A boutique that runs in the service of fashion

Source From: http://www.phillyburbs.com/lifestyle/fashion/a-boutique-that-runs-in-the-service-of-fashion/article_3beee0ac-03c6-11e1-8e06-0019bb30f31a.html

Disillusioned by what the fashion industry offers women who are not rail-thin 20-something exhibitionists, Candace Stauffer decided she’d rather skip a big black-tie event than go in a second-rate outfit.

“You want to look sexy, but you don’t want to look slutty, either,” said Stauffer, who lives in Bedminster. “You want heads to turn when you walk into a room.”

So she and her husband, John, stayed home from his company’s Christmas party last year.

This year, John suggested his wife consult Jill Strickland, owner of the Frox boutique in Perkasie, whose hair Stauffer did when she worked at a salon in the borough.

Strickland pulled out her magic wand — a talent for personalizing clothes to a woman’s body shape and an inventory of stylish clothes — and like a fashion Cinderella, Stauffer is ready for the ball.

For her client, Strickland chose “a kimono-sleeved dress that cinches in at the waist, but hides the hips a little bit — I tend to be a little curvier,” said Stauffer. “The dress was beautiful purplish-blue, but she put big, bold gold jewelry with it, and a gold clutch bag ... she really just has an eye for fashion.”

Strickland grew up in the Vermilion Hills section of Levittown, displaying a predilection for fashion styling at a very young age.

“I had three older sisters, and I would always dress them up,” she said. “I would help them when I was, like, 7 years old, dress up for their dates.”

She started her career at an entry-level job at a clothing warehouse in Plumsteadville, and eventually became an independent sales representative for clothing manufacturers.

She opened her shop nine years ago after being stranded far from home on Sept. 11, 2001. On that day, she decided, “I never wanted to be more than two blocks from my children. I shouldn’t have to risk my life to sell clothes.”

She found storefront space in a 90-year-old building on North 7th Street and renovated it with the help of her husband, Stephen, who’s a general contractor.

Her business plan revolves around fashionable clothes for pear- and apple-shaped women as well as for those with slender, symmetrical figures. Or, as she described the lineup of real-people models in one of her twice-yearly fashion shows, women who are “17 to 70, size 4 to 16 ... When I go to market, I have all of them in my mind.”

Strickland displays business wear, fancy sweaters, trendy print dresses, jeans and separates on free-form racks made to her design. “I didn’t want anything that anybody else had,” she said, referring to the unadorned chrome racks seen in most stores.

A shopping trip at Frox involves a consultation with Strickland or one of her sales staff, who guide customers to figure-appropriate items. On a recent day, Strickland pulled out a knit skirt, priced at a little more than $100, that is suitable for a short, large-sized woman. The garment is washable, and reverses from print to solid.

“If you buy one quality piece, you’ll do better with that,” she said.

Frox also stocks handbags by Vera Bradley and Brighton, plus a wide selection of costume jewelry.

If a customer has trouble envisioning an outfit, Strickland does it for her. Sales staff settle a customer in one of two roomy dressing rooms and bring the clothes to her.

“It’s kind of like going into a boutique from 20, 30 years ago, where they helped dress you,” said Stauffer. “They really pay attention. They’re there when you come out of the dressing room. They want to see how it fits.”

Strickland said fashion expertise is her biggest stock-in-trade.

“Why are they going to come to me? Because of my enthusiasm, because of how we put things together,” she said. “Everyone has the same thing, but they don’t have Jill Strickland.”