WishList has remained forward-thinking since its inception 12 years ago and is now ramping up with a new style and more space.
The clothier has recently expanded its footprint at its flagship Westport store and has launched a line of fashion focused on work and travel.
“We started out our business 12 years ago and we grew with our customers,” said Suzanne Zarrilli, co-owner of WishList. “As our customer grew, so did we.”
At the WishList location on Post Road, the store has recently absorbed a neighboring space, the former location of the Ballet Academy of Westport.
WishList now focuses on style-minded young women, with a few items on hand for young men.
“Our first girls grew up, went to college and would come back,” said Zarrilli. “All of a sudden, we had young moms in our stores.”
Zarrilli said the loyal customer core of WishList has enabled her and co-owner Carla Strobel to open a second store in Greenwich and a third in Darien.
Zarrilli has a history in the New York fashion industry, having worked for, among others, Donna Karan. Strobel is a former retail manager for Barney”™s.
“She knew the front end I knew the back end,” Zarrilli said. “It was magic.”
Though WishList focuses its brand on a more casual style, Zarrilli has recently designed a line of clothes intended for the office and traveling. Zarrilli has since the store”™s launch designed silkscreened graphic t-shirts and athletic wear, but in work and travel saw parts of the market in which former high school customers were taking part after college.
“It”™s geared toward a girl in the stage of moving on,” said Zarrilli. “From wearing sweat pants and jeans in high school and college to needing styles to wear to work. It will be ”˜wear to work,”™ ”˜wear out.”™ It will also be packable and work as travel wear.”
The new WishList style includes dresses, jackets and pants in a variety of fabrics including cotton and wool.
Strobel and Zarrilli still employ some of the young women who began working for them 11 years ago.
“It”™s a family,” said Strobel. “And we include them and empower them. We give them a lot of ownership and let them have a hand in choices and be stylists themselves.”
Zarrilli said loyal employees, customers and vendors are all vital to having a unique boutique style shop.
WishList has a staff of 50 full and part-time employees led by manager Kate White, an 11 year staff veteran.
“There are a lot of relationships that have been established,” said Zarrilli. “It can be rare to find a retail store that truly takes an interest in you. We”™re in a small town and our customers know the girls here. We”™re a small-town store and we like being able to service our community with something different.”
Zarrilli said staff members have their own lists of customers to call when they see items that would apply to them and customers call asking to reserve merchandise in the same way.
“Our business is on fire right now,” said Strobel. “The economy is definitely coming back. We”™ve also found an amazing mix of expensive and inexpensive.”
Strobel said having a web presence is key, even if not much shopping is done there.
“We have a website that”™s really beautiful,” said Strobel. “It doesn”™t do a lot of business directly, but it”™s contributed greatly to driving people into the store.”
“Clothes are not hard to find but they”™re hard to fit,” said Zarrilli. “We don”™t allow someone in a room without five pair of jeans.”
Strobel said in the past two years during the sagging economy the sales and dollar figure did not go down as much as markdowns became more important.
“We in the twelve years of being open have never broken a sale before Christmas,” said Strobel.
