The longer that I own Why Not Boutique, the more I realize that, no matter how many "Running your own Retail Shop" or "Specialty Shops for Dummies" books you read, there are just certain things that people fail to mention.
For example...I always assumed that dressing a mannequin would be a lot like dressing a Barbie Doll...and coming from someone who played with Barbies well into the 5th grade, I just figured I would be a pro-manniquin dresser, no questions asked. Well there are several things that I failed to notice and no one thought to mention to me...
First....Barbie clothes are tailored specifically to fit a Barbie Doll. Lucky bitch...if only we all were so fortunate to have thousands of little Chinese children making clothes to our exact measurements. Putting clothes on my mannequins is much like me trying clothes on in a dressing room...should I try a small or a medium? Well the small is too small but the medium is too big so now what do I do? All of these problems point to the reason that I just stopped trying clothes on altogether. No such luck with Sammy the Mannequin though...girls gotta have clothes on....
Second....the makers of Barbie were brilliant in that they figured there was going to be millions of clumsy little girls dressing and undressing this doll, so they made her hinge at the waist...so, not only can she sit and flirt with Ken, but it's also easier to get a tight little mini dress on her because you can bend and twist her to suit your needs. Not so with a mannequin. The best you can do with her is pull her off her stand in order to make pulling a skirt on her marginally easier...at least easier than trying to get it to fit over her shoulders and boobs.
Finally...and this is a big one...Barbie has legs. Yes, I know...they make mannequins with legs, but they're just freakish looking and I'm convinced that having them in my store long term would cause nightmares. So I stuck with the classy, dress form mannequins, but what I failed to take into account is that the ones that I bought have a pole sticking straight up their butt and because of that, there is absoultly no way to put a pair of pants on this girl. Shorts are even difficult. And honestly...because she has no defined butt, pants and shorts just look ridiculous on her anyway....so what would have been nice to know was that if I was planning on carrying pants or shorts...either a mannequin with legs or with an offset pole probably would have been the way to go...
I think I'm going to write a book of practical advice for retail shop owners...anyone else have any other suggestions of things they wish someone had told them before they opened?
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