There’s a new Willow on Sicamous’ Main Street, but not the weeping kind.
Willow, a ladies clothing boutique located at 221 Main St., opened its doors on May 22.
The store’s owner, April Levasseur, said the first days running her store have been “phenomenal.”
Levasseur said she’s loved how the store has enabled her to meet new people and that customers have been very kind and positive. Due to good first week sales, Levasseur said she thinks she hit the mark on quite a few of the clothing items she’s offering.
However, it hasn’t all been as relaxing as sitting in the shade under a willow tree.
“Help me Rhonda, you wanna talk about challenges? First of all, I’ve never done anything with retail before,” said Levasseur, who, before opening Willow, was a drafter for 35 years running her own architectural design business.
Levasseur and her husband, Terry, rented out the building that Willow is currently operating in for about a decade to Heather Mollison, who ran a clothing store there called Creative Casuals.
Mollison knew the Levasseurs wanted to move to Sicamous and that April might want to try running a clothing store – so when Mollison decided to retire, she helped April get started.
Last fall, Mollison went with Levasseur to a clothing show in Vancouver.
Mollison had been selling clothes for a while, so she was able to introduce Levasseur to vendors.
Mollison helped Levasseur pick out clothes for her spring and summer 2021 collections – some clothes that fit Levasseur’s distinct vibe and some that would service Mollison’s established clientele.
Levasseur said that since Sicamous summers are so hot, she wanted her store to have clothes made of natural fibres like linen, cotton and rayon. She wants the clothes she sells to be breathable; comfortable but classy.
Willow has a wide variety of cover-up and summer dresses which Levasseur said range from “casual to dressy.”
Levasseur also said she carries clothes for the “ladies who golf” in Sicamous, such as skorts and capri pants with tops to mix and match.
Now that Levasseur’s used to running the till, point-of-sale technology and managing inventory, she said she feels like everything’s coming together at Willow.
“Now we’re focusing on the fun part, just helping people find something that they like,” said Levasseur.
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zachary.roman@saobserver.net
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