today, no matter what event you have or party you are attending you have an obscene amount of choices to make you look Holiday Haute.
Being Holiday Haute at the party can only be ruined by one thing and that is a clothing catastrophe – a spilled glass of wine, a dropped plate, any of these accidents can splatter your Holiday Hauteness with Holiday horror. I am the type of person that can not get over having a stain on an item of clothing I am wearing. I just can’t stand it. I travel everywhere, and I mean everywhere with a Tide-to-go pen. I can’t leave home without it, especially if I am wearing light colored clothing. I still haven’t figured out why it bothers me to the point of appearing obsessive, but it does. Anyways, with that being said, I think this is the reason for my appreciation of this month’s Real Simple Magazine. Their December issue features an article on how to care for these delicate, extra-special pieces.
With the Holidays fast-approaching and since I was in “What am I going to wear?” mode, I thought perhaps I am not the only one with a stain-phobia.
My Holiday wardrobe is always full of delicate pieces – mostly anything that sparkles and if you are one of those individuals, much like myself, that loves anything that sparkles, you can probably relate to the distress I feel when I get something on my beloved garment. This season embellishments can be found on anything from dresses to tops and tees and even your shoes so check out Real Simple’s website and their Caring for Clothes tips on Embellishments, Ruffles, Poufs and Pleats.
Click on their logo below to visit Real Simple’s website: 
And for those of you like me, the obsessed about stains individual, Tide-to-go has saved many of my favorite pieces, dab it with water, use your pen, more water and a quick dry (bathroom hand dryers are for more than saving the environment) and usually you are good to go. Just remember if it’s a piece you really love – find a really good dry cleaner, you will end up loving them too!
After you stuff your tummies with Turkey make sure to get some cardio shopping in Friday.
Stop by the store for our Hour-by Hour Sale.
(*Some Exclusions Apply. Discount Applied to Original Price.)
“Retail is a lonely career.” That’s what everyone seemed to be telling me when I was working to get Flaire open. “It’s just you and your store.”
How could that be? I mean really – you are dealing with customers and vendors and anyone soliciting anything – how could you really be lonely?? I could not figure out exactly what they were speaking of – until we actually opened. If you really think about it – how often do you shop – and after that question, how often at the same store? And today with all of the online options, actually going to a store – that takes effort. So I began to understand these statements a little better in that they don’t mean you are physically alone, but that the people that come through the door everyday are not going to be the same.
Retail for me is about the relationships you form with your customers. It’s about finding common ground in a piece you both love or a trend you are both interested in trying. I have made many connections with people over a great fitting pair of jeans, a delicately constructed gemstone necklace, a great pair of nude pumps, or a gorgeous leather handbag. The best part is understanding your customers and what you have in common. Especially in boutique shopping, you don’t get that in the department stores – locally-owned boutique owners want to get to know you as shoppers. They want to hear your stories about what you’re looking for, why you need it and how you are going to wear it. That’s the exciting part of our jobs. It keeps my retail life from being “lonely.” Now this post is not to validate these “lonely career” claims, but rather to point out that there are ways around the so-called “lonely” day-after-day operations in retail.
Making connections with your customers is one of the ways, but another one – that also pleased my customers, was when Sophie, my shop dog, entered the scene. A wonderful golden birthday present, Sophie has made a great addition to Flaire. She is always at the door to greet you, is really excited you are here and LOVES attention. My vision for Flaire was never to be an overly-professional, this-goes-here, that-goes-there kind of store. Clothing is fun – the stores should be too. Sophie helps add an element of fun to Flaire and as far as the lonely part goes – I don’t know how you could be when you have a shop dog – someone is there for you.
Being the trendsetter that she is, sometimes she even dresses up for work – usually only for special occassions though.
When I first thought about opening my own store, one of the parts that made me most excited was being able to be one of the first people to view a new season’s collections. Before I started working in retail I was the type of person who always sought out the latest and greatest – and it would kill me if I missed out on something new. Having my own store was the perfect way to secured first-hand access to the collections!
Never being one who wanted to be wearing the same thing as the person standing next to me, my focus was on originality – and I use that same mentality when buying for the store today. I remember always reading the magazines from InStyle to Lucky to People to GQ, Details and even Time covered fashion in some light. Really almost every magazine has some aspect of fashion enclosed in it. I would inspect every outfit on the pages of these magazines and wonder where all the celebrities featured in the clothing would be getting these great outfits. (And not the ones who were just modeling – the ones who were photographed at events, parties, etc.) I wanted some of these outfits – I needed them – I just had to figure out where to find them.
Enter my friend, Laura, a former employee at the BOP in Madison. When I would visit – she would always show me what was new and what was recently featured. It was amazing. I mean, I had shopped at boutiques before, but never really was able to spot the pieces that I envied from the magazines. So thank you, Laura for helping me develop that eye.
Today, I still read all the magazines (and when I say ”read,” I really mean “scan”) to see what the celebrities are wearing – they really do drive the fashion industry. I have seen lines take off just because the right celebrity was seen wearing one of the styles.
Now, with the store, I am constantly checking to see if any of Flaire’s pieces are featured. It’s truly one of the exciting parts of owning a store – seeing the pieces you carry in the magazines you have read for years. What I have also been noticing lately is that quite of few of our collections at Flaire have been featured in some of the season’s hottest television shows – it may only be a quick glimpse - but it’s still exciting to see.
Check out who’s been seen in some of the collections we carry in store!
Cory Monteith in Five Four
Shenae Grimes in Isabel Lu
Katie Cassidy in House of Harlow
Zac Efron in Life/After/Denim
Adrian Grenier in Modern Amusement Eyewear
Lo Bosworth in Fifteen-Twenty
