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KENNETT SQUARE — Kris Perrone, the owner of Fab & Boujee Boutique on State Street in Kennett Square, has a passion for on-trend fashion and helping women of every age look and feel great.
“It’s all about building confidence through fashion,” she says.
A former healthcare administrator who also has deep experience in fashion and retail, Kris loves hand-selecting the shop’s seasonal collections with her daughter Gia, a fashion major at Immaculata College.
“People appreciate that it’s not just a young person’s store,” she says. “Women of any age can find items that look great and age-appropriate.” Customers from teenagers to those well into their seventies find really fun pieces, she says, from Fab & Boujee’s wide selection of tops, dresses, jewelry, bags, and denim.
Kris loves styling people, and her personable approach and personal touch make shopping feel more like conferring with a trusted girlfriend — an old-fashioned approach to customer service that’s a dying art.
“I was trained to know what will flatter someone’s body shape, size, and coloring, and to bring other options and choices for people to try on,” she says. “Nine times out of ten, the item a person falls in love with is something they didn’t see or think would look good on them.”
Her goal is to help people feel comfortable and love what they wear, and she’s honed these skills over many years. She worked at Merry-Go-Round, a women’s on-trend fashion company, through high school and college before starting her career as an RN.
From healthcare to fashion
Kris had earned her MBA and was working as a licensed healthcare administrator when she began to work towards a career shift. “I knew I wanted something more fun — to be in a business that’s happy,” she says.
In 2017, she started a pop-up boutique on weekends, selling mainly accessories.
As she developed the business, her brand, and a customer base that loved the kind of fun, flattering, and well-curated style that would become the signature of Fab & Boujee, Kris began to formulate a plan for the boutique.
In September 2018, she left healthcare and opened the first brick-and-mortar location of Fab & Boujee Boutique in Hockessin. In response to customer requests, she gradually expanded her line from bags and jewelry and some outerwear to carry clothes as well.
“Because the location was a bit hidden, I knew the store had to be a destination and I continued to do lots of pop-up events as well,” she says.
In the spring of 2020, when Kris looked at the space at 106 West State Street in Kennett Square where Ashley Austin had been, she knew it would be perfect for Fab & Boujee.
“Kennett was on my radar because it’s such a nice community and has good foot traffic,” she says.
She also knew the existing boutiques and was confident she would bring something different to add even more variety to this award-winning shopping district. The town’s festivals, Light Up the Square Christmas decorations, and events like Third Thursdays bring vibrancy, she says. She remembers the community spirit reflected in the photos of the 2020 Kennett High School seniors that Kennett Collaborative had put up in the shop window before she opened — and the first parklet in front of the shop.
“I didn’t know what would happen — moving the business in the middle of COVID was either the craziest and worst idea or the best — but it worked out,” she says with a smile. “People in Hockessin shop in Kennett Square anyway. From the moment we opened here, on Sept. 1, 2020, the business really expanded.”
In its new Kennett location, Fab & Boujee became a “full service” boutique carrying shoes, giftables, candles, and more in addition to its signature lines of clothing and accessories.
Kris has complemented and added to the town’s vibrancy by working with KARMA and becoming part of the community. She’s hosted special shopping events and collaborations with fellow merchants including Niamma Mayo of Sophisticated Bling Studio. Grain Craft Bar + Kitchen recently created a special Third Thursday signature cocktail called “Fab & Boozy.”
For this week’s sidewalk sale, July 29 to 31, “Everything in the shop will be on sale with varying discounts,” Kris says. The popular Fab & Boujee “dot” sale will return, with different colored dots corresponding to different percentage discounts.
Bringing accessible fashion to Kennett Square
Curating a collection for the shop a season ahead requires thinking differently, and Kris enjoys traveling with Gia to shows in Atlanta, New York, and elsewhere.
“I have to see the quality of the fabrics, the sizing, and the colors,” Kris says.
She has a keen eye for fashion and follows the big fashion houses and the trends that will trickle down to the general public the following season.
Fashion designers comb the world looking for new colors and influences, and while fashion in its upper echelons can be isolated, “Designers morph high-end designs into items that everyday people would find engaging and want to wear,” Kris says.
While supply-chain issues continue to plague the industry, she’s looking forward to traveling to shows this year and to ordering great new pieces for the customers she knows and loves.
Pantone’s color of the year for 2022 is purple — Very Peri.
“People will love it or hate it,” Kris says with a smile.
She also notes that on-trend fashion colors show up the following year in interior design — in accent pieces, for example. The fact that last year’s tie dye and more muted colors have given way to more vibrant colors, Kris says, reflects a cultural trend towards embracing a new landscape and new perspectives in these transformational times.
Very Peri is symbolic, she says, of our collective emergence from isolation and a desire to explore and create. And as for animal prints? “They’re still in,” she says, “they’re like a neutral.”
The relationship between the web and social media presence and sales is complicated, Kris says.
While a relatively small percentage of Fab & Boujee’s revenue comes directly from online sales, “You have to do it. Customers see something online and come in to try it on.”
Kris is grateful to be able to work in partnership with Gia, who also runs the shop’s active social media and Instagram accounts.
“After graduation, Gia aspires to gain experience in merchandising and buying at a larger chain store before returning to take over the shop — so I can retire,” Kris says, smiling.
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