First of all, since Amber & Allie Malott have a boutique in Wesley Chapel that was shared here on The New Tampa Patch & they are in fashion, I knew of it. I'd not visited not because I didn't think it was worthy of a visit. What I figured was, these are teenagers, I'm in my 40's whatever they have in their boutique will not be of interest to me or my readers.
When I got an invitation to attend the runway show on Friday evening at The Vault I figured, what the heck. I entered as a VIP guest where they put...of all things, a spider ring on my finger. After getting past being creeped out over the creature on my hand, I stepped to the bar for a signature drink called a Hibiscus Honey Dew. I'm thinking, so far so good.
I then step into the venue & it is gorgeous. If you've never been to The Vault, its located downtown & once upon a time was a bank. It has been converted to a space for various events. The day before Amber & Allie held their event, there was a wedding there. Already, I'm looking around at the runway, the marble floors, the elegant decorations & beautiful artwork that was being auctioned off & I knew these were not your average 17 year old girls.
After being served lobster bisque shooters, spring rolls from Stone Chef & chocolates that were almost too beautiful to eat from Viktoria Richards Chocolates (I said ALMOST too beautiful...this was chocolate so of course I had to eat it) the VIP guests were seated. We were right on the runway so there was no missing any of the details of the designs.
Organic silk that was hand painted on willowy young models. Accent zippers, flowy removable collars, fun & flirty. This 40 something was pleasantly surprised by the elegance, the attention to detail and the thought that they managed to make you want to sign up to have bugs all over you. I thought again, these are definitely not your average 17 year olds.
When the show was over, I went about snapping pictures, checking out the cool fashions & shoes of the attendees and chatting up the guests. I then got the opportunity to speak with Allie, the conversation started because I liked her shoes (you'd think I'd want to talk about her designs but they really spoke for themselves). She shared with me that she was wearing Vivienne Westwood & that she liked her plastic shoes that smell like candy. Told me I should really give them a try because I told her I didn't care for them but this young lady has a killer sense of style for such a young one so I might have to give Vivienne another chance.
Their boutique is called A & A Boutique, its is located at 2653 Bruce B. Downs Blvd. Suite 108, Wesley Chapel, Florida 33544. As I stated at the start of this post, I'd never stopped in but you can bet your bottom dollar I'll be stopping in there now & I highly recommend that you do the same.