Briefly Beautiful” Boutique Looking to Make Permanent Mark in U-City
At 8149 Delmar Blvd in University City, MO, a new boutique opens featuring vintage clothing, jewelry, soaps and body products and candles, fragrances, cosmetics, sarcastic cards, collectables and an array of other merchandise from discontinued companies and hard to find items.
The store which proprietor Susie Curtis describes as a “whimsical boutique and wonderland tapestry of vintage charm and modern allure” will open in May of 2024.
The store is colorful without being gaudy, and playfully bohemian but tasteful. You can definitely sense an artist’s and writer’s touch. Susie Curtis, who graduated Eureka College in English in 2002 (and is certified to teach high school English in Missouri with graduate work at UMSL and Arkansas State), is a former teacher who has also made her mark as a visual artist. Susie won several Central West End Storefront Awards as a retailer in 2012-2015 and her vision is one of blending retail acumen with a poet’s and artist’s sensibility.
When Susie moved to Saint Louis in 2003, she started as a teacher but found the bureaucratic structures stifling as she was more interested in inspiring students with art and beauty than being bogged down with turgid lesson plans and stultifying committee meetings. After splitting time between teaching jobs and retail moonlighting, this year she decided to forgo the school environment completely and make her mark on University City.
The store is splashy and feminine. She designed her store with “an appreciation of and for innovation, elegance and a touch of rebellion.”
“If you seek a touch of retro nostalgia or a glimpse into the trends of today, our boutique offers a kaleidoscope of memories, sights, scents and sartorial eye candy; come see how ‘briefly beautiful’ a day in our store is,” Susie glowed.
Susie is a blonde, feminine, youthful appearing 42-year-old but well-travelled entrepreneur. Having travelled to 18 countries and 35 states, she seeks to blend her joyous demeanor with an aesthete’s refinement. This blend of simplicity and sophistication she seeks to express through her store. “Briefly Beautiful” is an expression of the Shakespearean notion of fleeting dreams.
Shakespeare famously said, “Our revels are now ended. These our actors as I foretold you, were all spirits and are molded into air, into thin air. And like the baseless fabric of this vision, the cloud-capped towers, the gorgeous palaces, the solemn temples, the great globe itself. Yea all which is shall inherit, shall dissolve. And, like this insubstantial pageant faded, leave not a rack behind.”
It is in this spirit of Shakespearean transience where Susie’s love of art and literature and her retail vision meet. She wants her store to be -in her words- “a living embodiment of authenticity, creativity, and strength embracing new memories and finding beauty in the old ones.” Whether it be a scented candle, a vintage dress, a necklace, cosmetics, irreverent cards or a unique fragrance, Susie hooes the store offers a personal touch missing from stale shopping malls and and often bland franchise experiences and meaningless online shopping.
Susie finds inspiration from icons such as Patricia Field, Iris Apfel, Lilly Pulitzer and even Ruth Bader Ginsberg. She loves to blend eras, brands, textures, and colors in wardrobes. She has a penchant for vintage designs especially 1960s colors and fabrics but not limited to it. Jokingly a self professed stereotyped New Yorker, she loves the minimalism of all black ensembles, but accentuated with colorful jewelry and metallic accessories.
Her website says, “Come step into our lightbulb door, and into a world of nostalgia and celebration,” Susie exclaims, “ Let us help you find that perfect outfit, that signature scent, or that special something that will transport you back to a moment that was briefly beautiful, if only in your secrets. Embrace the magic of memories, and let us illuminate your life with the light of fleeting beauty.”