Today we’d like to introduce you to Michael Blossom.
Michael, let’s start with your story. We’d love to hear how you got started and how the journey has been so far.
I’ve had two main careers in my life: fashion and I.T. My first career was fashion, both retail and wholesale, and I loved every minute of it. I had the idea to open a store early on, but didn’t know how and didn’t have much money, so I ended up on a different path, as a database designer. That eventually led to me working at the Art Institute museum for several years, on the database for their art collection. Then one day, on my lunch break from AIC, I noticed a vacant storefront in the Monadnock Building and the desire to open a store was reignited — the space was perfect for a boutique, with lots of windows, just enough foot traffic, and a beautiful location in one of my favorite places, the Monadnock Building. To top it off, I knew that my grandmother had worked in the Monadnock Building back around 1917, so that made me take a closer look at the space and really study the idea.
Florodora opened in 2007, and it’s been quite a ride! Between then and now, we’ve had a severe recession, a major shift toward online shopping and social media, and multiple big shifts in fashion. But we’ve fortunately built up a loyal clientele who have helped us surf those waves. And in 2010, during the downturn, a smaller spot on the corner of Van Buren and Dearborn was sitting empty for a while, so we expanded and opened Florodora Shoes. So we now have two stores on the same block, Florodora, which sells women’s contemporary fashion, gifts and accessories, and Florodora Shoes, which offers unique, high quality women’s shoes, bags and accessories.
People often ask how the name Florodora was chosen. The quick answer is that we’re named after the Florodora girls, who performed on Broadway in the early 1900s and were famous for being stylish and also for getting into a lot of trouble. The longer answer is this: My grandma, who worked upstairs in 1917, was named Florence. When I was trying to think of a name for the store, I told my mom that I’d like to name it after grandma, but “Florence” didn’t seem to get the right reaction from people. She told me that Gram also was nicknamed Flora, from the Florodora girls. I had never heard of them, but after a quick bit of research, I knew it was perfect. One other tidbit: while opening the shoe store, I discovered that very space had been a shoe store called Hassel’s back when Gram was working upstairs. So perhaps her spirit has been guiding this whole adventure….
Has it been a smooth road?
No, it hasn’t been a smooth road, but I’m not sure it ever is for a fashion business. Change is a constant; in fact, the word “fashion” itself implies change.
The struggles along the way have included the economic downturn, which we first noticed in November 2008 and which continued for a long time. I had been planning to open a second Florodora in a different neighborhood, but because of the economy, I chose to expand within the building instead, opening Florodora Shoes in 2010. I knew there would be a big learning curve going from one store to two, and there has been. Keeping both stores fully staffed is a challenge of its own; part-timers have a way of coming and going. Fortunately, we have a good relationship with the fashion program at Columbia College, so many of our employees have been students there, who are (mostly) pretty great.
One challenge in fashion is adapting to new trends. As a buyer, one of my jobs is to interpret those trends for our aesthetic and our audience. There’s a constant tension in a fashion store between buying what has worked well in the past, what you know will sell, what people are asking for, versus being open to new ideas and directions, and even things people may actively tell you they dislike. Buyers have to develop a certain wisdom to know that things that are unpopular today may be popular tomorrow, and vice versa, and we can never get it 100% right. This is why fashion retail starts with much higher margins than, say, groceries or hardware. We are in the business of trying new things, presenting new ideas, and taking chances, and inevitably we’ll make some wrong choices and sell some of our merchandise for less than we paid for it. It’s part of the business, and its part of what makes it exciting.
Finally, another long-term struggle is adapting to the new ways that people shop. You would think with my I.T. background that we’d have a good website, but we have one of the worst! We do not sell online, and that was my choice early on — to focus on the physical store. For a while, it seemed like the right choice, because all the boutiques that opened when we did and invested in their online stores are gone now, and we’re still around. On the other hand, these days people expect to see inventory online even just to plan their shopping visit, so things have really changed in that regard. The next big challenge for us is to finally have a good online presence. So stay tuned.
We’d love to hear more about your business.
We have a rather unique location for our type of boutiques. People often say we seem out of place, and they’re surprised we’re not in Bucktown. When we get visitors from New York City, they often say we seem like we could be in NY, which I take as a compliment. But I love the Loop, and especially our old part of the Loop, with all the landmark buildings around.
Given our location in what’s primarily a business district, we do have a unique selection compared to the other boutiques in town. While our apparel ranges from casual (t-shirts and jeans) to dressy (but not formal), the heart of our business is the ground in between — like a top you can wear with a pencil skirt to the office, but which also looks great on the weekend. Or a dress you can wear all day but keep on when you go out to dinner. And our shoe store features brands like Coclico and Chie Mihara, which look as great with dresses as they do with jeans or cropped pants.
Our focus is on smaller designers, with high quality merchandise that you can’t easily find in the big stores. (A lot of our stuff can’t even be found online!) We always have at least a few local designers featured — I love to support local artists when they fit our aesthetic. We also have a high percentage of items that are made in USA, with much of the balance from Spain and Italy. Our merchandise is generally not of the mass-produced, made-in-China variety that fills the big stores these days — we are a true alternative.
Aesthetically, we cater to the woman who has her own style and searches for great pieces that can’t be found elsewhere. We want you to look great in what you wear, because favorite source of new customers comes from the “where did you get that?” question. We want what you buy at Florodora to be the favorite things in your closet!
Is our city a good place to do what you do?
Chicago is fertile ground for fashion right now. There are people with money to spend here, and Chicagoans pride themselves on being cutting edge when it comes to other fields like food and architecture. While Chicago is not known as a fashion city, I find that there are plenty of Chicagoans who are open to interesting and original fashion ideas. I also consider it a plus that Chicagoans don’t blindly follow the trends; instead, they consider them carefully and pick and choose. This tells me that Chicago also has the potential to set the trends.
However, the fashion industry in Chicago seems to be stuck in a holding pattern it can’t get out of. One negative here is that our garment district, which used to be around where the Willis Tower is now, has been gone for decades. It’s hard for a fashion scene with exciting new designers to take root in a place that does not have a garment district. Also most of the apparel manufacturers remaining in Chicago are better skilled at making uniforms than they are designer womenswear.
In terms of fashion retail, I think Chicago is a good place to open a store, however I also think it’s gotten harder to find good storefronts that are appropriate for a small business. The booming real estate market in Chicago means some of the old blocks with small storefronts have been replaced with new high-rises that have giant parking garages. These not only remove spaces from the market that were suitable for small businesses, they can also kill the foot traffic on some streets, even for surrounding blocks.
So if I was appointed fashion czar for Chicago, I would find a way to get a true, centralized garment district designated and off the ground. I would also work with the Department of Planning and Development to make sure new developments create more and better small storefront spaces and contribute to walkable streetscapes rather than car-oriented developments, which just lead to bigger box stores.
Pricing:
- Our dresses range from $80 to $400.
- Our shoes and boots range from $100 to $500.
Contact Info:
- Address: Florodora: 330 S Dearborn St
Florodora Shoes: 348 S Dearborn St
Chicago, IL 60604 - Website: www.florodora.com
- Phone: (312) 212-8860
- Instagram: instagram.com/FlorodoraStores
- Facebook: facebook.com/Florodora
- Yelp: yelp.com/biz/florodora-chicago
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