Vie Adds a Boutique

"Lifestyle clothes" on Ashley

by Sally Mitani

posted 9/22/2012

Tucked between Sweetwaters and Three Chairs and across from Downtown Home and Garden, Vie Fitness & Spa sees a lot of foot traffic, and owner Heather Dupuis likes to give passersby a reason to look in her large picture windows. The juice bar used to be the main attraction with a small rack of lululemon workout clothes as a sideshow.

The juice bar is still there, but the room now looks distinctly like a boutique. Dupuis took out the cafe tables and filled the space with racks and shelves of what she calls "lifestyle clothes," meaning they could follow a typical customer who works out at Vie into several other likely scenarios in her day. A pair of clingy capri-length britches? "You could hike in them, you could go to a cocktail party in them. And these little wraps," she pulls out a dainty white sweater that ties at the waist, "you could wear to yoga," or to a cocktail party. "Or we have these beachy dresses where you could get away with looking like you didn't try, but maybe you did."

Vie Pilates instructor Leslie Sapp is the store's main buyer: "She's kind of a research nerd," Dupuis says. "She gets obsessed with bringing in products that haven't hit other stores already." Vie Boutique may also be the only place in town you can go clothes shopping at 6 a.m.: "The store's open whenever we're open."

Vie Boutique, 209 S. Ashley, 665-2156. Mon.-Thurs. 6 a.m.-8 p.m., Fri. 6 a.m.-7 p.m., Sat. & Sun. 8 a.m.-4 p.m.   

[Originally published in September, 2012.]