By DAVID DUPONT
BG Independent News
Stacie Banfield started off by taking fashion into customers’ homes. Now the business has a home of its own, and in a prime piece of Bowling Green real estate.
Mode Elle Boutique opened for business Friday on the northwest corner of the Four Corners in downtown Bowling Green.
The shop reflects Banfield’s long passion for fashion. It offers a collection of young contemporary, missy and women’s clothing, accessories and handbags. The emphasis is on fun, affordable and distinctive fashions.
Banfield travels to apparel markets Las Vegas, Los Angeles and Dallas to personally select merchandise for the shop. And because she wants her customers each to have her own look, she stocks only a limited number of the same items.
The shop offers more than a clothing buying experience. Because of its collaboration with the Golden Vanity Salon, next door on West Wooster, the shop can offer “full styling experience… from top to bottom.”
The partnership between Banfield and Golden Vanity owner Haley Reese goes back to the start of both enterprises.
Banfield, a 2006 graduate of the University of Toledo with a degree in communications, started Mode Elle as a mobile boutique, “style on demand” in late 2012. She would do home parties and trunk shows for “working women and busy moms.”
That business was a way for Banfield to get a foot into fashion with the flexible schedule she needs as a mother. The 2000 Rossford High School graduate and her husband Josch now have two sons Kellan, 7, and Grayson, 4. The family lives in Lambertville, Michigan.
Reese worked as an assistant buyer for the enterprise.
When Reese opened Golden Vanity a year ago, she had Banfield bring the rolling boutique into the shop for the ribbon cutting festivities. That was met with so much enthusiasm that Reese welcomed Banfield into a corner of the shop to offer her wares as a featured vendor. Banfield also has an online presence at: www.shopmodeelle.com.
From the start they talked about the possibility of expanding if the retail space to the east with frontage on Main Street ever became available.
At that time, it was home to Mosaic, a clothing consignment shop. When that business closed in spring, Banfield made her move. Within a few weeks of Mosaic vacating the space, she and her husband were busy taking down the wall that separated the salon from the retail space.
The soft opening – a ribbon cutting will be held later – was timed to coincide with Golden Vanity’s celebration of its first anniversary.
But having a place to call home doesn’t mean the boutique is giving up on its party roots. The boutique and salon will collaborate on private events. And the boutique offers Style Me Pretty sessions, “where we set aside around 45 minutes to an hour working with individuals to customize their wardrobes.”
“One of the biggest things when we launched, that we’ve continued through the duration of the business, is to be able to provide fun fashion pieces at affordable price points.”
The target market is women 18 to 45, but customers younger and older will also be able to find pieces that suit their needs. Banfield said she was surprised when doing business in Bowling Green that the market is not dominated by the college-age buyers, but had a broader market. It’s a market she’s ready to serve.
“We really try to provide different styles that can really cross a lot of age ranges.”
