What the business does
Get Dressed Boutique is an upscale boutique for women, located at 2501 Far Hills Ave. in Oakwood. It carries clothing, accessories and shoes — all designer and label brands, Schumann said. “We have not so much of what you’d find in department stores,” Schumann said. “We search for unique and designer brands and we offer a mix of jewelry, accessories and gifts as well.”
Schumann said that over the course of time she has been in business she has really learned about her customers and their needs and desires. “I shop with them in mind,” she said. “I have sophisticated label brands, like Eileen Fisher, that you only see in high-end department stores.”
How the business started
Schumann’s lifelong dream was to open a clothing boutique, like that of her Wisconsin sisters. So in 1991, Schumann and her mother, Ann Knoepfle, opened “A Touch of Class,” in Oakwood, named for the store in La Crosse, Wis. The Oakwood store was reinvented in 2006 as “Get Dressed.”
“We’ve always been at the same location here in Oakwood,” Schumann said. “We had some great mentors in our family members and then found our own customer base.”
Schumann, a graduate of Kettering Fairmont High School, moved to the Dayton area with her family in the mid-1970s. Knoepfle and Schumann opened the store together, though Knoepfle was not actively involved until she retired from her full-time job. Schumann recruited her best friend from high school, Rebecca Baumann, to work in the store and Baumann remains today, as a store manager.
Recent developments
Schumann, an avid skier, has been vacationing in Park City, Utah, for years and thought the area would benefit from a high-end boutique like “Get Dressed” in Oakwood. “We opened ‘The Gaucho’ in Park City in October of 2013,” Schumann said. “I thought there was a place here for a store like ours on a smaller scale and things just fell into place. I came out here last March and started talking to people and found a location on historic Main Street.” “The Gaucho” carries many of the same labeled brands as the Oakwood store, according to Schumann but has a “bit of a Western flair.” Schumann is now working at the store in Utah for several months during two busy seasons of the year, leaving Baumann and one other manager in charge of the Oakwood store.
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