Wear What When

New! Splendid at Bellevue Square

The popular knit-jersey line celebrates family style with Kimmel Kids’ Karen Kimmel.

Posted by: Laura Cassidy on Oct 06, 2011 at 01:00PM 0 Comments

Splendid x Karen Kimmel x Crafting Community = Vibrant color play, fun family time, cool accessories and layering elements. Create some of it for yourself at the new Splendid store in Bellevue Square on Saturday, October 22.

As of October 14, Bellevue Square has a new occupant: Splendid.

The brand is well-known to those who have found its pint-size hoodies and Modal maxis inside department and specialty stores; this is the line’s first stand-alone Northwest shop.

To introduce the less familiar and get to know fans better, Splendid is hosting an all ages craft day on Saturday, October 22 from 1 to 3 with LA hipster mom Karen Kimmel.

Thanks to similar events with the Ace Hotel, museums, art galleries, and other Splendid-sponsored spaces, the artist has a cult following of cool parents. After spending a few hours designing an all natural, super soft, on trend Splendid scarf with your six year old, you’ll likely find yourself happily drinking the legitimately cool Kool-Aid too.

Called Crafting Community, the October 22 event, and others like it, are all about fusing families through making and doing. In addition to on-trend scarves, you and your brood can craft necklaces and bracelets and other accessory items.

The event is free, and four guests will even score a $250 shopping experience at the new store.

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Tags: Eastside, Seattle Kids' Style, Art Events, New Seattle Boutiques

New! Kuka Pradel

Locally made—by way of Bolivia—silver jewelry near Luly Yang and Clutch.

Posted by: Katie Ormsby on Mar 21, 2011 at 12:00AM 4 Comments

Photo: Lucas Anderson

SLIDESHOW: Kuka Pradel is a sleek addition to the shops around the Fairmont Olympic Hotel, which include Luly Yang Couture and Clutch.

View Slideshow » Photo: Lucas Anderson

SLIDESHOW: Kuka Pradel is a sleek addition to the shops around the Fairmont Olympic Hotel, which include Luly Yang Couture and Clutch.

View Slideshow » Photo: Lucas Anderson

Kuka Pradel’s spring collection includes pieces like this orchid ring that Prado finishes with a white glaze.

View Slideshow » Photo: Lucas Anderson

It’s possible to spend less than $20 and more than $200 at KP.

View Slideshow » Photo: Lucas Anderson

The shop also carries a small selection of home accessories, including these rosewood bowls with silver accents.

View Slideshow » Photo: Lucas Anderson

Prado’s mother taught her how to make jewelry as a young girl. The shop shares her mother’s name.

Luly Yang Couture and Clutch have a new neighbor. The boutique on Fourth Ave is called Kuka Pradel but you can just call it KP for short, or to avoid tongue twistings.

Owner Bianca Prado is all about silver jewelry, and she makes much of it herself. The rings, necklaces, bracelets, and other pieces cover a surprisingly large range of price points—from $10 to $300—and styles. Some pieces are chunky, some delicate. Prado experiments with rosewood accents, mother of pearl, and stones like garnet and turquoise. And she makes custom pieces.

The shop also has a small selection of home decor: silver photo frames, bowls, and serving dishes.

Back to the difficult to pronounce moniker: Prado’s originally from Bolivia and started making jewelry as a young girl. ‘My mother taught me,’ she explains—and Kuka Pradel is her name.

Click through our slideshow for an inside look at the new shop.

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Tags: Locally Made, Jewelry, Locally Designed, Seattle Retail News, Downtown Seattle Shopping, New Seattle Boutiques

New! Butter Home at Melrose Market

Small in space, but big in nostalgic charm.

Posted by: Katie Ormsby on Mar 15, 2011 at 08:00AM 0 Comments

Photo: Lucas Anderson

SLIDESHOW: Climb the stairs inside Melrose Market to find Butter Home.

View Slideshow » Photo: Lucas Anderson

SLIDESHOW: Climb the stairs inside Melrose Market to find Butter Home.

View Slideshow » Photo: Lucas Anderson

The grandma’s attic feeling perfectly suits the overall vibe at Melrose Market, where it’s all about earthy riches and regional, relatively simple charms.

View Slideshow » Photo: Lucas Anderson
View Slideshow » Photo: Lucas Anderson
View Slideshow » Photo: Lucas Anderson

From Butter Home, you can look down at the rest of the Melrose Market.

View Slideshow » Photo: Lucas Anderson

Butter Home sells decorative flowers and heart-shaped magnets made out of scrap metal.

Just above the Calf and Kid there’s a new cozy little home decor shop in the Melrose Market — Butter Home. It’s tiny and feels like you’re walking around your grandma’s attic, which in this case is a good thing.

The 366-square-feet of this in-the-rafters boutique offer a surprising array of woodsy furniture, tasteful dishware, vintage-inspired glassware, and funky knickknacks like scrap-metal flowers and decorative twine balls made from recycled newspaper. Owner Claire Corley tries to stock as many sustainable, local, handmade, and vintage pieces as the space allows.

Her love for all things old started early; her grandparents owned the San Francisco auction house Butterfields (now known as Bonhams & Butterfields) when she was growing up. In fact, that’s part of what inspired the name Butter Home.

The other part? ‘Well butter’s the best food,’ Corley explains with a smile. Get a peak around the shop as you click through the slideshow here.

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Tags: Capitol Hill, Home Decor, Melrose Market, Seattle Retail News, New Seattle Boutiques

New! SugarPill Apothecary

Just a spoonful of sugar helps the medicine go down at Capitol Hill’s new neopharmacy.

Posted by: Katie Ormsby on Mar 10, 2011 at 08:00AM 1 Comments

Slideshow: SugarPill may just be the sweetest neighborhood nonpharmacy ever. All photos by Lucas Anderson.

View Slideshow » Illustration:

Slideshow: SugarPill may just be the sweetest neighborhood nonpharmacy ever. All photos by Lucas Anderson.

View Slideshow » Illustration:

Photo by Lucas Anderson

View Slideshow » Illustration:

Even slabs of pink Himalayan salt get silver platter treatment at SugarPill. Photo by Lucas Anderson.

View Slideshow » Illustration:

SugarPill also sells salt in tiny tester tins ($2.25). Photo by Lucas Anderson.

View Slideshow » Illustration:

Fine paper goods for love notes or to complete get well wishes. Photo by Lucas Anderson.

As its name suggests, Capitol Hill’s new SugarPill is not your typical apothecary.

Want to satisfy your sweet tooth? Check. Trying to hunt down pink Himalayan salt? Check. Looking for something to soothe that cold you’ve been battling? You can find that, too.

‘I wanted to open up something a little bit unusual, not just a pharmacy,’ explains owner Karyn Schwartz, who is eager to share her passion for natural medicine. Her house blends, including Clear the Airways Bothersome Cough and Northwest Herbal Cold and Flu (about 7 bucks), are made from ingredients like elderberry, marshmallow leaf, mullein, anise, and peppermint.

SugarPill isn’t just about getting over bad feelings. You can now drink the chocolate elixir of Marie Antoinette’s court. Schwartz’s favorite treat is a line of historic drinking chocolate from the KaKawa Chocolate House; the recipes are carefully researched for accuracy.

More of a savory, less sweet? Find just about every gourmet salt under the sun: pink, gray, black, coarse, finely ground, etc; slab, packaged in sweet glass bottles, or in teeny, adorable tester tins.

And when there is nothing to cure and no craving to satisfy, SugarPill also offers a selection of beautifully wrapped soaps, girlie perfumes, delicate glassware, and greeting cards.

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Tags: Capitol Hill, Health and Beauty, New Seattle Boutiques