It can be a struggle for women to find clothes for the office that both fit and flatter them, and that’s a vacuum the Wilmington boutique Entre Donovan aims to fill.
The store won a Best of Delaware award this summer. In this week’s Enlighten Me, Anne Hoffman sets out to discover why the boutique is generating so much buzz.
Linda Farquhar, the owner of Entre Donovan, is giving me the full treatment today.
When I arrived, she put out a bowl of almonds and offered me fresh coffee. This is the closest thing to a French fashion house, or salon, I’ve ever seen. But we’re not anywhere near the Seine, we’re in downtown Wilmington, across the street from a Starbucks.
When you come into the shop normally you would have an appointment, and you would be planning to spend about an hour here," said Farquhar. "When you first come in, we’ll greet you. And you know, have you set down your handbag, have you set down your handbag, then we’d go through some of your preferences, your dress code, what your lifestyle is. So we can get an understanding of how you want to dress, how you want to convey yourself.
Linda is kind of like a style therapist for women in need of good office clothes. And like any good therapist, she has her work cut out for her. The business world is notoriously difficult to dress for, and the term business casual doesn’t exactly inspire.
I tell Linda that I feel that at 29, I’m dressing too young. It’s really about what I can afford - but also about my work conditions; there are days when I report in 90 degree weather, and also because I feel rebellious about having to wear clothes that aren’t very practical
Linda challenges me.
"What you’re wearing, even though it seems superficial, it’s actually very important," said Farquhar,
I get the sense she does this a lot - and it’s for the client’s own good.
"Still, like if you’re in journalism and there’s a crowd of journalists, and you’re trying to get recognized in the crowd, so President Obama points to you to answer the question. So you need to stand out somehow. He needs to think that you’re credible, that you’re like very good at what you do," Farquhar continued.
And another thing Linda told me - people form first impressions in less than half a second. And here’s where things get more complicated...for women who are intentional about wearing well-assembled business clothes, a lot of times, they still don’t look that good.
In the old days, clothing was made for a woman’s specific body, which for obvious reasons, just looks better. Even middle class women had dressmakers, Linda told me. And for wealthy women, going to get clothes made was luxurious and intimate. But then came the rise of off-the rack.
"Most of our clients would no more buy off the rack then jump off a cliff. It would spell the end of Haute Couture and good taste."
That’s a clip from an Australian miniseries about a 1920s lady detective called Miss Fisher’s Murder Mystery. Miss Fisher has a reputation for being a fashionista. In this scene, she’s just solved a case for an exclusive designer who owns a salon. You just heard her in the tape.
"I have a confession to make. I have been known to shop in department stores, but I love the glamour and attention of Salon- Flueri!"
And that’s Miss Fisher herself. At the time, women were beginning to have more options. And of course, buying in the dreaded department store was cheaper. Miss Fisher’s position suggests a balance - women should buy nice clothes at the fashion house, and everyday wear off the rack.
But of course, that balance never really happened for most women. And the results of buying off the rack often just don’t look that good.
There was a size survey that was done by Size USA a while ago. They surveyed about 6700 women. And they were trying to determine, of those women, what percentage of them fit into standard sizes, 2-20, off the rack. So if they took by waist and hip, those two dimensions, only 15 percent of women fit into off the rack sizing," said Farquhar.
Since Linda does things the old way, she’s taking my specific measurements today. But she’s not going to use a tape measure.
"Now you’re gonna step your feet about a foot apart..."
Instead, Linda asks me to stand on a rotating disc, while a scanner takes my exact size. Linda beta-tested the scanner for the company. And it doesn’t cost the client anything.
"Now your hair’s a little bit down…" Farquhar explained.
One second, I’ll redo the pony," I responded.
I can’t have one stray hair or any jewelry on or the scan will be ruined.
"Here’s your scan," said Farquhar, showing me the result. "So we have a 3D image of you, and these lines on here are the points of measurement that we’ve defined. So there’s your waist measurement, your hip, your thigh."
To get a better sense of clothing I’d actually wear, Linda asks me if there’s a celebrity or fashion designer I like. I tell her I love an Australian designer named Yasmin Sewell. Linda pulls up some pictures of her on an iPad.
Yasmin is wearing well cut clothes, sometimes oversized, often with bold colors. Sometimes her outfits mix the slightly boyish with the ultra-femme.
"So in this sense, looking at her, she’s conveying a very powerful image," said Farquhar. "If you see her in a crowd, she stands out."
It’s not long before we get back into fashion therapy.
"What is it that you connect with the most?" Farquhar asked.
"I think she sort of balances like the androgynous and the feminine in a way that really flatters her and just looks," I responded. "I think an issue that I have is I don’t want to scare you, but I don’t want you to write me off just because I’m a woman. And I feel like her clothes are very fierce in a way."
"I totally see what you mean," said Farquhar.
Looking back on it, I get the sense that Linda hears a lot of confessions like these. Her store is warm and she takes the time. Linda is asking women to open up about something they don’t get to open up about a lot: not just their bodies and taste, but what it’s like for them to navigate the work world, which, let’s be honest, has never been an equal playing field.
So here I have a couple of swatch books. This is lycra wool and linen blend," Farquhar said.
"This is nice," I said.
It’s time to pick out the fabric I’d choose for my custom made pair of pants. Linda suggest an all-season wool, which actually breathes...even in 90 degree weather.
"This is beautiful!" I said.
Having expensive taste, I, of course, choose the couture fit instead on the “business” one.
When all’s said and done, the high quality wool, the expert measurements, and the custom construction would cost me just shy of $500, which I simply can’t shell out at the moment.
But that’s sort of not the point. Because I leave the store feeling seen, and Linda’s gently given me a sense of how the world sees me.