Photograph by Kathy De La Torre
A passerby checks out the mannequins at Exclusively Yours in Saratoga. The boutique offers an eclectic collection of clothing and accessories to shoppers weary of the limited selections offered at large department stores.
Fast-food fashion gets the boot at Saratoga boutique
By Rebecca Ray
As the name implies, Exclusively Yours is the place to go if customers don't want mass-produced and mass-marketed cookie-cutter fashions.
At this boutique, located at 14500 Big Basin Way, customers will find an eclectic selection of clothes and accessories. The store's items include pink scarves adorned with yellow flowers, hats with sequins and beads on the brims, a white knit sweater with colorful parrots, jeans sporting painted Renaissance scenes, a gold chain necklace with such dangling charms as a lamp, shutter, window and house, and colorful polyester dresses with beaded tassels.
Even the two blue denim pillows on the love seat by the dressing rooms are different--each pillow is wrapped with two belts.
Store owner Patti Pollack sees the store's difference as a good thing. In fact, Pollack said, a small business needs to have a unique style to survive in this valley.
Unlike most collection-driven department stores that sell several copies of name-brand items, Pollack said she wouldn't buy items to sell unless they were "really, really special," and that she might sell only two to four copies of an item at the most. She said that she buys the items she sells from designers around the world.
To further cater to customers who prize their own personal styles, Pollack combines different designers' outfits when she displays them. She also glues rhinestones to some T-shirts to give them special touches.
Pollack, who was born and raised in the Bay Area, established the store with her sister Sherri in 1985. Pollack had taken a course in fashion merchandising at UCLA, where she had earned a degree in sociology, and gained experience working in the fashion industry on Rodeo Drive in Beverly Hills. She dreamed of running her own boutique since she was a little girl and always had an eye for clothes. She even chooses colors for, and is involved in designing, some of the jewelry she sells.
Pollack is also an artist. She likes to paint in oils, acrylics and pastels, mostly as a hobby, although she has done commissions.
Pollack bought her sister's share of the store about a decade ago and is now its sole owner, which she described as being "just another creative outlet for me."
"I love the interaction with other people," Pollack said. "I love the creativity I'm able to express in the buying of the clothes, and also in the display of them."
She said her next step would probably be fashion consulting as an offshoot of the store.
There is a bar near the back of the store, where Pollack and the other three staff members offer customers wine or water. They also offer complimentary gift-wrapping and will make special appointments after hours.
The boutique also holds fashion shows for community charity organizations. Clients won't see models who look Cindy Crawford and Claudia Schiffer, however--Pollack said she preferred to have ordinary people model the clothes because it allows clients to get a more realistic idea of how the clothes would look on them.
Saratoga, California Since 1955
