Alright – so today we’ve got the honor of introducing you to Janine Kline. We think you’ll enjoy our conversation, we’ve shared it below.

Janine, appreciate you joining us today. What’s the backstory behind how you came up with the idea for your business?

I worked at and managed another bridal boutique for a combination of about 10 years and there were some great things about that store – and also some not great things. I didn’t appreciate some of the operating procedures that were clearly not the customer-centric attitude I wanted to have in my own store. They were pushy about sales, inflexible about photo taking during appointments, not transparent about policies, procedures, pricing, or even the designers and style numbers of the gowns the clients were trying on. it was like everything was a secret and we weren’t letting the clients in on it. As a Walt (Disney) Adult, I always operated under the premise of, “You don’t build it for yourself. You know what the people want and you build it for them.” I didn’t like the way a majority of shops in the area operated – secretive, pushy, and not very customer-centric with the way they handled appointments or the hours of their shop. During the COVID shutdown, I had a lot of time to think and plan about how I wanted my business to operate and how I wanted to treat not only clients, but the people who work for me. “The Imagineering Story” on Disney+ was a big inspiration for me – both with how Disney Fans still revere Walt and how men who had worked for him 60 years ago still held him in such high regard and looked up to him as a role model for an employer. I knew I wanted to be like Walt. I set up my shop to be a very private and relaxing shopping environment for clients. We encourage clients to go home and think about their choice, rather than impulse buying on emotion. We encourage photo taking and question asking. I really work with my consultants and stylists to be as educated on fabrics, shapes, and specific details of the design and alterations process as I can and we try and pass on as much of that knowledge as we can to interested clients. I never wanted my clients to feel like “You just wanted to sell us a dress, after that, we’re just an afterthought,” like I heard constantly at the other store. I brought a seamstress in house for alterations for clients who wanted to work with her and set up a private, dedicated space for her to have her fittings in. Continuing to be in designer fashion and being kind to the people who are supporting you in all aspects of the business really appealed to me. Also styling real people with actual opinions and emotions is a great feeling – making a client feel great on one of the biggest days of their life is a rewarding and inspiring experience.

Janine, love having you share your insights with us. Before we ask you more questions, maybe you can take a moment to introduce yourself to our readers who might have missed our earlier conversations?

Becoming a bridal stylist and then bridal shop owner accidentally fell into my lap. We were always a creative family – my mom loves crocheting and needlepoint, my dad has a deep passion for woodworking. I grew up being very artistic and creative, I always had a passion for sewing and making clothing. I started creating clothing for Barbies and stuffed animals at a young age, hand sewing with scraps of fabric that were around the house. Once my legs were long enough, I took off on a sewing machine and never looked back. As I got older, my mom would stand at the check out counter in every clothing store and say to me, “You’re going to wear this at least once, as it is, before you cut into it, right?” And I would always say yes, but never meant it. So we started thrifting things for me to cut down and create. The only clothing I ever actually wore as is were my ski clothes and (most) of my band t-shirts. I never liked living in my small town, I was always kind of the weird art girl. I moved to New York City at the age of 18 to attend The Fashion Institute of Technology (FIT) not really knowing what I wanted to do, but knowing I wanted to get out of small town USA, so I enrolled in their Advertising and Marketing Communications program. The summer before I left for college, I had a chance meeting that deeply altered the course of my life. My friends and I had created a little bit of mischief in our senior year over the talent show and somehow Dee Snyder of Twisted Sister got involved and our story made it to the desks of the execs at MTV’s “High School Stories” show. They decided to film and air our story, and one of the cameramen working the show, Doug Hosdale – an amazing cinematographer in his own right – and I got to talking and he found out where I was headed and what I was doing and invited me to reach out to him in a month when I landed – he was shooing this great, indie short film, “Walking Shadow” and invited me to hang out on set and help the costumer. So there I was, day two in NYC, skipping freshman orientation activities and taking a dozen doughnuts to a film set in Brooklyn. After that day, I knew I wanted to dress people. Over the course of my ten years in NYC, I was a fashion stylist, a stylist assistant, and market editor both freelance and on staff with a few magazines. I did advertising campaigns for big and small brands, music videos, personal styling for a variety of clients, red carpet styling, movies, and editorial fashion shoots for both domestic and international fashion publications.

Then my dad got sick – really sick – and I started spending a fews days in PA each week and working in YC for a few days each week. I had a friend of a friend that was looking for Friday and Saturday help at his mother in law’s bridal shop and I thought, “Why not? It’s not Gucci, Fendi, Prada and Dior, but it’s probably the closest thing I’m going to get in Central PA and I get to work with real people and style them for one of the biggest events in their lives, so why not?” And it was FUN! Soon it became impossible for me to stay in NYC and help my mom take care of him. After a few years of the part time here and there, I decided to take a management position at that boutique and move home full time.

At my shop, we offer private, one on one appointments for bridal gowns, mother’s dresses, gala gowns, and prom gowns. We also have a full alterations department that can make any accessory or customization you can dream up for your gown. I am most proud of our client-first approach to this business, our flexibility on being able to provide a really high end experience, our knowledge on the different materials and garment construction techniques, and I am really, really proud of my staff girls – most of whom did not have previous fashion experience – at the amazing experience they are able to provide our clients. All of this sets us apart from other bridal shops in the area, in addition to the things I listed in my previous response.

How do you keep your team’s morale high?

I have really high morale and a great team in my store and always have – we all really get a long and like each other and most of us hang out together outside of work, too. Some of my closest friends are girls I worked with at the store I managed before I opened mine and some of the continue to work for me, on and off, to this day!

I think flexibility is key – this is not a life and death job, we’re not doctors or nurses, and I really want my girls to come in and do the things they like and are good at. I find I get a much better output if I let the girls who love something do that thing – some like the visual merchandising aspect, some like the event planning aspect – and whatever they don’t like to do are usually the things I suck up. This is my business after all, and I can do whatever needed to keep it going. No one likes social media, unfortunately, and I am very fortunate that we have such a loyal customer base and a huge referral network. In that flexibility, I am very flexible with time off, leaving early, not living here on weekends (this is an industry that leans heavily on weekend hours and I try and be flexible about that, too – they all have lives and families) and giving them space during the week if they need it for family things and personal appointments. I operate Sundays seasonally, so during the May-December months, no one works Sundays, just Saturdays. I can live here if need be, I can take the Sunday appointments during the off season, and I can work from home at nights, doing the computer inventory and website stuff needed to keep this going.

All of my girls really love working with clients, and that’s both an important and a wonderful thing. None of our clients are just a number for us. We really do develop relationships with these women over the course of working with them one on one for about a year. I hire all my staff girls based on personality and we do have a hiring hive-mind at the shop. Everyone’s got to have good vibes about them. We all meet them before they start, and we all work with them to train them and teach them the ins and outs of what we do here. I think that helps the interpersonal relationships here in the store to be positive. I also think having an outgoing personality makes them approachable for clients. I don’t want a store full of Stepford Employees – I want real girls who look like our clients and can relate to them.

We also do a few out-of-office activities each year – birthday celebrations at their choice of place, we have a summer celebration at my pool instead of a Holiday Party (everyone is so busy during the holiday season, so summer makes more sense for us), and I try and make each one of them feel valued and important in their own way. I try and remember to say thank you to each of them at the end of the day and tell them they did a great job. I never try and be negative and always look at turning a not-so-positive experience into a learning experience. Nothing is ever going to be completely detrimental, everyone makes mistakes, and if there’s honesty and transparency, mistakes can be easily resolved with almost no backlash. I am very careful to make this a positive, uplifting place to work and that attitude seems to pass from consultant to client.

Are there any books, videos, essays or other resources that have significantly impacted your management and entrepreneurial thinking and philosophy?

Anything Walt Disney – The Imagineering Story, How Disney Built America, and recently Disneyland Handcrafted. I also love the documentaries and books written by the people who have worked for Walt – “It’s Kind Of A Cute Story” by Rolly Crump, “Xavier “X” Atencio: The Legacy of An Artist, Imagineer, and Disney Legend” “Marc Davis: In His Own Words” and “Bob Gurr: Legendary Imagineer: Life and Times – Disney and Beyond.” I also love Jesse Cole, the owner of the Savannah Bananas, for his Walt-centric ideologies and fan-first attitude that I really try and emulate in a boutique setting, rather than a baseball stadium. I feel like we’re all trying to do the same thing – give our audience and clients the best experience possible. Walt created a land of fantasy where little girls could be princesses for a day, and that’s the feeling we’re trying to give our clients here, too. A world of fun and fantasy where everything is beautiful, including them, for a day. Give them enough space to be who they want to be – some brides want to be princesses, others want to feel like warriors, and others still want to be that Haunted Mansion bride vibe. And we’re here to help them create it all. I don’t like to refer to myself as a DIsney Adult – I’m more of a Walt Adult.

I still work with clients and am involved with appointments daily. I want to know what the clients and thinking and feeling. I encourage them to tell us all the stuff – good and bad. I like to remind them this is a little like the doctor’s office – if they can’t tell us what’s wrong, we don’t know how to help them. It’s important for both myself and my staff to be receptive to not only praise but also criticism. I am the first one to take that and think, “How can we make that better?”

It’s also important to work as a team and be open to other staff members thoughts and ideas. We are all free-thinking individuals with different tastes, likes, and dislikes, just like our clients. If one of my staff girls is hearing something from a client, there’s a good chance they’re thinking about it differently than I am and THAT’S OK. It’s encouraged, actually. We all get involved in each others appointments, pull dresses for other people’s brides, and really work as a team here. We buy inventory as a team, because not everyone has the same bridal vision, and it’s important to try and cater to everyone’s thoughts, feelings and visions.

Contact Info:

• Website: http://www.unveiled-bridal.com
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/unveiledbridalpa
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/unveiledbridalpa
• Other: Pinterest: https://www.pinterest.com/unveiledbridalpa

Image Credits

All photos taken by J. Neal Photo – http://www.jnealphoto.com or @jnealphoto on Instagram