Lark & Meadow Boutique — Lincoln City, Oregon

Address: 2143 Highway 101, Lincoln City, Ore., 97367

Website: https://lark-and-meadow.business.site/

​

Knitted lace shorts in muted colors, springy tops with bell sleeves and fringe earrings greet customers at a month-old boutique in Lincoln City, a city of more than 8,900 on a rural stretch of the Oregon coast, situated just west of Highway 101. 

​

The coastal-inspired aesthetic of the store, with its range of coral pinks, sea greens and grays that mimic the winter sky of the Pacific Northwest, haven’t yet drawn a lot of customers since the tourist area is in it’s off-season, leaving Danielle Hutchinson, the owner of the boutique, to make it all about the locals. 

​

This means not only carrying clothes from as many local brands as possible, like Lincoln City-based Pacific & Pines, but opening in the off-season so the new boutique owner could get input from residents of the area who live on the coast year-round. 

 

“The locals have given us very good feedback,” Hutchinson said. “I truly love our community. I go home smiling most nights because they’re so lovely.”

​

Among Lark & Meadow’s most popular garments, lace bralettes, heirloom baby clothes and tops sell the best, she said. 

​

Being a mother of two girls herself, Hutchinson finds buying for her store to be more difficult, she said. However, her method of sourcing merchandise for her store could be helpful for her customers. 

​

“For most of the suppliers I use, they’re tried and true in our household,” Hutchinson said. “I’ve owned the brand myself for my children. If I buy it for my kids and it doesn’t hold up, I’ll remove it from my shelves.”

​

The 1,200-square-foot shop sells women’s and children’s clothing and accessories in the price range of $25 to $85, on average, although the new store owner plans to eventually sell jeans from Seven For All Mankind and shoes from higher-end designers, as well. 

​

“Those items, to me, are like bedding and sheets,” she said. “It’s very important to have a good pair of jeans and nice shoes because you’re going to wear them often.”

 

 

 

Lucky Beach Boutique — Pacific City, Oregon

Address: 34950 Brooten Rd., Pacific City, Ore. 97135

Website: https://luckybeachboutique.com/

​

Many who see the name for Pacific City’s nine-month-old Lucky Beach Boutique might think it a play on words to describe a very fortunate woman, albeit in a derogatory way.

​

However, that’s not the story behind the business’s name, said boutique owner Nancy Horning. 

​

“It’s named after my crusty old uncle, Lucky,” Horning said. “He’s an old truck driver and he’s been a big influence on my life. I thought it would be great to name the shop after him while he’s still alive and can appreciate it.”

​

Uncle Lucky, Horning said, is tickled pink his niece named her women’s clothing and accessories boutique after him. He’s not the only one. In a town of only 1,035 people, according to the U.S Census, many in the area are happy to have a shop of this nature on a rural stretch of the Oregon coast that only has a surf shop and a lower-end thrift shop. 

​

“There’s a surf shop that caters to younger girls,” she said. “Then you have the R.V. shop that just has sweatshirts that say ‘Pacific City’ on them. So there’s really nothing else here, clothing-wise.”

 

Horning spent the last several months ensuring some of her inventory included Jackie O.-inspired items. However, the corner dedicated to the first lady-inspired looks recently gave way to clothes depicting a “Stevie Nicks” look, as Horning calls it, featuring silk tops from brands like Italy-based Cobblestone Living and printed shirts from Hatley. 

​

“In a way, she’s conservative, because of the way she dresses,” Horning said. “But she still has style and I think that’s important.”

​

This caters to Horning’s customers, who are all middle-aged or older, she said. 

​

“Women over 35 don’t want to dress young, but they don’t want to be frumpy, either,” she said. “There’s a real fine line.”

​

On the verge of late winter and early spring, Horning stocked graphic tees featuring slogans like “Feminist” and “Fearless Girl,” floral-print tops and drapey cardigans sought after by older women, who by and large make up Horning’s base. Some of these women, Horning added, come to her insecure about one feature or another and come out with a new outfit feeling confident. 

​

“You feel good about yourself,” Horning said of the vibe in the shop. “It’s the best feeling to see a woman come out of the dressing room and she’s confident and she knows she has the right outfit. That’s what I like to see.”

 

 

 

Goodwill Boutique on Cape

Address: 1801 N. Coast Highway, Newport, Ore. 97365

Website: https://www.facebook.com/pages/Goodwill/763552413753300

​

The newest charity thrift shop in town, Goodwill Boutique on Cape, is not only the latest Goodwill store in the area, but also offers designer products at a steeply discounted rate. 

​

“Coach is a really big one for us,” Debra Webster, store manager, said. “We get Kate Spade, Michael Kors, but we have a wide variety.”

​

The 2,000-square-foot store, which opened in Newport in January, receives donations from Goodwill donation centers in the Pacific Northwest, all the way from the northern Oregon coast up to Vancouver, Wash., Webster added. 

​

While Goodwill Boutique doesn’t have every size of the designer labels they receive, the high-end products they get in the store — a pair of nude Kate Spade pumps, for example, or a light brown Dooney & Bourke handbag  — keep customers coming in. 

 

“We sell items from lower-brand names, as well,” Webster said. “We get things from The Limited and J. Crew, Talbots, Chico’s, and Free People, too. That’s a popular brand for us.”

Some of the lower-cost items in the store, Webster went on to add, can go for as little as $7, although designer brand items can fetch as high as around $200. 

​

The charity thrift shop opened in January after months of construction on a building near one of the busiest corners on Highway 101 — the intersection of Pacific Coast Highway and Highway 20, the longest highway in the country. The high traffic on the adjacent highways has resulted in high traffic for the store, but despite the steady stream of customers, Webster and her staff don’t yet know exactly what kind of customer they cater to.

​

“Our customer base right now is kind of a wide variety,” Webster said. “We haven’t been open so long, so we don’t really know our customer yet or what they’re going to be about.”

Goodwill Boutique on Cape, which Webster states is the fifth such store in the region, gives coastal customers an alternative to shopping at higher-end stores. 

​

“If you’re a Goodwill shopper already and you’re looking for a designer brand, it’s a place you can come in and you don’t have to look too hard for those brands,” she said. “We’ve done a lot of the work for you.”