RVA fashion entrepreneur Niki Kong has seen great success since launching her online women’s boutique Sweetest Stitch in March 2015.
RVA fashion entrepreneur Niki Kong has seen great success since launching her online women’s boutique Sweetest Stitch in March 2015.
And with increasing sales, a strong Facebook and Instagram presence, and selling her clothes frequently at pop up shops, she is ready to open her own storefront in the West End this fall.
“It was always the goal,” said Kong. “I feel like the only reason I started online was because I needed the time to get inventory and work the kinks out.”
Sweetest Stitch sells contemporary clothing, shoes and accessories, outerwear and intimates geared toward young women with most items under $60 and everything under $100.
“It’s totally affordable and I want to keep it that way, we will do that with the storefront too,” she said.
Kong sells dresses, tops, bracelets, strappy sandals, earrings, and watches. Many of her clothes are bright and with a variety of prints, but she also has a lot of neutral colors for those who love their browns, grays, and tans, and some darker items as the seasons begin to change.
“I like a variety of things, I have some fall florals, {we’re} going to get into darker prints, but for spring and summer we had some bright stuff.”
Sweetest Stitch doesn’t stick to any one style according to Kong, but comfort is a big factor with her collection.
“That’s kind of the thing I get about going to market and seeing the clothes, because anybody can buy things online and when you go and feel them, and you’re like, ‘wow this is good quality,'” she said. “That’s what people say when they come into my pop up, I’m all about being comfortable and loving what you’re wearing.”
For her collection, the 30-year-old shops at wholesale markets in New York, Las Vegas, Atlanta and California.
“I went to New York City two weekends ago, I typically like to go to Vegas and go out to the West Coast to see if there’s anything different then what they’re doing here on the east coast.”
In addition to selling her clothes online, Kong has been doing pop up shops around town since she started.
“We did one at St. Catherine’s, St. Gertrude’s, Collegiate, we’ve done all of those,” she said. “It was pretty successful.”
She’s also done a pop up at the Carytown Watermelon Festival and over the weekend, she displayed her collection at Party on the Avenues at Libbie.
Like many women in fashion today, Kong’s dream of entering the industry began at a young age.
“Since I can remember I feel like I wanted to open a boutique,” she said. “I remember talking to my dad about having a jeans store, denims and stuff like that so it’s always been in my mind.”
However, before going after her dream, she climbed the corporate ladder working in human resources and accounting.
“I worked at Carmax while I was getting my degree,” Kong said who studied HR at VCU. “Most recently, I was working for a smaller company doing human resources, but all while I was there I was going to school to learn more about fashion, it just ended up being something that I was more drawn to, more interested in.”
Kong took some classes at Parsons The New School for Design in New York and after finishing up in 2014, she launched Sweetest Stitch a year later.
And the young entrepreneur said she’s seen steady growth since launching her online fashion boutique.
“I think that comes with the pop ups, being able to do more and more of those since leaving a regular full-time job,” she said. “Not only do people shop there, then they’ll go home and shop online.”
Seeing the success of the pop ups, and wanting to be involved with her customers more, Kong started scouting spaces in April.
“Having an actual storefront gives you more freedom, online anybody can do,” she said. “Getting to interact with people is why we’re going down this path and opening the boutique.”
While Richmond has emerged into a hot spot for fashion, with the city having more than just a few shops downtown including Mod&Soul, RoundTwo, and Rumors, and Carytown having a plethora of boutiques and consignment stores, the West End native thought her collection would be best a little outside of the scene.
“I never went and looked at places in the city, I felt like my style was more suited toward more suburbs, I definitely like the shops downtown, and how they’re more modern and they just fit in down there, and I felt I didn’t really,” she said.
Kong leased her 1,400 square foot space in the Tuckahoe Shopping Center this month and she plans to open in late October, with a grand opening party sometime in November.
You can catch Kong selling her Sweetest Stitch clothing at her next pop up event at the University of Richmond’s Ivy Market this Monday and Tuesday, on the runway at RVA Fashion Week Oct. 15, and at a benefit for March of Dimes in November.
