A couple months back, Macmichael took her clothing boutique with its feminine, vintage-inspired fashions from her north end location on Cunard---where when five people were in the shop it felt busy---to Blowers Street, the former location of Pro Girl, a much bigger store.
“We so outgrew the other space,” says Macmichael. “We wanted to be able to offer more lines and more in the plus-sized range.” She says she loves and misses the north end, and the rents downtown are much higher, but the move made a lot of sense given the plans she has for her boutique. “We’re looking into making a clothing line in 2011, to do it all on-site. We couldn’t do what we wanted in the old space.”
Blowers Street had brought new customers in, as well as drawing Macmichael’s older ones to the new location, all of whom are more interested in shopping in boutiques than driving out to Bayers Lake to the big boxes, she says. The first day she opened she was surprised to find groups of 20 and 30 dropping by. “It was cruise-ship-o-rama,” she says. “I wasn’t used to them coming in all at the same time.”
The new, larger space has allowed for Pretty Things to open a cosmetics centre. Macmichael has training in makeup and is looking to offer eco-friendly cosmetics, “pretty products that are safe to use.” Right now in store is the paraben-free vegan line, Stript, which Macmichael describes as “Eco-sexy, very pinup-y, retro-looking. It’s pretty and it works and it’s not artificial.”
