Published: November 04, 2009 06:22 pm      

Women make leap of faith

Duo to open downtown clothing store

DANVILLE — Owners of a new downtown clothing store say it will likely open by Christmas.

The All Things Unique Boutique, 30 N. Vermilion St., will sell new women’s clothes and accessories and children’s clothes — with plans to expand into men’s clothing in the future.

“It’s probably going to happen in the middle of December,” said co-owner April Hix, considering plans progress according to schedule. Hix and co-owner Crystal McQuown already have received required permits and the storefront, unused since it was a hair salon in 2007, doesn’t need much renovation.

“There hasn’t been anything there since then,” Hix said.

The Danville business partners, who are sisters-in-law, formerly sold clothing and other merchandise through an at-home business that marketed home-purchase parties. The new storefront is being leased.

“We’ve been at the Fall Festival (with a business kiosk) and we’ve always had people ask us where our shop is,” she said. “We love downtown and thought it would be a great spot for us. We think we’ll be able to market to a larger group of people.”

Hix said the partners are still finalizing their new merchandise line and waiting for public legal no-tifications to wind up. Outside of minor painting, the storefront is almost ready for move-in.

The two will soon round out the store’s product line following a scheduled trip to an Indianapolis clothing-vendor show.

“We’re very excited about it because we’re going to have lots of neat stuff,” she said.

Hix said she’s already had people warn her about opening a store in a rough economy. She said she and McQuown are looking at this an opportunity.

“Yes, we’ve heard that,” she said. “We’re just going to take the leap.”

Dana Schaumburg, executive director of Downtown Danville Inc., could not be reached in time to comment on this story, though she alluded in a story last month that at least one downtown storefront would likely be filled by year’s end.