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City style for Elmira market

» Frendz Fashion & Accessories opens in newly revamped Elmira Shopping Village

BY: VANESSA MOSS

Five weeks of window shopping, Internet surfing and travelling to Toronto, Tricia Horst has opened Frendz Fashion & Accessories in the newly-renovated Elmira Shopping Village at the corner of Arthur and Church streets.
She is offering pre-teen to adult clothing and accessories for both men and women, ranging in style from relaxed to business casual.
Horst, 36, said her main goal is to offer reasonably-priced items that will make local residents reconsider venturing to Kitchener-Waterloo for shopping.
“Right now I’m going after community support,” she said.
Having grown up and raised two teenage girls – Meagan, 15, and Kristen, 13 – in Elmira, Horst gradually picked up on a gap in the local shopping market.
Although she had no trouble finding second-hand items for her daughters, their growing desire to sport the latest trends made shopping trips to the city more frequent.
So, when she heard about the upgrades happening at the Elmira Shopping Village, Horst got inspired.
A short time later, she met with the building’s owner, browsed the Internet for ideas and window-shopped with her daughters to determine what to carry and at what price.
“I know how fussy they are about what they wear, so I thought, ‘yeah, this might be an exciting new thing to come into Elmira.’
As of May 10, Horst and her partner, Calvin MacCandless, were open for business, the first of 12 proposed ventures in the updated building.
Horst chose the location because of its “rustic but clean look.”
“[The owner] has just really given it the facelift that it needed and it’s been such a waste of space that it’s sat empty for so long. It’s nice to see that someone has taken an interest in refinishing it and giving it some potential for income.”
Frendz consists of a 500-square-foot booth filled with tank tops, skirts, shorts and a small inventory of jewelry, flip flops and scarves. In the future, Horst hopes to add purses, sunglasses and more business wear: as much as she can fit in the limited space.
She will not expand further with jewelry, though, because that type of store will likely be moving in soon. Vendors in the Elmira Shopping Village must avoid carrying the same merchandise, she said.
Horst’s prices range from about $10 for a tank top to $20 for a denim skirt, affordable for the average family, she said. To keep the prices low, she will be purchasing most of the clothing within Canada, with a small selection coming from California.
“There’s families out there, they can’t afford to spend $60 on a pair of jeans, so I’d like to appeal to those families as well.”
Describing her own style, Horst said she enjoys casual clothes most of the time, but also likes to spice things up for special occasions; having her daughters around has made her more fashion-conscious.
Meagan said she and her sister try to get their mom to wear more exciting clothes with patterns and bright colours.
The 15-year-old gets her fashion inspiration from watching television commercials and seeing what people are wearing at Elmira District Secondary School. Right now, that consists mostly of patterned tank tops with lace, and skirts with leggings, Meagan said, all of which are available at the store.
Over lunch on Tuesday, Meagan visited her mom at the store to check out how business was going. Making the venture a family affair has been great, Horst said, especially choosing the name.
During one of their countless trips to Toronto to pick up orders, the three girls started throwing out possible names to kill time. Eventually, Horst thought of “Frendz” and it stuck: fitting for a family that enjoys the television show Friends.
“We watched the show for years and I think that maybe is what made it pop into my head.”
Up until recently, Horst had been working in the financial field, a far cry from this new enterprise. So far, she is welcoming the change, even though business has been slow-going to start.
“I think it’s going to be a great venture. I’m looking forward to the word spreading around a little more and seeing more and more faces popping up.
“I’d like to be here in another five to 10 years. Maybe have the opportunity to branch out if things go well.”
And in that case, she may have to recruit some helpers by the names of Meagan and Kristen, she said with a laugh.