Apparel Section

Dressing for Home (From page 64)

well this season.

At Siren Boutique in Eastsound, Wash., “our customer is looking for value in unique details,” said Owner Amanda Sparks . “They want interesting lines, fabrics and buttons, elevated fabric or seaming.” Siren’s primary demographic is women aged 45 and up, a mix of locals and vacationers who return year after year. With three coastal locations but no e-commerce business, “for us, what’s important is the relationships we build with our customers,” Sparks noted. “They know that if we help them buy something they love, they’ll wear it a hundred times.”

Sparks’s customers are old enough to know what they want, and to invest in pieces that won’t go out of style. “Interesting tops are where it’s at,” observed the retailer. “Women all have their favorite pair of pants, and they’re very brand loyal for bottoms, but tops are different. That’s where you can really have fun and express your personality.”

It’s also where women can update their look with this season’s color palette, driving sales of tops priced $75-125. Black is always popular, while salmon is this year’s hot hue, and robin’s egg blue is the top overall color. “I’ve heard that if you get the right shade, blue sells to everybody,” Sparks noted.

Of course, in order to have sales, you need customers. The pandemic travel restrictions have disproportionately affected tourist towns that require non-car travel, like Friday Harbor on San Juan Island, Washington. When local officials shut down visitor lodgings last spring, few visitors were willing to splurge for the pricey car ferry if they couldn’t stay the night.

As a result, said Gail Schnee , sales are down by about 50 percent at Cotton Cotton Cotton, the boutique she owns with

“This year, we’ve not sold any of our beautiful occasion dresses. But we’ve sold tons of loungewear, like knit culottes you can wear as pajamas, or with a beautiful sweater out. People want something new — and to be able to wear it right now, even just around the house.”

- Kerry LaJoie, Hazel Boutique, Portsmouth, N.H.

her husband, Randy. “We’re a small island, and we rely on tourism,” said Schnee, who recently moved the 11-year-old store into a new, 800-square-foot location.

The Schnees have found that fair trade products and made-in-U.S.A. items appeal to the socially conscious clientele. Socks made from recycled T-shirts have sold well, along with novelty socks featuring Bigfoot, the folkloric creature said to inhabit local woods. “Anything blue or green always sells well in the coastal Northwest,” Schnee said.

But until pandemic restrictions ease, the retailer said she expects her biggest category to be masks. “A lot of our regular scarf, hat and shirt vendors are manufacturing masks, and I have a local friend who’s made some as well,” Schnee said. ❖