We were lucky to catch up with Cristina Wilson-Hudlin recently and have shared our conversation below.

Cristina, looking forward to hearing all of your stories today. Alright, so you had your idea and then what happened? Can you walk us through the story of how you went from just an idea to executing on the idea

Twin sisters Cristina and Michelle Wilson had dreamed of owning their own boutique since they were little girls. Their first business endeavor was a coffee cart they owned in college which quickly expanded to multiple locations. After years of countless 4 AM shifts while also putting themselves through school, the twins graduated Sonoma State and their next move was immediately clear: it was time to live out their dream of opening a clothing boutique.

So Cristina and Michelle sold their coffee cart and used all the money they made to open their first store in downtown Petaluma. It was a quaint 500 sq ft. loft and they worked tirelessly to hand select the perfect pieces from thrift stores, vintage shops, and garage sales. After a year in business in their first location, the twins knew they were ready to expand and opened shop in a new space more than four times the size of their first one–and that became the Petaluma store you know and love. Once Ooh La Luxe became a Petaluma staple with a steady flow of regular customers, Cristina and Michelle thought the Santa Rosa Mall would be a perfect place to continue to grow the business. The new store was a hit, and with the introduction of a booming online store shortly thereafter, it was clear Ooh La Luxe was bound for success. Now with over 13 years in business, Ooh La Luxe has three locations, a thriving web store, 20 amazing team members, and a loyal handful of celebrities/influencers supporting the brand.

As always, we appreciate you sharing your insights and we’ve got a few more questions for you, but before we get to all of that can you take a minute to introduce yourself and give our readers some of your back background and context?

My name is Cristina Wilson. I got into this industry because I was interested in fashion and business. From a young age I was always mixing different outfits together and loved fashion. I knew I wanted to have a store and my twin sister and I decided it was time during college.. we first opened a coffee drive thru business, then used that money to open our boutique clothing store.

I am most proud of the growth of our business and that is become bigger than I ever imagined. I love seeing people wear our clothing, I love when people get inspired when they come to the store, and I am proud that people from all over the world can shop our brand.

How did you put together the initial capital you needed to start your business?

I am proud to say that we have never taken out a loan and have grown organically. We started very small with our savings from our coffee cart business. We didn’t come from a lot of money, and as we gained more customers and sales, we were able to move forward and build another space at a time. This has been good for us because we have had time to build a clientele at each location, then depending on how well we do open another location.

Let’s talk about resilience next – do you have a story you can share with us?

When our brand started to grow substantially we did face some obstacles. One of the obstacles was a lawsuit from a large brand because of our name. We learned an important lesson that everything should be trademarked and your name should be protected. It’s important to think about these things when you get started. Of course we learned an important lesson. With every challenge a business faces there can be blessings as well. Part of having a business is dealing with things that come up and we can quickly learned this. During this time we were both pregnant, had to completely re-brand and change our name, as well as relocate our warehouse. As you can imagine this was very stressful. However one thing about being an entrepreneur is that you have to stay positive and roll with the punches. We decided to make our re-branding a fun thing and try to make our brand more of our current style. From Ooh La Loft to Ooh La Luxe. We decided not to talk about what was actually going on or bring up anything negative, we made it into a positive rebranding experience that our customers were excited about. Thinking back on it now it was a blessing in disguise.

Contact Info:

• Website: www.oohlaluxe.com
• Instagram: https://instagram.com/oohlaluxe?igshid=YmMyMTA2M2Y=
• Facebook: https://www.linkedin.com/mwlite/in/cristina-wilson-555842208
• Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/mwlite/in/cristina-wilson-555842208
• Twitter: https://mobile.twitter.com/oohlaluxe
• Youtube: https://m.youtube.com/channel/UCuJcGnrgtdHVSs7p5Wiaf5w
• Yelp: https://yelp.to/gi9w7hWFUrb

Image Credits
Team Picture with group is Jodi Lynn Buckles
The group photo of a bunch of girls is Jodi Lynn
The picture of Michelle and I with the clothing rack or black and green outfits are taken by Hayley Jacobsen