Black Market reimagines its space; welcomes new neighbor Fox House Vintage
While it isn’t often you hear about a business opting to grow by contracting its square footage, that is just what Melanie Williams, owner of the popular Woodland neighborhood boutique Black Market has done. She recently redesigned her space with vitality and functionality in mind, bringing the shoes and clothing to the forefront and obviating the need for her second room. After building a wall between the two areas, she decided to rent the second space to another boutique, Fox House Vintage, which is expanding from its first location on West Sixth Street.
Williams was on maternity leave last year when she realized she wanted to change the layout.
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Black Market owner Melanie Williams recently consolidated her inventory from two rooms to one, moving her shoe inventory – which has actually expanded – to the forefront. | Photo by Saraya Brewer
“When I would come in the store, I would have a different perspective,” she said. “When I walked in, I just didn’t feel that the front of the store really gave you the pop of what [it] had.”
Williams decided to change that, first by flipping things around and then by condensing her space. Impressed by interior designs in Japan, where she often visits her brother, she was attracted to the idea of optimizing small spaces.
“It keeps the space alive, and that was what I felt – that my space was not alive,” said Williams, who bought Black Market in 2001 from its original owner, Susan Bates Creacy. “As much as I loved my store, it had really lost an energy.”
The store now has an immediacy of concept, which seizes visitors as they walk in the door. Fashion is the star player, with other objects, such as small gifts and decor, taking more of a backseat. Now, when Williams collects new additions to her inventory, she doesn’t feel the need to overbuy or purchase any “fillers” or extraneous knick-knacks.
“It took a pressure off me to know that there was a smaller space,” she said.
Williams wants to reassure customers, however, that the store won’t be offering less – in fact, she has actually expanded her line of shoes and the number of clothing racks. Building the wall made it possible for her to display more of the items people typically come in to purchase.
“A lot of my customers have been sad or they seem disappointed, because they feel like there’s less inventory, but there’s just not,” she said. “To them it doesn’t make sense how you could take two spaces and turn them into one and have the same, so we overly explain to everybody what we’ve done.”
The new layout ultimately improves the customer experience, she said. “I’m up here,” said Williams from her perch behind the counter, “and I can help everyone, whereas before I was having to follow them into the other room, which is kind of annoying for the customer.”
Aside from improving her own shop, Williams also wanted to improve the neighborhood, and because she owns the building, she decided she could do that by bringing in another retail store.
“We definitely have had a lot of really great shops leave. My No. 1 motivator of what I did was that I wanted the shoes [up front]. The second motivator was that I wanted to create a space for a store, because this is one of the oldest shopping areas, this little triangle, in Lexington. It’s always been a shopping district.”
She also knew she wanted a vintage store, because customers often asks to buy her vintage displays, which aren’t for sale. She figured a secondhand retail store would answer her clientele’s desire for the antiquated and would operate well next to her own business.
Williams found her new tenants somewhat by accident. She already knew Erin Reynolds-Turner, who owns the North Limestone vintage shop Fox House Vintage along with Lauralee Crain, but hadn’t thought to contact her “because they had just put so much effort into their other space, and I didn’t even think about her doing a second location at this point.” When she ran into Reynolds-Turner one day, she offered her some surplus mannikins and vintage hats, and Reynolds-Turner asked what she was planning to do with the extra space.
“She said she was definitely wanting to do a second location with more furniture, and that week, we had agreed,” said Williams.
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Two years after opening the initial location of Fox House Vintage, owners Lauralee Crain (l) and Erin Reynolds are adding a second location on East High Street, next door to Black Market. | Photo by Saraya Brewer
Reynolds-Turner, who sold her vintage wares at several different locations for years before opening Fox House Vintage in 2012, is excited to expand. Fox House’s second shop will differ from its first by offering more furniture and more high-end vintage labels.
“There are so many great Hermès scarves and Dior bags and things like that that are attainable, and I don’t think anyone’s really tried to hit that yet here in town,” Reynolds-Turner said. And because Fox House is so good at nabbing bargain finds, she added, they can afford to sell them at very reasonable prices.
Reynolds-Turner is quick to emphasize their first location is not closing or moving. “We’ll still have that super-thrifty spot you can go in with like 25 bucks and get something, but then maybe you come up here and get, you know, a couple hundred dollar bureau or a $50 Louis Vuitton scarf.”
Fox House’s High Street location has scheduled a grand opening for Derby weekend, conveniently coinciding with Black Market’s annual tent sale (April 30-May 3).
As Williams testifies, “square footage does not always mean a better store. We see that in Lexington all the time with the urban sprawl – an exceptional amount of square footage does not mean you are an exceptional store.”
Williams hopes everyone will come in and visit her new neighbors and see her reimagined space – and more importantly, all its new shoes. cc
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