"Business, like life, is all about growth, change, acceptance and moving forward," said Christen Haines, who is transforming her Steveston clothing/consignment shop to better suit her clients' needs.
Kids Supply Clothing, is being reborn as Best Dressed by C, and while the shop still has clothing for children and consignment goods, the new name, design and branding is something Haines has been leaning towards for a while.
"The truth about kids stuff, is that while it's always been one of those things that I love and enjoy doing, and the community welcomes and enjoys what I do - the economics behind it has been getting slimmer and slimmer."
Haines, who has owned her shop for nine years, said she's carried men's and women's wear, as well as shoes, bags and jewelry for years, and that while customers who had seen her store evolve understood this, those new to the area, did not.
"What was the problem is that with all the new people in Steveston, they weren't understanding Kids Supply Clothing was a whole lot more than just for kids."
Owning a dress shop has been a dream for Haines, and she explains that life often brings unexpected opportunities that help you towards your goals, and shares her 'light bulb moment' on changing her business model.
In May of last year, "a staff member and I had just finished doing a really beautiful window and we were frustrated by the fact that people were walking right past, without even looking at it," she said. "So we decided to become part of the window."
Haines and her co-workers would take turns posing in the store's window display as 'live mannequins', and still do. The activity is spontaneous and random, but keep an eye out on weekends, she said.
Photos of Haines posing in her shop's display found their way across social media, and led to a fateful phone call from Montreal with a top-tiered Canadian fashion designer, though she didn't know it at the time.
Through their conversations, while arranging to bring in some new stock from her Montreal contact, Haines revealed her dream of owning a designer dress shop and was encouraged to pursue her idea.
"What I got in my store, knocked my socks off," says Haines, "I was expecting high-end, what I got was tiptop designer gowns -Alfred Sung, Vera Wang, Mille Fiori, Essence, Ella, Justin Alexander, with Mille Fiori being exclusive to us on the west coast."
