Wellesley alum founds nation-wide Boutique Week

Olga Vidisheva '07 wants to change the way we shop. A part-time model, she left Wellesley with a degree in economics and a job at Goldman Sachs. Soon, however, she realized that investment banking was not her perfect career. Instead, she applied to Harvard Business School, and it was there that she discovered a way to combine her interests in fashion and commerce in a nation-wide project that seeks to revitalize the local retail industry: Boutique Week.

The concept of Boutique Week is based upon models like Restaurant Week and Spa Week. Stores in Boston, New York and Los Angeles pay a fee to be included in a city-wide celebration of shopping and fashion. The boutiques must offer at least 25 percent off on a minimum of half their stock. In return, Boutique Week generates the hype. The event is partnered with the cities of Boston and Los Angeles, as well as fashion-related companies and publications. It is a mutually rewarding process—small boutiques with limited advertising revenue get new customers, while their patrons receive exposure to new local fashion.

However, it isn't all business—Boutique Week is a business with a cause. The venture donates some of its proceeds to the charity Dress for Success, which provides clothes and counseling for underprivileged women entering the job market. Vidisheva worked with them while she was vice-president of A La Mode, the fashion club at Wellesley. Boutique Week will make what their website calls a "significant financial contribution" to Dress for Success with each of the participating stores having to donate $25.

Dress for Success is based on the concept that looking good is integral to self-worth and self-expression, one that Vidisheva understands. She was born in Kyrgyzstan and moved to Russia when she was young. "In Russia everything is the same, there was no individuality," she remembers. "Think about it—all those uniforms? The reason they are implemented is so people look the same. Look back at every dictatorship, it's all the same."

Vidisheva left Russia when she was seventeen, following her mother to the United States. After spending a year at Mt. Ida College, she transferred to Wellesley. "My best friend drove me there to visit. I know it sounds corny, but the moment I stepped on campus, I felt at home." When she found out she got in, she was working at a fitness club. "I literally screamed," she said. "All my co-workers saw me."

At Wellesley, Vidisheva majored in economics and completed a thesis on real estate in the Boston area. Her thesis advisor was Karl "Chip" Case who, with Yale University's Robert Shiller, predicted the housing bubble burst. Their real-estate index is one of the most influential in the industry. "Chip still uses some of my work," said Vidisheva. Along with her degree, she credits her Wellesley education for ingraining "ideas of helping other people succeed in life...how things will affect local economies." She knew that were she to enter into business, she would keep these ideals in mind.

While working in New York, Vidisheva began to appreciate the recession's impact on an industry she loved. While its participants include high-end stores, Boutique Week's focus is on stores run by individual entrepreneurs. "These are the businesses that people put their hearts into," she said. Vidisheva wants to work against the paradigm of fashion as a frivolity. Rather, the boutiques represent a segment of local culture—she likens it to protecting endangered species. During a recession, however, it is these stores that go under first, while bigger stores such as H&M, which can afford to decrease their prices, are able to stay afloat.

To be sure, these massive fashion chains offer lower prices on stylish clothes. It may seem counterintuitive to promote spending money during hard economic times. But what Boutique Week is counting on is that people still want to be entertained. At Goldman Sachs, Vidisheva did research into media industries and found that movie ticket sales go up during a recession. "Why don't we look at shopping as entertainment?" she asked.

In the United States, 10 percent of clothes are bought online, and the number is expected to double in the next five years. While the $18.3 billion online-retail industry is good news for business, with its growth comes the loss of the social experience of shopping. "That's what I want to bring back... going to stores, trying on clothes, advising each other, the excitement of the window-shopping experience," Vidisheva said.

While this can be attained in mass- market stores, the charm of boutiques and high-street shopping lies in the fact that these experiences are individualized. It's like choosing a family-run bakery over Roche Brothers—the experience is simply more personal and the products are often of better quality. Shopping, like eating, is about non-material satisfaction. "Nothing can replace the feeling you get when you try on that perfect outfit," states the Boutique Week website.

Vidisheva's long-term goals are also economically pragmatic. While sales are predicted to go up fifty to fifty-five percent, the event isn't really about profits made during the week, but retention rates. Boutique Week targets out-of-the- way stores, some of which don't even have websites. This forces people to go outside. "If you like their clothes, you will go again. But if you don't know where the store is, you will just go to H&M or look it up online," explains Vidisheva. If similar programs are any indication, these boutiques are looking at around a 30 percent retention rate.

Boutique Week is counting on this success, and for Vidisheva the stakes are high. Her co-partner is Polina Raygorodskaya, Babson graduate and founder of Polina Fashion LLC. The two have been close friends for over five years, and Boutique Week is their personal project—most of their funding is out-of- pocket. With little over a week before Boutique Week launches, Vidisheva has begun making final arrangements, flying back and forth from LA, New York and Boston. Like many of the stores she represents, the costs of her project are not purely financial. "I don't sleep," she said. "I haven't seen my boyfriend in a long time." She and Raygorodskaya are working hard to maintain their friendship. "We use BBM [Blackberry Messenger] for the personal, and email for business. It works... most of the time," Vidisheva said.