A Place Where Everything’s In Style––

Boutique Clothing And Accessories For Women

By Kaaren Valenta

 Style, a boutique clothing and accessory store featuring everything for women –– “from basics to beautiful” –– opened this week at 85 South Main Street next door to Galerie Van-Os.

Eye-catching red awnings and a profusion of flowers spilling from window boxes have transformed the formerly nondescript small white building that in recent years housed a hair salon and tanning studio and, most recently, a computer business.

Style is owned by Karen Bauer who moved to Newtown three years ago with her husband Jim and their children, Lauren, now 9, Thomas, 8, and Scotty, 4. She had been a stay-at-home mom for years but was soon drawn into the idea of opening a boutique here.

“I found myself saying that there is no place to shop here. And I know I’m not alone in saying that I hate to go to the mall,” she said. “When I visit my sister in Hanover, N.H., I love to visit a shop called Bella that is owned my friend Mia Vogt. I tried to convince her to open a branch in Newtown, but she said it is a very personal business –– and that she would help me open my own store.”

The two women started last January, going to clothing and accessory shows in New York City. Karen Bauer also found a good location very quickly, almost too quickly it seemed at the time.

“It was April when the building became available, but it turned out that we needed all this time to get the place ready,” she said. “And probably about 65 percent of the merchandise that I ordered is not here yet.”

The shop carries a full range of clothing from denim and casual wear to black tie. “We have blouses that range from $20 to $220, dance dresses for $50 to $300,” Ms Bauer said. “We aren’t limited to high-priced designers. There are a lot of designers out there who aren’t expensive.”

Some of the labels include Juicy Couture, Lucky, Michael Starrs, Kenneth Cole, Blue Cult, Sweet Pea, Tracy Reese, Cynthia Steffe, Trina Turk, Lily Pulitzer, Theory, and Citizens of Humanity.

There will be shoes and an entire line of outerwear, too.

While initially much of the shop features mostly junior sizes, there will be a full range of clothing for women, as well, Ms Bauer said.

“I will have some great lines for working women,” she said. “I can order clothing for you to your style –– with a wider waist, or flared legs, for example. And if you see something in a magazine that you like, I will try to find it for you.”

Piles of basic T-shirts, purses, belts, scarves, socks, and sweaters fill displays among the racks of clothing. There are also plenty of small gift items.

“I kept thinking in terms of teacher gifts, gifts for bus drivers, the ballet teacher, the Pop Warner coaches,” Ms Bauer said. “I have lots of things under $10 that would be perfect as gifts. I also gift wrap everything and include a gift card, at no charge, because it is something that I always thought would be a wonderful service for shoppers.”

She also is promoting the work of local women. Style is carrying several lines of jewelry, from inexpensive beaded bracelets for children to handcrafted pieces by such local designers as Terry LeCroce of Bear Mark Designs who works in sterling, beads, and stone, and Kelly Barke Makuch, who uses fused dichrole glass to produce finishes that look like iridescent stained glass.

Two other local women, Leiland Williams and Victoria Maybeck of Maybeck & Williams Gardens, are responsible for the window boxes and plantings outside the store. Jill Fleming Interiors did the red and white curtains for the dressing rooms and pillows for the wicker chairs. Karen Murphy of Petal Pushers is doing floral arrangements for inside the store. Friend and neighbor Karen Kennedy will be working in the store.

Ms Bauer found financial support at Newtown Savings Bank, which approved the loan she needed to establish her business.

“I don’t have a background in retail,” she said. “I majored in visual arts at Stockton State College in New Jersey and worked on a master’s degree at Monmouth College and at Pace.”

Eventually she took a job in financial services with New England Life in Manhattan. The company had an office in Stamford as well, which is where she met the man who would become her husband.

“We got married and lived in Norwalk, where our first two children were born, then in Setauket, N.Y.,” she said. “My husband now operates his own revenue enhancements business, Full Field Marketing, from our home. He went to college on a lacrosse scholarship and is now coaching in Newtown, trying to make it as big of a sport as soccer.”

A busy lacrosse mom herself, Ms Bauer said she visited many boutiques before deciding what she would feature in her store.

“I want an interesting, eclectic store,” she said. “It’s hard work but makes for a better store.”

Style will be open Tuesday through Friday from 10 to 6; Thursday, 10 to 7; Saturday, 10 to 5, and Sunday, noon to 5. For more information call 364-0633.