Danielle Myers, 22, left, interviews with store manager Richard Bryan and assistant manager Maggie Malenock at Chick Downtown. Myers recently graduated from Bowling Green University in Ohio with a fashion major. Danielle Myers arrived for a recent job interview at Chick Downtown looking the part: stylish tiger-print dress, makeup done to perfection and long raven locks without a strand out of place.
Unlike so many people her age who leave the region to begin a career, Myers, 22, wanted to use her recently earned fashion degree from Bowling Green University in Pittsburgh. The native of Belmont, Ohio -- an hour's drive away -- was searching the Internet for a Pennsylvania store that sells Betsey Johnson fashions and ended up submitting a resume to chickdowntown.com, which carries that and 140 other contemporary fashion brands.
"I'm going to pursue what I want to do in Pittsburgh," she said. "Fashion majors typically want to go to Los Angeles or New York, but I'm close to my family, and Pittsburgh isn't too fast. It's a happy medium. And it's moving in a fashion-forward direction. New York, L.A. and Chicago aren't the only places people want stylish clothes."
While many independent fashion specialty stores across the nation have closed in recent years or are struggling to survive in this weakening economy, the fledgling Chick Downtown is prospering -- and hiring. Deep pockets and a smart business strategy are helping to balance the odds.
Amy Reed opened the womenswear store last May in the Clark Building at 717 Liberty Ave., a historic site in the Cultural District purchased in 2006 for $22.5 million by her husband, New York real-estate developer Ira Gorman. At $40 per square foot, the 2,500-square-foot space would rent for $100,000 a year, he said.
Nine months after opening, the store is exceeding sales goals, growing through online sales fueled by hundreds of thousands of dollars in advertising.
Web sales now outstrip in-store sales 10 to 1, Ms. Reed said. Traffic to the online destination rose from about 10,000 hits in mid-August to nearly 70,000 hits in mid-January.
Purchases are shipped regularly to buyers in New York, Los Angeles, London, Australia and Russia.
"The way they have integrated the Internet and their store has really allowed them to be very successful," said Michael Edwards, president and CEO of the Pittsburgh Downtown Partnership, a nonprofit advocacy group. "While it's not a new retail model, it's necessary for stores to be successful wherever they are located. In retailing today, you need to have a big audience that's not just walk-by traffic. I think they're really brilliant in how they've done that."
The boutique's sales volume over the recent Presidents Day weekend was higher than the first two months the store was in business, Ms. Reed said.
At the same time, the store's payroll has increased from three to 30.
All aspects of the business -- from modeling, photography and Web design to sales, shipping and accounting -- are covered by people working in Pittsburgh.
An aggressive advertising campaign seems to be paying off. Full-page ads for chickdowntown.com have appeared in local magazines and high-readership national publications such as People and US Weekly.
The March issues of InStyle and regional magazines such as New York's Gotham and Florida's Ocean Drive will have full-page ads, as will April issues of Cosmopolitan, Harper's Bazaar and InStyle -- three of the largest national fashion publications.
It doesn't come cheap: A full-page ad in Cosmopolitan exceeds $300,000. But it's also giving national exposure to area models such as 16-year-old Alexa Hunter.
Then there are high-visibility mentions in magazine features, such as the "boutique of the week" designation on Lucky.com two weeks ago and the Madison Marcus floral silk dress from the store that appeared in the fashion "trend report" in February's People Style Watch.
Chick Downtown -- which added the "Downtown" part to its name in part because national magazines did it -- is open every day and busiest on weekends. Although Liberty Avenue has not been a major fashion destination, it remains a busy pedestrian and motorist corridor. And the Clark Building, with its numerous jewelers and other tenants, is a destination spot for shoppers from all over the region.
Timing also may be on the boutique's side. There are about 28,000 more people working Downtown than in 1996, Mr. Edwards said, and those 139,000 workers have higher incomes than in the past.
Ms. Reed, who gave birth to a son in November and continues her involvement in the business, said she hopes more fashion retail stores will open Downtown.
She's checking out other job applicants from Pittsburgh, including a young woman in Chicago who has worked for Saks Fifth Avenue and Neiman Marcus and wants to return here.
"A lot of people e-mail the Web site and say they left Pittsburgh for lack of job opportunities," said Ms. Reed. "They want to move back to Pittsburgh and work for us. They're really surprised we're a Pittsburgh-based company."
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