Women’s clothier celebrates 1-year anniversary

WASILLA — It’s been a year now and Caroline Henn is still excited to be a small business owner.

“I’m not really sure how we got there, but we did and we made it and the store is growing and improving and people are hearing about it and they love it,” Henn said Saturday.

Monday is the first anniversary of her clothing store, C’est La Vie Affordable Fashions.

“It is incredible,” Henn said of the milestone.

Henn said her goal is to carry clothes for ladies of “every shape, style and size,” with inventory running the gamut from extra small to XXXL. She also takes the label “affordable” seriously — everything in the shop costs less than $50.

“It’s pretty fashionable and people think it’s kind of fancy I guess, but it’s not really,” Henn said. “It’s not your normal, everyday T-shirt shop. You’re not going to find that there at all, in fact. It’s stuff that you can wear every day and be stylish and wear it to work.”

She said the store’s philosophy is to provide customer service.

“My employees, they’re trained in knowing how to be their customers’ personal shopper,” Henn said. “When you have a customer come in the store we’re all about them and helping them find what they need and suggesting products and outfits and getting them the right size and helping them through the whole process.”

Which, of course, is something that’s hard to find at the big box retailers that constitute the bulk of ladies’ other options in clothes shopping in the Valley.

“From the time that they walk in the door until they walk back out that door, we are with them and being everything that they need us to be in order to make their shopping experience the best,” Henn said.

C’est La Vie, she said, is an option for people tired of driving to Anchorage for good shopping.

“I hear that every day. They’re like, ‘I don’t have to go into Anchorage anymore because there’s finally something out here,’” she said.

But getting the word out is tough.

“It’ll be five years from now and people will still be saying, ‘Oh my gosh, I didn’t know you were here.’”

She said advertising has been key to her success.

“I advertise more than anybody I know in a small business like mine,” Henn said. “I 100 percent totally believe in advertising; it’s way more important than I think anybody understands.”

She also believes in discipline, in doing every day what she sets out to do and keeping a tight schedule. Which is probably why she’s managed to stay in business a year without a lot of late nights — something that’s crucial for her as a single mom.

Henn said she puts in hours between 2 and 6 p.m. and leaves the 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. shift to an employee. Henn also works the weekends and the store is open seven days a week.

“I don’t believe in overworking my employees and I don’t believe in overworking myself,” Henn said.

If she can run the business without overworking everyone, she believes, the staff of C’est La Vie won’t be wanting for enthusiasm.

“We can go into the business and be excited and motivated about what we do,” she said.

Contact reporter Andrew Wellner at andrew.wellner@frontiersman.com or 352-2270.

What: C’est La Vie Affordable Fashions

Phone: 376-1550

Address: 1450 Creste Foris St., Ste. C

Online: Facebook.com/Cest-La-Vie-Affordable-Fashions

Hours: 10 a.m. to 6 p.m., Monday-Friday; 11 a.m. to 5 p.m., Saturday; noon to 5 p.m., Sunday