What’s in Store: Bella Blue Boutique
August 31st, 2007, 2:49 pm · Post a Comment · posted by Sam Mittelsteadt
Bella Blue Boutique
The Villages at Las Sendas
2837 N. Power Road, Mesa
Hours: 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. Monday through Thursday, 10 a.m. to 8 p.m. Friday and Saturday, noon to 4 p.m. Sunday.
Information: (480) 924-1088
The core customer: Moms trying to stand out from the madding Mesa crowd, says store co-owner Jen LaKosh, who estimates that most of her customers live within 10 miles of the store. “They don’t want to be 
caught wearing the exact same thing as other moms at the hockey game,” LaKosh says, so the store orders smaller quantities and seldom restocks the same style of even best-sellers more than once. (”It also adds a sense of urgency,” she says. “If I’m in a store and see 12 of something, I’m going to wait until it goes on sale.”) For the area’s Mormon clientele, the store carries some still-stylish designs 
with covered shoulders and longer lengths, too.)
High price point: Tees by Love and Liberty, $130.
Low price point (right): Bracelets and sunglasses start at $20.
On the mannequin (left): Gypsy tunic by Skinny Minnie, $50. Necklace by LeAnn Goff, $150. Vinyl saddle tote, $75. Stretch denim jeans by Red by Miss Me, $90.
Local lines: Jewelry by LeAnn Goff; J. Strelnikova (who lives in nearby Las Sendas); Lucky Princess; Lokal Legend.
Top sellers (right): Slim-fit tees ($40) embellished with tattoo-style screen prints and crystals — anchors, fleur de lis or anything that adds a bit of edge. (And yes, they’re machine-washable.) Customers are also buying short summer dresses — a surpr
ise to LaKosh, who assumed styles a few inches longer would be the faster sellers in the East Valley. She learned her clients are wearing the shorter ones as dresses now and plan to wear them as tunics for fall.
She’s excited about: A lightweight cotton jersey wrap-waist top by For Love and Liberty ($120), with a chestnut-sized crystal-embellished skull pin and screen print. “It will transition into fall effortlessly,” LaKosh says.
