New clothing boutique opens in Tremaine Boyd building

The first commercial tenant has moved into the new Tremaine Boyd building in downtown Winter Garden, and it’s a women’s clothing boutique that the owner says will complement the clothing stores already established.

Natalie Galligan opened Shoo Shoo Baby last month and already is seeing some repeat customers.

“I have customers who (will) call and say they’re coming in at lunch and, ‘Can you have a fitting room ready?’ and I’ll pick out clothes for them,” Galligan said. “I’ve had a lot of positive feedback.”

The boutique caters to women who are looking for trendy, contemporary clothing. Galligan said her demographic is women ages 40 to 60 — because she falls in that range — and she wants to wear clothes that are trendy, not too old and not too young and fit her body.

She sells popular boutique name brands, including Karen Kanze, Hudson Jeans, Liverpool and Tribal, and said she has clothing in a variety of prices.

“This is not a ‘need’ kind of store; it’s a ‘want’ kind of store,” she said. “We’re about quality and service and fit and style.”

The shop includes casual wear to cocktail attire and some jewelry and accessories; shoes could be added to the inventory later.

This is Galligan’s second clothing shop. The original Shoo Shoo Baby is in Illinois. When she and her husband, Mick, moved to Montverde a year-and-a-half ago, she wasn’t planning to open another store. But when she visited downtown Winter Garden and saw the number of people living and shopping here, she thought there was room for another boutique.

“We looked at a lot of different downtowns,” Galligan said. “It’s charming, it’s quaint, it’s different from all the other downtowns I looked at.”

WHAT’S IN A NAME?

Why Shoo Shoo Baby? It was chosen to honor her father-in-law, Sgt. James “Jim” Galligan, who was a tail gunner and ball turret gunner in World War II and flew a B-17 bomber named Shoo Shoo Baby. A painting of the plane is hung prominently in the shop.

The boutique does not sell baby apparel, despite what the name might imply. Galligan said she gets asked about it every day.

“We thought about naming it something different, but the name was so special to us, and we thought if we didn’t keep it the same then it would be wrong,” Galligan said.

OPEN DOOR

Galligan said she’s looking forward to meeting new customers and making new friends. She’s exciting about the upcoming holidays because it will give her a chance to open her doors during special events, including Small Business Saturday Nov. 30, a Boutique Crawl Dec. 5, Light Up Winter Garden Dec. 6 and various scheduled wine walks.

“(Women) should shop here if they are looking for a special kind of product and customer service because that’s what we offer,” Galligan said. “I specifically will dress women if they’ll let me, if that’s what they are willing to do. We truly are a specialty store, meaning we work with people, we advise them on what they might feel comfortable in. … We’re all about finding something that’s special and different and makes you feel excited.”