[Baltimore Sun] Foxy Boutique opens in Sykesville; new deli and creative collective also planned downtown
Read Time:8 Minute, 3 Second
Sykesville’s newest main street shop, Foxy Boutique, will offer a relaxed shopping experience that aims to help women feel good about themselves, owner Leomara Pendleton, 36, of Eldersburg, said. The downtown Sykesville business at 7550 Main St. held a grand opening Saturday.
“What I want to create there, is this environment where mature women can enjoy themselves,” Pendleton said. The boutique is geared toward women aged 30 to 50.
Opening the boutique represents the culmination of a lifelong dream, Pendleton said. The Brazilian native was a flight attendant with a degree in marketing and publicity before moving to Virginia six years ago. She is set to graduate from Virginia Christian University in February with a degree in business communications.
Her love for fashion started when she was a child. “… But I never imagined I could be able to afford all that. Opening a business is not just a lot of effort to put in, but it’s real money. It’s a lot of money to open a business, and I had always this dream in the back of my mind,” she said.
Pendleton moved to Eldersburg in March after getting engaged to longtime resident Jeremy Pendleton, and the two have since been married. Leomara Pendleton loved visiting Sykesville’s vibrant downtown with her husband. She said she especially appreciates Carroll County’s friendliness and sense of community, after spending most of her life living in bigger cities.
There is a wonderful sense of community among downtown Sykesville businesses, Pendleton said. She plans to work with Cowboys and Angels, a Western apparel shop that could be seen as competition, by sending customers to the neighboring boutique when they are looking for something specific, like boots. Pendleton also plans to participate in downtown Sykesville events.
“For me [to] get to know all these amazing women in the store, that’s what I want,” Pendleton said, “to show them that fashion can be comfortable, can be fun, can be nice, and it’s not going to take you a lot of money or a lot of time to get ready, or make you feel uncomfortable. It’s us creating a community of being safe here. We’re good, we can chat about stuff, we can have a drink together, and it’s more creating the environment of mature women that still take care of themselves.”
The store will help create a welcoming environment by offering free Champagne, white wine and espresso to customers while they shop, Pendleton said. She expects the grand opening to represent a regular day at the boutique.
“What you see at the opening is what you’re going to see in the other days you stop by,” she said. “The wine you’re going to drink in the opening is going to be the wine you drink. This is going to be the store, the opening is the reality of what the every day of the store is going to be.”
Moonshadow Collective under construction
Moonshadow Collective and the Main Street Market & Deli will open in downtown Sykesville, sharing the address 7611 Main St., once renovations on the site are complete.
Construction is underway and could be done as soon as late November, said Moonshadow Collective owner Beck Stavely, 37, of Sykesville. The business is likely to soft open this year, before a grand opening early next year.
The renovation makes use of $256,000 in state funding, according to Downtown Sykesville Connection Executive Director Julie Della-Maria. Project Restore supports place-based economic development organizations, rather than funding small businesses directly, according to the Maryland Department of Housing and Community Development website.
Moonshadow Collective aims to become a hub for creativity and art for the area, Stavely said. “It’s really about, like, where creativity meets community.”
The business will contain an event space capable of hosting artistic workshops and creative activities. Stavely said the space will also be home to four resident artists, who will each have a semi-private workspace.
“I have a vision in my head,” Stavely said. “I was able to see the space in its more raw format, so it’s actually a perfect blank canvas for what we want to do in there.”
The idea is for community workshops to generate enough revenue to sustain the business and its resident artists. Stavely said the potential abounds for partnerships with local businesses that use the event space in creative ways.
Stavely also intends for artists to share the responsibilities of having a spot at the town’s farmer’s market on Sundays. The artists have not been selected yet, and Stavely said representing a wide array of artistic styles will be an important factor in the decision.
“The collective piece is really important,” Stavely said, “so with these four artists, we’re all in this together.”
Moonshadow Collective will endeavor to appeal to people of all ages and skill levels, Stavely said.
“I wanted to be able to create a space that would be welcoming for anybody,” Stavely said, “if they consider themselves artsy, if they are craftsy, or even if they don’t consider themselves creative yet, because I do believe that everyone’s creative, and I want to be able to have a space where people can come in and do a variety of activities.”
Got a news tip? Contact Thomas Goodwin Smith at thsmith@baltsun.com.
Happy
0 %
Sad
0 %
Excited
0 %
Sleepy
0 %
Angry
0 %
Surprise
0 %
0
0