Grapevine - Colleyville - Southlake | January 2023

BUSINESS FEATURE

BY CODY THORN

Ooh la la! has a variety of gifts available for purchase.

CODY THORNCOMMUNITY IMPACT

Sylvia Helton celebrated the 20th anniversary of Ooh la la! in October.

The back wall of Ooh la la! features a variety of socks for men and women.

Ooh la la! is currently located on Main Street in Grapevine.

COURTESY SYLVIA HELTON

CODY THORNCOMMUNITY IMPACT

POPULAR GIFTS

Ooh la la! Smart & Sassy Fashion Downtown Grapevine boutique celebrates 20 years on Main Street S ylvia Helton readily admits market. She started as a boutique for women’s clothes and began gather- ing customers’ addresses. She sent out letters at rst and then turned to

Owner Sylvia Helton said these are some of the favorite items that customers purchase.

Socks

Shirts

in Grapevine. “I had no clue what I was get- ting myself into,” Helton said. “I had never owned a store, but my grandma had been in retail.” Her rst location for the business was at 336 S. Main St., Ste. A., in Grapevine. She split half of the build- ing with a landlord and within two years outgrew that space. She broke down walls to create more space and four years after opening took over the entire location of what was the former Timeless Boutique. The former owner of the Rick Rack Market oered Helton a new location at 408 S. Main St. a few years later. Helton admitted there have “been a lot of ups and downs” through the years as she navigated the buying

she was not sure where her career path would go after being laid o from American Airlines in 2001. She was an analyst, working on routes and planning crews. Following the events of 9/11, Helton was one of a number of employees for the Fort Worth-based airline that lost their jobs at that time. A trip to a store after getting laid o started the path to what is now Ooh la la! Smart & Sassy Fashion in Grapevine. She was buying beads for jewelry she was making and that opened the door for her to sell her jewelry. In October, Ooh la la! celebrated its 20th anniversary of being in business

Bluetooth speakers

Wine glasses

email to promote her business. She calls buying items for the store a mix of her favorite and most frustrating part of being a business owner and gets help from a consul- tant when trying new vendors and products. “You have to buy new things and try them, otherwise you grow stagnant and die,” Helton said. One of those items is a Bluetooth speaker that is about the size of a mini cupcake, and she has sold thousands of them. “I wouldn’t have found it if I didn’t take the risk,” she said.

Ooh la la! 408 S. Main St., Grapevine 817-329-8686 https://oohlalatx.com Hours: Mon.-Thu. 10 a.m.-6 p.m., Fri.-Sat. 10 a.m.-7 p.m., Sun. noon-5 p.m.

E. WORTH ST.

W . W O R T H S T .

W . C O L L E G E S T .

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