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When Elaine Grandfield and her daughters Jessica Kirkpatrick and Leah Dehnert, opened the small clothing boutique Dotty May's Closet, they hadn't advertised at all. Since the store's opening in early November it hardly seemed necessary.
"Arcata is a good place for small, family businesses," Kirkpatrick said.
The small clothing boutique in downtown Arcata, across the street from the fire department, specializes in what it calls "retro-feminine" or retro-flair.
The store is the named after Grandfield's mother, Kirkpatrick and Dehnert's grandmother Dotty May.
Dotty May's Closet features a lot of clothing invoking a style that may have been seen in Dotty's own closet in an earlier eras. The store opened on the first Saturday of the month, Dotty May's birthday.
At any time you can usually hear swing or jazz music playing on the stereo and see shirts priced from $8.50 to $25 and bright red cowgirl style rain boots marked at $42 - the most expensive things in the shop. The employees help people pick out and put together outfits and gift wrap them in tissue paper.
They carry shirts and dresses, jewelry, leg warmers, and what can only be called a "funky camera bag."
"It's very reasonably priced," said Tessa Thulien, an out-of-towner from Boulder Colo. "The Boots, the boots are awesome."
Leah Dehenert said they go to wholesale websites and to fashion shows in San Francisco for their inventory. They intend to visit Las Vegas in February for a famous fashion show know as The Magic Show.
The store welcomes locally made products. Right now the only local products they carry are some of the jewelry and a painting on the wall behind the register but they welcome more locally made products.
Dehenert was surprised at the pages of regulations they had to read through having to do with hand-made products. She didn't hesitate to comply because she heard of local businesses shutting down for not complying with the guidelines.
"They make is so hard to start a small business," Dehenert said, "but now that we're here it's a lot of fun."
They look forward to being able to sell more locally made jewelry, art, handbags and clothes, and to eventually produce and sell their own material. The mother and daughters team opened the store primarily because it was something they always wanted to do.
So far the store has done well enough to cover expenses Dehenert said, but the store is less about making profit than bringing fashion to Arcata.
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