Ashley Smith, owner of Bureau of Style, celebrated her first full year of being in business on July 29th. She started with an online store, but after she moved to Pampa earlier this year she decided to open a store-front location on Hobart.
“I have been at this location since April of this year, when my husband and I moved here from Canyon (TX). I still have my online store, and I sell throughout the country which is good on days that are slow,” Smith shared.
Bureau of Style originally started out as a wardrobe-consulting company, which has transitioned into being a fully operational clothing boutique.
“I wanted to branch out and make money off of myself when I bought clothes for my clients. Now it’s just the boutique full-time,” she said.
Smith’s family came together to help her design the interior of her boutique before opening the doors to Pampa customers.
“I did a lot of it myself, a lot of the vision is me. The floral aspect is from my mom, she’s an interior designer. I had a lot of help from her. My husband helped me with the floor and I did all the painting. My dad built that (stand) for me, and at first it was a firecracker stand, then it was a flower stand and now it’s a concession stand. The inspiriation (for the store design) is like a french floral market whimsical theme,” she said.
Smith and her family’s hard work paid off, because Pampa has been keeping her and her boutique quite busy since she opened up for business.
“Pampa has received me very well. It was interesting coming into a new town, especially a small town because people are very reliant on word-of-mouth and they like to protect their own. So being a new person (here) makes it to where you have to kind-of earn the respect of the people of the town. I’m so glad I feel that I have at this point, and people continue to shop with me. I have regulars now which is so fun.”
Smith usually adds new products to her online store and in the boutique itself once a month.
“When I get new inventory it will sell out quickly in-store and I’ll have to shift and figure out a way to create inventory for my online store. It’s been really good,” Smith said of her boutique’s local success.
Smith chooses clothing from multiple sources to ensure she has a selection that isn’t found in other stores.
“Usually I go to market. I’ve been to market in Las Vegas and I just got back from market in Dallas. There’s some really good wholesalers there. The good thing about going to market as opposed to ordering online is that you get to see, touch and feel the products. You get to see what the material is like, you can see if it’s worth the money. I want to curate collections that are going to be unique. I try to find wholesalers that go with our own style,” Smith explained.
“I want to have new products to sell here in town. That way we don’t all necessarily have to compete with each other. I think we can all be unique,” she added.
Smith just started adding fall clothing to her lineup, which she has decided to add new clothing to twice per month instead of once a month like she has in order to keep up with demand. She made this decision on the heels of her on-year party, which left her racks practically bare.
“I’ll do a party (like this) every year. This year I did it at the end of July, but I think next year I’ll have it in August so that people can do back-to-school shopping. For this party I had a bunch of local vendors; I had someone here doing welded jewelry, I had build-your-own flower bouquets, I had custom cups and hair tinsel and feathers,” Smith said of the event.
“I hope to do at least one (event) every quarter and hopefully I can do one monthly. I know as the Christmas and holiday season comes around I’ll definitely do a lot more events like late-night shopping and making sure that all the working gals can come in and shop. I am open until 6 pm, which I feel like is an advantage for me because a lot of the other local businesses close at 5 pm,” she said.
The Pampa News congratulates Ashley on her first year of success, and wishes her many more years of success here in Pampa.
To purchase clothing from Bureau of Style, you can head over to their location at 1621 N. Hobart or go online to www.bereauofstyle.com.
