Our Story

In 1996, my mother Alice opened a little shop in downtown Charleston with more hope than certainty. She sewed most of what hung on the rails herself, and for a long while she was the only one in the room.

Life changed us in a way I still do not know how to write neatly. But my mother kept going. She opened the door in the morning, made the dresses, wrapped the orders, and remembered the names. Not only the names, but who was going to a wedding, who had just lost someone, and who needed something with pockets.

I grew up in the back of that shop, and I came back to it as a grown woman. We have worked side by side ever since. She still has the better eye, and I am still learning not to argue with her about it.

What we look for hasn't changed in thirty years. Not what's new or loud or cheapest, but the pieces a woman actually reaches for. The blouse that feels soft the moment you put it on. The dress that skims instead of clinging. The things you get dressed in at eight in the morning and never think about again until you take them off. Every piece has to answer the same quiet question before it earns a place here: would we choose this for someone we love?

These days our dresses travel a good deal further than King Street. Women we will never meet open a box at home in Oregon or Vermont, and it still surprises us both.

So there are a few things we want you to know. You can always reach a real person here, and we answer quickly. If something isn't right, you have thirty days to change your mind, and exchanges are simple: you only pay the shipping, and we take care of the rest. And the price you see is the price you pay.

To still be here, thirty years later, feels like a true miracle. We are forever thankful, and none of it would exist without you.

With love,
— Alice & Nora ♥