This week, Glossy spotlights the power of specialty stores. While department stores’ terms are turning brands away, specialty boutiques are gaining new relevance thanks to curated storytelling, authentic discovery moments and strong client ties. We’re highlighting five U.S. stores that leading brands are betting on now.
For emerging and leading fashion brands, Southern hospitality is alive and well at Tootsies.
Celebrating 50 years in business, the boutique born out of Houston is answering brands’ business needs in ways that are rare in the current retail landscape. As described by the designers it carries, the company’s sell-through rate is extraordinary, thanks to its seasonal buys that are bold, collaborative and informed by in-depth knowledge of its multi-generational shopper base. Plus, its robust marketing of designers, including regular in-store trunk shows and behind-the-scenes social videos, serves to introduce them to its engaged community. Emerging brands leverage Tootsies to build customer connections before opening a store of their own, and established brands reference its shoppers when considering what silhouettes to bet on each season.
“What brands need now is different than in the past, and it’s been in our heritage to raise up small brands and support them in whatever ways we can,” said senior buyer Leah Little Hale, who worked for Barneys and Saks before joining Tootsies in 2014. “It’s about collaboration. We are all better together, and we work deeply and openly with brands that share that philosophy.”
Founded in 1975 by retail entrepreneur Mickey Rosmarin, 22 years old at the time, Tootsies followed up its original Houston store with locations in Dallas and Atlanta. Following Rosmarin’s death in 2016, the company was acquired by Norman and Donna Lewis — Norman had been with the company for 21 years at the time, serving as COO and president. “We have seen consistent revenue growth across all of our locations and channels from 2022 to current,” he told Glossy in an email.
Designers attest to the current strength of the business. Tootsies was one of the first specialty stores to pick up Tanya Taylor, in 2015. Founder and creative director Tanya Taylor said her 13-year-old brand sees nearly three times more sales per door at Tootsies than Saks. And Tootsies drives 10 times more sales volume per door than the brand’s other specialty store partners, on average. Tanya Taylor saw 91% sales growth at Tootsies from 2023-2025, and its full-price sell-through rate at the store is consistently over 80%. Tanya Taylor’s 2-year-old Hudson skirt, which is currently the best-selling skirt in the market, per Taylor, has sold 1,100 units through Tootsies, which has championed the style in-store and online. Tanya Taylor is carried at all three Tootsies locations.
“What I first loved about them was their history,” Taylor told Glossy. “My friends from Texas have such nostalgic memories of Tootsies: It’s where you go to get your prom dress, your night before the wedding dress, your mother of the bride dress. It’s such an occasion business, and they have such a strong connection to their customer — that was important to me, especially when we didn’t have retail.”
That connection is most apparent to Taylor when the store hosts its regular events for her brand. “We’ll do a morning runway show, and 100-plus people come and they shop after,” she said. “They’re really paying attention to what Tootsies is telling them is the mood for the season. … What Tootsies is buying you know is going to sell.”
Christian Juul Nielsen, founder and creative director at the 6-year-old New York-based fashion brand Aknvas, also stressed the brand benefit of Tootsies’s community. Through Aknvas’s bi-annual Tootsies trunk shows, he said, he’s earned regular clients who now connect with him when they’re in NYC and send him Christmas cards. At the trunk shows, “I put together looks for [customers] and help with the styling,” Juul Nielsen said. “I only do this at Tootsies.” Aknvas has sold at the store for about two years.
Regarding the regular rotation of designer events, Little Hale said, “They’re not about driving results on one day — they’re about allowing designers to come in and get to know our people in our community.”
As described by Little Hale, Tootsies’s community spans three to four generations, and its product assortment reflects their lifestyles while being fashion-first, elevated and trendy, but not trend-driven.
As with Tootsies customers, their relationships with its store associates, dubbed stylists, have been important to their business, Taylor and Juul Nielsen said. Both designers have befriended the workers and prioritized educating them on their seasonal collections to earn their recommendation “when it’s between two options” on the sales floor, as stated by Taylor.
“Some [customers] have worked with the same stylist for 10 years,” Taylor said. “The [stylist] knows what their vacations look like and what their workwear needs are — and they can offer [designers] granular feedback directly from the customer. … I am in our design room every day editing the line based on what I hear.”
What is also atypical about designers’ work with Tootsies is their willingness to collaborate on exclusive products, which they’ve otherwise avoided, deeming them a drain on their business. Taylor owed that to Tootsies’s “thoughtful, intentional” approach to exclusives, which often involves tweaks to best-selling silhouettes to fit a timely theme or current event, like a rodeo or the Kentucky Derby. Such exclusives have reflected her brand’s strengths, challenged her and sold, Taylor said, noting the companies’ mutual trust and commitment to taking risks.
Likewise, Juul Nielsen commented on Tootsies’s “brave” approach to its buys, willing to truly represent the brands it sells rather than lean on safe, super-commercial pieces. “Because of their enthusiasm for the brand, I give back and do my best for them, and we build things together that are special.” He recently collaborated with Tootsies on a dusty lavender version of Aknvas’s seven-flower Flor blouse, and it’s seeing “excellent” sales, he said.
Along with Tootsies’s employees’ enthusiasm, Juul Nielsen called out that the company’s operations, including payments, have been consistent and reliable. In turn, he takes great care to ensure Tootsies’s deliveries arrive on time, for example. He also points clients in cities with a Tootsies to the store versus the brand’s DTC channels.
Juul Nielsen said that when launching his brand, he focused on major retail partners to meet his factory minimums, but his next step was enabling more personal experiences with the brand via specialty stores. Aknvas also sells at Neiman Marcus, Saks, FWRD and Revolve, among other retailers.
In general, compared to selling at department stores, specialty stores facilitate “a more profitable, much cleaner, much healthier business,” mainly because of the “fluidity” they enable, Taylor said. “It’s not that they just receive a product and tell us at the end of the season how it’s working. It’s an ongoing conversation; we’re able to reorder and move product to different locations — their teams are making [real-time] decisions.”
As such, things sell. ”We don’t get asked to pay anything back, we don’t have returns, and we don’t have surprises,” Taylor said. “Department stores can sometimes put the [responsibility] back on a brand for miscalculations.” She noted that, based on sales performance, Tanya Taylor hasn’t had to make end-of-season payments to department stores in 18-24 months, which she called “a huge triumph.”
“How you drive business right now is by designing incredible collections, but then being very clever about their allocation to different stores,” Taylor said.
Currently, Tootsies is focused on replicating its in-store experience in digital channels as its e-commerce site attracts customers in more states, including California, Florida and Louisiana, said Claire Collier, the company’s digital content and strategy manager. Regular social media posts featuring intimate and collaborative videos with partner designers and recaps of store events are playing into that strategy.
According to Little Hale, moving forward, Tootsies’s greatest challenge and opportunity is to remain the beloved store it’s been for 50 years. “We’ve just got to continue to learn and stay curious,” she said.
