ECONOMY

HERE AND NOW

Little Shoppe Of Stories

New local boutiques, businesses and brands you may not know — but should.

By Lynne Konstantin

f it is unique, beautifully crafted or
simply tells a story, the women at Le
Shoppe are on it.
Deborah Slobin, Eugenia Pelle,
Shefali Malhotra and Julie Sundberg
(shown, left to right), have brought
four very diverse backgrounds, eth-
nicities (Jewish-American, Argentine,
Indian and Hungarian) and skills (from
Deborah's 23 years of sales, sourcing
and customer service and Shefali's
decade of corporate marketing to
fashionista Eugenie's eye for scooping
up special pieces online and Julie's
passion for refinishing estate-sale fur-
niture and selling it on eBay) together
to unify over the love of shopping, the
thrill of the find — and friendship.
In August 2013, the foursome
opened Le Shoppe, a more-than-your-
average consignment shop in Walled
Lake. Offering high-end or handcrafted
pieces, ranging from furniture and
home decor to women's apparel,
jewelry and accessories and more, the
shop feels more like a colorful Parisian
boutique brimming with special finds
than a resale shop that offers great bar-

I

gains but little style.
A Dorothy Draper dry bar, Paul Evans
Cityscape chrome and burled-wood
floor lamps, a pair of handpainted Han-
cock side chairs, a Royal Albert bone
china tea set or at St. Johns' knit dress
are among the cacophony of items
that have been carefully curated by the
owners and snatched up by a growing
following of loyal customers.
The friends had each come to a
point in their lives where they were
reassessing and looking for a change.
With a common love of retail and
enough business acumen to know that
consignment had been on an upswing
during the recession and was still bur-
geoning,"We also knew that consign-
ment shops had very few entry barriers
and required very little capital7 says
Shefali."So this gave us extra motiva-
tion to give it a shot'
Deborah, a volunteer interviewer of
Holocaust survivors with the Shoah
Foundation, learned about Hebrew
Free Loan in Bloomfield Hills from one
of her clients and made an appoint-
ment.

"The people at HFL made
the somewhat daunting
The women behind Le Shoppe in Walled Lake
task of obtaining a loan an
extremely encouraging and
empowering experience,"She-
fali says."We wouldn't be here
without them:'
In addition to Le Shoppe's
in-store offerings, the team
also runs a concierge service
for customers looking for spe-
cific pieces or time periods.
"They make a wish list and we
hunt until we find what they
want,"says Shefali, who adds
er
that she has expert sources
in the areas of mid-century
A corner of the shop
modern furniture, neo-classi-
cal, contemporary pieces and
ers to talk to us, chat over coffee and
more.
connect over our shared passions. We
With more than 60 consignors, much
love learning the history of the pieces
of the shop's inventory evolves within
that we find, and our customers love
45 days, leaving plenty of room for
hearing it and feeling the connection
fresh stock. In addition, Eugenia man-
through us. We believe in sharing a
ages a successful online Le Shoppe
story'
store on eBay as well as in-store events.
Most of all, adds Deborah, Le Shoppe Le Shoppe, Walled Lake (248-668-0000; leshoppe.
is a gathering place. "We want custom-
net).

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RrD THREAD I March 2014 35