Shop the Latest Styles in Canby

If you’re seeking style advice for spring and summer, try a boutique crawl to four stores in Canby. These women-run businesses keep our community styling through every season, but that’s not all they do for Canby.

For these owners, it’s community over competition. “It’s nice to have boutiques that are not afraid to send their customers to another boutique,” says Angela Walker of Tin & Paisley.

Angela has her own plans on how to serve the community, like hosting fundraisers and parties at her store with money going to the charity of choice for her clients. Her trucker hat parties are already legendary.

Lindsey Hundtoft of Sadie Rose sponsors local artists and feels representing area talent is crucial to the community. She also plans on doing more personal styling in the future. “Everyone has a [personal] palette,” she says. The style appointments would analyze a client’s color, body shape and size. Clients would leave with an analysis of what flatters them best.

 

Lacey McGraw of The Barn Door Boutique offers back-to-school nights with an offering of school supplies. Look forward to macramé and candle-making classes in the future. Barn Door likes to get the community involved, “even if they don’t come to shop.” They provide coffee carts as well.

Andrea Merrifield at Park & Lu offers her customers the ultimate experience in personal shopping. If you have a specific event, you can call or text Andrea with your styles and sizes, and she’ll be ready with an assortment of options. Husbands frequently call ahead to do personal shopping for their wives.

As I visit the tiny back rooms that serve as office space to these proud owners, I notice an abundance of beauty affirmations and even some carpe diem. “Eat the Cookie” graces one desk, and another: “Beauty Rewards the Soul.” It’s all positive energy, which mirrors their various mission statements.

Lindsey at Sadie Rose likes to empower women. “My heart is to speak more life into women and to help them with confidence. We are all so beautiful in our own way.” Angela at Tin & Paisley adds, “Our girl is a girl who likes fun, margaritas and inappropriate mugs.” Her mission is to inspire confidence in women and “to make women shine.”

“Busy women want fashion and function,” says Andrea of Park & Lu, “but not at the expense of quality.” She sees fast fashion being worn once or twice and then discarded after it comes out of the wash and loses its shape. “If you do the math of how long you can wear something,” she says, “and the life of it, people would see that it costs less for quality.”

At Barn Door, you’ll find one-of-a-kind items. Lacey says, “A customer feels a connection with a business when you take the time to know your clientele.”

One thing all these boutiques have in common is great style advice. Lacey adds, “Going into spring and summer expect to see brightly colored pieces, including pink, purple and blue.” She notes, “Athleisure will continue to be popular. Expect to see lots of tennis skirts and sporty dresses.” Denim skirts and dresses are also trending, along with Western flare. “We carry an assortment of items you can wear every day or to the next rodeo, concert or festival.”

Andrea of Park & Lu favors things that stand the test of time. What’s trending now? Boho Western. Basically, put boots or booties on just about anything. Long maxi skirts and prairie girl dresses are in. Neutral palettes mix well together, perhaps a beige and a pink. Flowing sleeves are fashionable, as are fitted jeans.

According to Lindsey at Sadie Rose, what trends is often music-related. Right now, it’s country music’s turn with Beyonce joining the genre and Jason Aldean’s T-shirt bonanza. “The style change in fashion is toward more country,” she says, perhaps with ruffles and broad-cut jeans. In short, it’s trending more feminine.

Angela of Tin & Paisley adds, “It depends on the girl you shop for, but expect to see more gauzy material, more cropped jeans, more small flowers.” Fashion statements, she confirms, will be more feminine and romance-y, with a little bit of ruffle. “The ruffle’s got to be properly placed,” she says, and it makes good fashion sense.

All these owners have interesting stories to tell about why they opened boutiques. “I worked in the stock market for 18 years,” says Park & Lu’s Andrea, who, when she became a mother, needed more flexibility in her schedule.

Lindsey at Sadie Rose remembers being a child and wanting to know who made the things in the stores. She often got the standard answer, China, but that was not the answer she was seeking. Now she represents 16 local artists with a long waiting list.

Angela of Tin & Paisley explains, “Our daughter was a rodeo queen.” The tin symbolizes her, while paisley represents another daughter, who likes a more casual look.

Whatever the inspiration for these four fabulous boutiques, we’re glad they’ve chosen Canby to sell their wares and contribute to the community in such a positive and fashionable way.