8/7/2019 A boutique is a small shopping outlet

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A boutique is a small shoppingoutlet, especially one that specializes in elite and

fashionable items such as clothing and jewellery. The word is French for "shop", via

Latin from Greek ( apothk), "storehouse".[1][2]

The term entered into everyday English use in the late 1960s when, for a brief period,

London was the centre of the fashion trade. Carnaby Street and theKings Road were thefocus of much media attention as home to the most fashionable boutiques of the era.

It can also refer to a specialised firm such as a boutique investment bankorboutique lawfirm. The word is often used to describe a property in the independent section of the hotel

market (such as The Rockwell in London) in order to distinguish themselves from larger

chains (such as Hilton Hotels). In such cases the idea is that the operation is elite and

highly specialised.

In the strictest sense of the word, boutiques would be one-of-a-kind but more generally

speaking, some chains can be referred to as boutiques if they specialize in particularly

stylish offerings (such as New York City boutique shoe store Alife Rivington Club).

Recently, the term "boutique" has started being applied to normally-mass-market itemsthat are either niche or produced in intentionally small numbers at very high prices. This

may be referred to as boutique manufacturing. For example, before the release of the Wii,

aTime Magazine article suggested that Nintendo could become a "boutique video-gamecompany", producing games for niche audiences, rather than trying to compete directly

with Microsoft and Sony.[3]

In the traditional luxury watch industry Scalfaro International is considered as the

precursor in manufacturing and sale of bespoke watches. The Swiss company uses a

highly flexible boutique manufacturingsite, which allows producing small series or evenunique timepieces.

Although some boutiques specialise in hand-made items and other truly one-of-a-kind

items, others simply produce t-shirts, stickers, and other fashion accessories in artificiallysmall runs and sell them at unusually high prices. In the early 1990s Selenastarted

manufacturing her own line of women's clothing. Opening two boutiques labeled as

"Selena Etc. Boutique & Salon" One located in Corpus Christi and one located in SanAntonio, Texas. One was due to open in Monterrey, Mexico in 1995 but due to her death

it was not opened. Today, only the Corpus Christi Boutique is still open.

In late 1990s some European retail traders developed the idea of tailoring a shop towardsa lifestyle theme, in the form of "concept stores",[4][5] which specialised in cross-sellingwithout using separate departments. One of the first concept stores was10 Corso Como [6]

in Milan, Italy followed by Colette [7] in Paris and Quartier 206 [8] [9] in Berlin. Several well

known American chains such asUrban Outfitters [10] [11] , D-A-S-H, and The Gap [12] ,Australian chain Billabongand, though less common, Lord & Tayloradapted to the

concept store trend after 2000.

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