Linda Falkenstein
Mes Amies seems to have filled a niche for pretty dresses.
Shawn Harper
Owner Casey Plasch reports that the shop has already sold over 200 dresses since opening.
Casey Plasch began filling her new boutique, Mes Amies, with dresses a couple weeks before the store’s opening. Soon potential customers were peeking in the window, asking if they could please buy a dress.
Plasch simply couldn’t turn away a woman who was having difficulty finding a special outfit to celebrate her 40th birthday.
“I let her come in and she did take something, and I told her we’d figure the price out later,” says Plasch. “She ended up getting a dress, was so excited, and it made her day.”
Mes Amies (“my girlfriends” in French), a 1,400-square-foot boutique that officially opened its doors June 12, is one of a handful of new stores on the newly redeveloped open-air east-west plaza at Hilldale. It specializes in dresses inspired by vintage styles from the 1920s through the 1950s
Plasch, 32, operated Mes Amies for three years in Chicago’s Lincoln Park neighborhood but began considering relocation. “In Chicago, it’s really hard to effectively run a small business,” says Plasch. “There’s not too much support from the neighborhoods and community.”
Linda Falkenstein
Mes Amies sells new dresses that borrow from the styles of the 1920s through the 1950s.
She considered sites as far afield as Tennessee and Texas. But Hilldale’s expansion and the excitement of being associated with a corps of new tenants were persuasive reasons that drew her to Madison, as well as the fact that her mother moved to the area 13 years ago.
“People are more laid-back, in general, and friendlier,” Plasch says of Madisonians. “They do have an appreciation for small business.” They also appreciate small, independent designers, she says.
Plasch often wears pieces she stocks at Mes Amies, including dresses from Squasht Boutique, a collection by Lesley Timpe, who designs and handcrafts all her apparel in Chicago. She also tries to stock designers who have an eco-friendly focus. Stop Staring, Maggy London and Blue Platypus are some of the other dress lines at Mes Amies; the shop also carries tops, skirts, jewelry and scarves.
Plasch says her customers range from teenagers to seniors. “That’s my favorite part of it — that it’s not a single type of customer. We have professionals of all kinds, from corporate to teachers.”
Designs often feature the drop-waist styles of the 1920s, pin-up and structured dresses of the 1940s and circle skirts of the 1950s.
Plasch says much of her inspiration comes from the 1950s. “That’s when women were going to dress stores, and you would come home with a dress box,” she says. “It was a big deal to shop.”
Mes Amies: 719 Hilldale Way, 608-906-2244, mesamiesboutique.com, 10 am-9 pm Mon.-Sat., 11 am-6 pm Sun.
