Austin Way Magazine - GreenGale Publishing - There is a place beyond the crowds, beyond the ropes, where dreams are realized and success is celebrated. You are invited.
Issue link: http://digital.greengale.com/i/461140
photography by paIgE NEWtoN (doorbEll); courtEsy of rIta QuINN (chaIrs, dEsIgNEr products) "HeatHer Scott Home & deSign completely underStood me— lucite, molding, cHandelierS, Zebra Hide!"— stacey smith However, Smith's life has not always been this rosy. Only a few years ago, she made her living as a mental health counselor. "I wanted to make a huge difference in the world," she says. "I [worked with] women who were exiting the sex industry, and I did grief counseling and incest recovery—real intense work, " she says. But Smith soon found that being a counselor was more stressful than she originally thought it would be. After only a year and a half, the side effects of such a career became too much. "I didn't have strong boundaries," she says. "To be a counselor, you need to be able to turn off your light at the end of the day and not think about the job anymore. But instead, [other people's problems were] overtaking me. I became depressed. I had too much empathy for the women I worked with." After giving up her dream of being a therapist, Smith, 31, decided to return to her previous career in retail, opening an Austin outpost of the Dallas-based shop The Impeccable Pig, a company for which she'd worked for more than a decade. It was then that Smith fell in love with Austin and the idea of one day opening her own shop here. "It's just such an accepting and supportive city," she says. "This was the perfect place for me." She set the wheels in motion for her own boutique in the summer of 2012, when she purchased an abandoned home on the corner of Fifth Street and Oakland Avenue. She enlisted architects Clayton & Little (whose past projects include Jeffrey's, Josephine House, and Clark's Oyster Bar) to redo the exterior, and tapped Heather Scott Home & Design to create the store's décor, which Smith describes as "Marie Antoinette gets tired of Versailles, finds herself in the Serengeti, and then ends up at Studio 54." She says, "Heather Scott Home & Design completely under- stood me—Lucite, molding, chandeliers, zebra hide!" The interior design and location proved strong lures for customers, but it is the coveted labels—Milly, Nanette Lepore, Zac Posen, which are hard to find in Austin—that really bring in the crowds. "You're going to think I'm crazy," Smith says, "but I don't like shopping. It was definitely a source of anxiety for me—as it is for a lot of women." Then, with a glint in her eye, she adds, "Trying to find something that works for every woman who walks in here, something they can go out in the world and feel confident in—that is my favorite part." 501 oakland ave., 512-322-9494; found austin.com AW Found was designed to reflect owner Stacey Smith's style. right, from top: By ringing a doorbell, shoppers may have Champagne delivered to them in the fitting room; the downtown boutique offers a host of high-end brands. 28 AUSTINWAY.com STYLE Arbiter of Taste