Don’t let the word “boutique” scare your pocketbook away, said Kelly Sigg, who opened Audacious Boutique, 110 S. Jefferson Ave., April 14.
“My goal is to keep everything in the shop affordable,” Sigg said. “The only thing we have over $40 is a pair of capris.”
Clothing is the shop’s main merchandise. It also has shoes, jewelry, purses, scarves, hand and body lotions and Iola High Mustangs and Fillies shirts. Sigg has handcrafted jewelry from artisans in Kansas City and Wichita, as well as costume jewelry. Clothing comes in all sizes, from small to extra-extra large, although not every item is available in all sizes.
“We can’t have everything, but we have something for everyone,” Sigg said.
Saturday’s grand opening will include a fashion show as well as other perks. Joelle Shallah and Kristen Dreher from Bella Donna Salon, 401 N. Jefferson Ave., will do nails, hair and makeup; refreshments will be served and door prizes awarded.
AUDACIOUS Boutique is situated in a row of buildings recently redone by David Toland, who purchased the old Iola State Bank building, on the southeast corner of Madison and Jefferson avenues, and the stores south to the alley.
“I just love what’s been done,” Sigg said, including removal of Sheetrock from an interior brick wall. Its wood floors now have a high glossy sheen. Carpet was added in the rear half where flooring had to be replaced.
“What has been done gives the shop a quaintness,” Sigg said, letting the word slip off her tongue for effect, just as she does when she says “audacious,” a word that impressed her when she first saw the movie “Hope Floats.”
“It means bold and brave,” which, she said, describes the adventure that the shop is for her.
Sigg works full time for SE-KAN Asphalt Services, Gas, which explains the shop’s evening hours Wednesdays, Thursdays and Fridays and being open on Saturdays and Sunday afternoons. Merchandise also is advertised on Facebook, an aside that Sigg said had led to sales in Tulsa and several cities in Kansas.
This isn’t Sigg’s first try at retail. Sigg managed a clothing store in Wellington 30 years ago and did indirect sales in home decor through home parties for 10 years.
AFTER graduating from Iola High School in 1978, Sigg, 50, lived elsewhere for better than two decades, returning here in 2002. The next year she married Steve Sigg, who has become “Steve the steamer” for his role in prepping new shipments of clothing for the shop.
Daughter Natasha Pyle, McPherson, got her mother headed toward a revived career in retail when she told her about friends ordering purses and accessories from Facebook postings.
“She told me, ‘You really ought to do something in Iola,’ as if working full time weren’t enough,” Sigg said.
