photo credit Chester Colston
By Jessica Jones
The Galleria Mall in Hoover has a new addition. It’s taken two years to acquire a store front, but Cloochie, a clothing line named after owner Pamela Collins’ mother, now has a home in a cozy boutique on the first level of the mall, next to Belk. The boutique opened for business Oct.2. Collins describes her designs as “clean lines with an edgy style.”
“Cloochie is one of my lifelong dreams to design and be in a mall setting,” Collins said.
Before the move into the new location, Collins sold her clothing through word of mouth and on her website. Her clothing has also been in four different boutiques in Birmingham, Tuscaloosa and Atlanta.
Collins’ mother, Zubia Lee Saltmarch, also known as Cloochie, designed and sewed clothes until her death in 1993. Collins describes her mother as someone who was an active member in the church and loved to help others. She was such an inspiration that Collins includes her mother’s legacy in her business.
The store offers clothes in sizes 2 to 20 without compromising the integrity of the design, an important attribute for her store because of the lack of options for larger women.
“We carry that style all the way from the petite all the way to plus size,” Collins said. “So what a size six can wear, we’ll have it in a size 20. It’s important because a lot of plus size women, they don’t want to look different. They want to look the same as a smaller framed woman; they want to be just as sexy.”
Collins also values the versatility of her pieces.
“At Cloochie our clothes transition from day into night. We have a lot of unexpected touches to our clothes that give them that extra punch that you just don’t find everywhere.”
The clothes are designed by Collins. She then uses different manufacturers to produce the clothing. First the clothes are sampled to friends and family, people who can give honest feedback on the garments. Once she sees the product is a hit, she puts the product into production.
Knowing what sells and what won’t is an integral part of the business and possibly the most important, which begs the question: how do designers stay ahead of the trends.
For Collins trend following isn’t a problem; she simply disregards them, preferring to do her own trendsetting.
“I go with my gut,” she said. “When I love it and I let my friends see it…I just roll with it when it’s just popular with the ladies and they have good feedback.”
Collins considers accessories to an outfit just as important as the clothing. She’s hired an in- house designer to create new concepts for her jewelry. The designs are made with the intention of complementing the clothing, allowing customers to effortlessly change up their style.
“You don’t have to struggle to make an outfit work,” Collins said. With the right accessories, Collins says that it’s possible to “bring the look together so it can pop.”
In this year’s autumn collection, Collins said, the colors will be classically neutral with black, grey and taupe as base colors, but will also feature a touch of color with berry, and gold.
Although it’s early in the autumn season, Collins said she and her team have already begun preparing the spring collection which will include bright blue and pink hues for the season.
