Jessica Cote never envisioned her life would bring her where she is today.
In 12 short months, Obviously Chic owner, Jessica Cote, grew her vision of opening a pop-up fashion boutique in Estevan for two months last Christmas, to keeping it open indefinitely, expanding to Regina and Saskatoon, and launching a dot.com.
Out of fashion school and armed with an impressive education, Cote had her dream job in Vancouver when she decided to open up the pop-up store in Estevan, near her hometown of Lampman.
Her goal was to bring unique, handpicked clothing at an affordable price to people back home where she grew up. She planned to open her store, Obviously Chic, for two months - November and December of 2009 - and then go back to Vancouver to continue with her life there.
But life, as it does from time to time, had something different in mind for this fashionista.
"It was just so busy, so fast, and so overwhelming that I couldn't shut this down," said Cote, as she explained how she decided to keep her store permanently in Estevan. "Everyone was saying, 'Please don't leave.'"
Knowing she couldn't abandon the many women, who not only became her customers but her friends, she made the decision to stay open.
"It's just been flying by the seat of my pants this whole year, and I think that is how it's going to be for the next five years as I grow," said Cote. "My five year goal is to have the dot.com, have a warehouse [to house clothing and accessories for the dot.com] here, and have Estevan renovated. I'm going to open Regina and Saskatoon, and then have a head office in Vancouver, where all my marketing, buying and photos come through because the online store is going to need that. And then I can probably be home more than I will be here."
"Eventually it will get to a point where I can have my head people here running things and I can focus on my marketing and buying, which is consuming," said Cote.
"So no, I never dreamt this up at all, but now it's moving at such a rapid pace."
Cote had thought of opening a pop-up store in Regina this fall for Christmas, but as things became busier and busier, she decided to keep her focus on Estevan and the dot.com launch before expanding elsewhere, though it is the plan for the future.
"[For] Saskatoon, I'm getting really pressured too by my [Facebook] fans," said Cote. "My [Facebook] fan page is a living breathing human being. It's ridiculous. Basically my fan page turned into my online store."
Her fan page grew in a way she never imagined. She self-promoted through the social networking site for weeks leading up to the launch and then continued to encourage people to become a fan of her store so they could see Obviously Chic's clothing and accessories before anyone else. She even offered to put things on hold.
"That's how I started with 500 fans, it wasn't a big deal," said Cote. "But then it just started growing and growing and growing."
This growth effectively turned Obviously Chic's Facebook fan page into an impromptu stand-in for an online store until she could launch her official dot.com.
"This summer was so ridiculous," Cote said. "I would get an item in and it wouldn't even hit the floor because it was selling out on Facebook."
Cote sends out an average of 200 packages a month to people across the country - all thanks to orders placed through Facebook. But now, due to changes with Facebook, she's requesting people email her instead with their orders so she can keep up with everything a bit easier.
As someone who was born and raised in Â鶹ÊÓƵeast Saskatchewan, she has a unique perspective on the issues women face when shopping for clothes. It's this perspective that has aided in her success on her home turf.
"When I came back here I noticed all the popular stores around here are really brand heavy," said Cote. "Everyone seems to get the Billabong, the Roxy, the Mauvi, or another brand. I am not a brand girl in that aspect, so I realized I was going to bring affordable pricing [and] trendy items. That has been my whole philosophy for the past year - that I handpicked items that are unique and that if you go to an event, you and five other people aren't wearing the same thing. Or I want people to be able to wear my items and when they go somewhere [that people] are like, 'Wow, where did you get that? You look so good.' That is how I want everyone to feel in my stuff when they leave."
"Everyone is craving the city fashion," continued Cote. "Sometimes I'll bring things into the store and think it's not going to sell, but Estevan and area is really doing good. I had [a] girl from Redvers the other day - she was just losing her mind - she bought these big over-the-knee boots."
Once Cote decided to keep the store open, she bought the building where Obviously Chic is located - next to Orpheum Theatre in Estevan - this past January, and renovated the outside, giving it a "city feel."
The new paint job - it's fuchsia and black - is hard to miss.
The basement, which was also completely re-done, is going to be the home of ObviouslyChic.com.
"We're building a photo studio down there and everything," said Cote. "I'm launching ObviouslyChic.com - it's an actual separate store. Right now there is no competition in Canada, so it's going to be Canada's top [fashion] website. The basement is the home until it's too big to handle, and then we're just going to build a warehouse."
She had hoped to have the dot.com up and running by now, but it's a huge undertaking, and she wants to ensure everything is running smoothly before she launches the site.
"We're having launch parties in Calgary and Vancouver, and we're going to have one here [in Estevan] as well," said Cote.
This spring when road bans go on, Cote will be closing the store down for two weeks to completely gut and re-build her shopping area.
When she's ready to unveil the newly-designed store, she's hoping to utilize the movie theatre next door - which coincidently is owned by her aunt and uncle - to hold a highly-produced fashion show from Vancouver.
In addition to handpicking all the clothing for her store - via travelling all over the world - handling the PR and marketing aspects of an undertaking of this size, and running a store all at the same time, Cote also takes the time to interact with customers by suggesting outfits that will make them feel confident and beautiful.
"One of my favourite types of women that I get are the ones that are curvy, or not really, really thin, and are really self-conscious so they've been wearing big sweaters and stuff," said Cote.
She loves having the opportunity to dress this type of women because of the way their confidence radiates after discovering they can wear a pair of skinny jeans or another outfit they never felt confident enough to even try on before.
"I had one [curvier] woman who came in and by the time she left, I had in her skinny jeans and a beautiful shirt and a bomber jacket," said Cote. "She wore it to my [anniversary] party and I told her 10 times how fantastic she looked. She said, 'I have never felt this good in my life until I came through your door.' I get a lot of people like that."
This woman was one of about 75 people came out to help Cote celebrate Obviously Chic's one year anniversary Nov. 1 in true red carpet style. When guests walked in to attend the special event, they walked down a red carpet and could then pose in front of a large Obviously Chic banner, which was made especially to add to the whole experience.
"It was total red carpet, like when you go to a movie premier and you stand in front and the logo is behind," Cote explained. "Everyone was taking their picture in front of that."
Most women who came out to the event were wearing their favourite pieces of clothing from Obviously Chic, which left Cote tickled pink.
"A lot of people were head-to-toe Obviously Chic, which was really exciting," Cote said. "Or [they wore] a piece here and there. It was a lot of fun. I have a whole huge following in Oxbow actually, so they all came out."
"I had food and drinks, and then we had the fashion show," Cote explained. "Seven or eight pieces sold just from the fashion show. That let me know that people don't really know how to put things together fully. It was really interesting to see. I had sequins leggings with this yellow tunic I got in Asia, with a belt, and right away that whole outfit sold."
In order to help women understand how to put together different outfits, Cote will spend time with her customers, encouraging them to simply try something on. She's not worried about whether they'll buy it or not, she's just focused on having them at least try the outfit on, because often if the women felt they couldn't wear a certain piece of clothing because it would look bad, once they see it on, their mind is instantly changed.
"For a lot of people, it's out of their element," Cote explained. "They aren't used to wearing boots or skinny [jeans] or those kinds of things. I just want them to try it on and see how they feel. Most of the time, they say, 'Wow, I didn't know how to do this.' It's a lot of fun to be pushing these people out of their element and then all of a sudden they feel amazing."
