Nouveau offers affordable fashion

Jeremy Schwab

Tucked inside a compact store at one end of the Copley Mall just across the street from the Back Bay Station, Nouveau Fashion Gallery offers a contrast to the emporium’s many brand-name stores such as Gucci and Ann Taylor.

The three sisters who have owned Nouveau for the past 24 years offer women’s clothing for special occasions by a range of designers, most of them little known, as well as designer knock-offs. They keep their customers coming back by personalizing customers’ outfits, matching tops and bottoms and consulting them about their existing wardrobes so that what they buy complements what they already have.

Affordable prices and receptiveness to customers who want conversation, advice or sympathy does not hurt their bottom line either.

“There is a myth that because our clothes look good that we are very expensive,” said Wanda Bakon, who owns the store along with sisters Ophelia and Evelyn. “But the clothes here are very affordable.”

The Bakon sisters have had a passion for clothes since they were children growing up in Covington, Georgia and then in Fort Hill. They delight in traveling to New York or even Los Angeles to purchase pieces from wholesale markets. They find the rest of their inventory over the Internet.

The simplicity and freedom of this arrangement has kept their costs down over the years, while allowing them to explore their passion and giving their enterprise a sense of adventure. After all, running a business for decades can become tiresome, and they almost closed down a few times.

“The economy gets bad and people stop shopping and we say ‘why are we doing this?’” said Evelyn. “You have to really dig deep and hang in there. Change your strategy, go after different types of inventory.”

Nouveau offers light, flowing outfits in summer and sweaters and suits in colder seasons. Evelyn describes their look as “urban chic.”

“It’s never the business office look,” chimes in Ophelia, who runs the store during the daytime while her sisters work their day jobs.

Evelyn, who processes documents for a law firm, and Wanda, who has been a computer programmer for 36 years, help out at the store in the evenings.

This arrangement has also allowed them to keep costs down by never hiring any employees but themselves.

Rents, meanwhile, have not increased dramatically since the Bakon sisters moved into their present location from Boylston Street in 1985.

They have retained many customers and expanded their diverse customer base. Initially, most of the Bakons’ customers were black. Now, they cater to blacks, Latinas, Asians, whites and Middle Easterners.

“Before 9/11, [Middle Easterners] would come in with limos outside,” said Wanda. “They were our biggest customers.”

The Bakons are one of a handful of black-owned businesses in the Copley Mall.

“We are a bridge to the community,” said Wanda. “Sometimes people come in and tell you all their business. They stay an hour, cry. Cry and buy. Then you don’t see them again.”

This spring, they plan to celebrate their 25th anniversary.

The sisters were recently recognized for their success and originality when glamour shots of Evelyn and Ophelia appeared prominently in Essence Magazine’s “Wisdom of the Ages” coffee-table book last year. The book was subtitled “Extraordinary People 19 to 90.”

The Banner first wrote about the Bakon sisters in 1979, when they were running a part-time business out of Evelyn’s Hyde Park house while working their day jobs as secretaries.

The trio would purchase clothes for people, then sell them at a profit, delving through the offerings at Filene’s Basement and elsewhere. Some of their preferred brands were Versacci and Armani, designers who were not yet famous.

The sisters say they have always been on the cutting edge, seeking lesser-known designers whose outfits are still affordable. They say they sold the French Connection and Mac Cosmetics before those brands became popular.

They decided to start their own business because they say they always had a keen fashion sense.

“People would see us in the streets and say ‘where did you get your outfit?’” said Wanda. “We were always being admired for our clothes.”

They financed the business themselves, because they were unable to get a loan.

“They didn’t give minorities loans then,” said Evelyn. “They didn’t give loans for something small like a boutique.”

Their biggest costs have always been the purchases they make to stock their inventory. Then, there are the rent, utilities and other miscellaneous costs.

They had to experiment to figure out how to purchase clothes of a high enough quality but at a low enough price to make the greatest profit.

Running the business successfully gave the sisters greater confidence in themselves, they said.

“There is so much more inside of you than sometimes you know is there,” said Ophelia.

Despite the personal growth she says she and her sisters have experienced, Ophelia cautioned that those interested in starting a women’s clothing store should think carefully before jumping in.

“Think twice before you do it, because it is not as glamorous as it appears,” she said. “It is a lot of hard work. You are dealing with personalities, and you’re dealing with women. As soon as they come in the door, you have to understand what mood they are in, whether they are here to talk or buy.”

Still, the Bakon sisters appear happy with their success. Ophelia and Wanda, who both attended the now-defunct Jamaica Plain High School, still live in Roxbury (Ophelia is also a graduate of BU Metro College). Evelyn, who attended Graham Junior College in Kenmore Square, which is also defunct, still lives in Hyde Park.

“We are family, and there are times when I disagreed with these girls,” said Ophelia. “But after all, we still love each other. We learned not to take it personally. It’s just about business. We have grown up in this business.”