As you probably know already, ALU will be carrying an assortment of clothing, gifts & paper goods for little ones at our Beach Haven location and also online. It's been so exciting to revisit the kids category and search for the perfect selection of goods that reflect the look of A Lovely Universe but in mini form.

When the store went from a dream to a business plan (2012) and ultimately became a reality in 2013, the primary focus was children's clothing and gifts. Women's clothing really wasn't even a thought - sure I loved clothes but for some reason, I felt that womenswear buying would be difficult and never really crossed my mind that it should be something to focus on.

I've always been extremely drawn to items with sentimental meaning, treasures for the home, paper goods and sweet gift items and wanted A Lovely Universe to be a happy escape for shoppers. I've also been surrounded by babies since I became an aunt at 6 years old and thought getting into the children's wear world would be ideal. Since the first location was in Brooklyn, which is a place where babies basically rule the city, and I had a background in vintage kids buying from my Etsy days, focusing on kids items seemed like a no-brainer. I look back on the first couple of trade shows I went to and those first orders I placed and want to hit myself on the head because I truly didn't know what I was doing! As a 24 year old girl with no children in addition to no experience in opening a store, I still had a ton of confidence and thought that I knew everything. 

Though I cringe at memories of those first few months, I also have to admire the guts I had to just fake it til I made it - in fact, I'm still doing that. Aren't we all? I kind of feel like I aged 10 years in 3 years but that's another story for another day ;)

Anyway - one week before opening, I stumbled upon an email from one of my favorite indie online retailers who were going out of business and decided to have a blow-out closing sale. I emailed them on a whim and asked if I could buy their remaining inventory at wholesale and to my surprise, they said yes! This was my opening womenswear inventory at ALU - from there, it took off and became the star product assortment and became the moment the store's concept went from kids & gift to almost all apparel and some gifts. 

Sometimes, or actually all the time, it's those quick split second decisions that transform the entire story. I learned to buy as the months went by - just went with my gut and used the buying books from my days studying fashion at SCAD. It's amazing what you can figure out when you just go for it. Almost everything good in life stems from having the nerve to just go for it.

Eventually, I needed to retire the kids selection at the Brooklyn store about 6 months in since I desperately needed that square footage for the women's clothing merchandise. Also, the kids section kept getting targeted for shoplifting by the most unusual suspects which was strange. Throughout it all, I always knew I would one day return to that dream even in a small way and that time is now!

For now, it just makes the most sense to keep it exclusively on LBI and online. A few little items are already up online but please stay tuned for more! So many cute things are on the horizon and I feel confident that this mini category is going to be just another great piece to the ALU puzzle.