Mignonette Bridal a Haven for Local Crafters, Handmade Weddings

Mignonette, a Lake View bridal boutique entering its third year in business, has evolved into more than an independent business but a gathering place and showcase for crafty locals.  

Behind the business is owner Kpoene' Kofi-Bruce, a Brooklyn transplant by way of San Francisco, who runs the store with her wife, Anne Kofi-Nicklin. The two met in Brooklyn, where Kofi-Bruce moved the day after college in 2002 to launch her design label. It wasn’t all wedding dresses at first, but it evolved into that when she began to miss the personal interaction she enjoys so much.

“I had some clients who were with me long enough to the point that they were getting married, and they asked me to design them a wedding dress,” Kofi-Bruce said. “And I loved it. It’s so great to see it through the whole process and when it’s done and you walk down the aisle in it.”

But her experience as a craft artist and buyer has given the store a unique set of locally made items that can go well in a wedding or just as an anytime gift.

Earlier, Kofi-Bruce started the Ladies Independent Design League, a collective of artists, crafters, photographers and others to share ideas, business tips and creativity. And in San Francisco, where she and Kofi-Nicklin married, she worked as the buyer and store manager at the Museum of Craft and Folk Art, picking up a greater knack for working with small businesses and getting them into stores.

“I’ve always been very passionate about handmade and supporting other artists,” she said. “I’m fearless about marketing my stuff, but most people have a problem with it. It can be frustrating going from craft shows and then trying to get into stores. I decided that as long as I had this platform, I would share it.”

She and Kofi-Nicklin moved to Chicago, where Anne grew up in the suburbs, just in time for the 2011 blizzard that hit the area. Kofi-Bruce said, “I didn’t know snow could happen like that,” and spent the winter reading Harry Potter by the fireplace. When spring came, she knew she wanted to open a storefront in the city.

“Chicago has so many amazing handmade artists,” she said. “It’s just a really great place to be a small artist. You get all of that culture and energy without all the costs of other tier-one cities like New York and San Francisco.”

At first, her plan was for the store to be entirely bridal-themed, to go along with the dresses she designed. Over time, though, she’s picked up countless local artisans (including some she knows from San Francisco and some fair trade artisans) and is featuring their products, including jewelry, screen prints, soap perfume and more. It’s become a gift store and a bridal shop in one, brimming with handmade and local goods. 

And they want to create and connect with more crafty people. Every month (switching to the second Friday of each month in January) Mignonette hosts a Craft Bar, something Kofi-Bruce was a part of in San Francisco. It’s a class that covers a variety of crafting topics, such as soap making, stitching gift cards and more. Just $5 covers all of the materials for the item, which crafters get to take home. The Whole Foods at Ashland and School donates snacks, and local brewer Metropolitan donates beer (craft beer!).

The events foster the atmosphere that it isn’t just a boutique, but a meeting place. The store shuts down for couples who want to browse privately. Coffee and tea are available. Kofi-Bruce and her wife even threw together a wedding in five days for friends who moved to the city on short notice. They got an officiant, a buffet and had the upstairs neighbors applaud from the windows.

Kofi-Nicklin is trained as an architect, and her talents are seen throughout the store as well. She heads the Building Materials Reuse Association and is on the faculty at Illinois Central College, so the store is beautiful, decorated with recycled items—an old church pew is a shelf, a bay window frames the dressing room, old doors make up a stage—exposed brick and a fireplace that attracts brides-to-be to the dressing room. In previous lives, the store was an antiques shop and also a biker bar. “Sounds like me,” Kofi-Bruce said when she heard of the store’s history.

“We both came from a place where we’ve always made,” Kofi-Nicklin said. “We’ve really made reused items a constant in our store. And it’s the same thing we do with some wedding dresses–a lot of people bring mom’s or grandma’s dress and we remake and modernize it.”

The pride in handmade items and craftiness is evident throughout Mignonette, and Kofi-Bruce said she loves the ongoing connections made with other local businesses and artists.

“In order to help our small business we need to support other small businesses,” Kofi-Nicklin said.

Mignonette Bridal is located at 1747 W. Belmont Ave. in Chicago. You can learn more on the Mignonette website, and also check out its pages on Facebook, Instagram, Pinterest and Twitter.