Irresistibly You

When you walk into Femme Fatale, you enter a carefully constructed time warp of flirty '50s glamour with a sly sense of modern marketing humor. Floor lamps and mirrors have pink fur trim, the ottomans are leopard-skin print with yards of fringe, a long chaise by the front door is trimmed in gold, and flippy flourishes of hot pink tulle are everywhere. The dressing rooms with their heavy red velvet curtains contain artwork, a black shaggy rug and painted furniture.

But Femme Fatale is a clothing store, and its clever sibling owners, Tricia Cona and Jennifer Ewing, use their collections of dresses, jeans, skirts, shoes, bags and three lines of beauty products as décor accessories. The place, a genuine hoot, was decorated by Gary Shanabarger, whom you already know as the gifted designer/owner of Room in Naples and of Fifty50flowerphilosophy. Gary is a high-school friend of Tricia's. When she and her sister decided to relocate their three-year-old store from a mall setting to Third Street Plaza, Shanabarger's gift to the girls was decorating. It's established a unique presence that makes Femme Fatale stand out even in the chichi upper-level shopping plaza.

The clothing collections have a sophisticated edge that appeals to women of all ages who want to look feminine but sexy in a flirty and highly individual way, because the look is all in how you mix and match. The beauty products, Total Bitch, Dirty Girl and Miso Pretty, would be a hit just because of the names and funky packaging. But the soaps, potions and lotions are really luxurious.

Tricia loves fat ropes of pearls and wears them with her body-hugging skirts, sweaters and dangerously high heels that are a modern riff on classic Chanel. Sometimes she'll pile her hair up and wear stockings with seams. Jennifer is more into tank tops and snug little denim jackets paired with adorable miniskirts. Both wear a size 0, so I don't have to tell you how good they look in the merchandise they promote. But women who are a size 12 can just as easily find plenty of things that are flattering and fun. Trying on clothes at Femme Fatale is an indulgence for a woman's international fashion girlie-girl side.

The store's single biggest-selling piece of clothing is the balloon skirt, an ankle-length slightly stretchy hip-skimming skirt that looks like Bo Peep bumped into Britney Spears. It has design elements of a balloon window shade, bunched up around the knees with short streamers. It looks a little funny on a hanger, but you put it on and suddenly you're looking hot and demure at the same time.

"The genius of this skirt," says Tricia, "is that you can accessorize it up or down and really personalize it. Wear with a tank top and flip-flops to a casual cocktail party on the boat. Wear it with a glamorous fitted jacket, diamonds and strappy heels, and you're elegant enough for a black-tie gala." Tricia says she's sold them to girls as young as 12 and to women in their 70s. Price, $192. I bought one in petal pink, wore it to a Florida Winefest & Auction dinner in Sarasota, and everybody there wanted to know where I found such a fabulous frock. I clued them in and now I'm alerting you: Femme Fatale.

Debbie Del Re opened her fashionable boutique that serves women who wear sizes 14 to 24 out of personal frustration. "I worked for many years in retail and used to travel for my company," she explains. "As I grew older, I adjusted comfortably to my expanding size but realized there weren't any places to buy good-looking clothes in large sizes."

Del Re is a size 20 and she's tall. She dresses as if she were a size eight, and it works. "When I look in the mirror I don't see a size 20," she says. "I see a fun-loving, outgoing, great-looking woman who loves color and wants terrific clothes and jewelry.

"I offer women clothes like they wore when they were smaller, separates that have style, flair, color and structure. You won't find a tent dress in this whole store. I've banished the muu-muu from the wardrobe of women who shop here. We're into Capri pants, lacy cocktail outfits, silk and linen skirts and jackets, wonderful travel clothes, easy-care Tencel, things that cling and drape in a flattering way."

The dressing rooms at Irresistibly Plus are oversized, with big mirrors and long, upholstered benches. The privacy curtains are a gauzy, elegant fabric. The whole boutique maximizes the artistic display of gorgeous textiles and sumptuous colors. Best of all, the store isn't overcrowded. The traffic pattern allows for leisurely browsing. Some of the brands you can expect to see are Vicki V, Staley, Nannette Keller, Susan Bristol, Look and Tianello. Price range is $49 for a simple top to about $800 for a gala ensemble.

Debbie's partner in pioneering her concept is Teresa Grismore, a petite size 18. She has a 30-year background in fashion retailing and flies down from her home in Indiana to work at the store two weeks every month. One satisfied customer came to purchase and stayed to sign on as a part-time employee and to dress her famous mother-in-law for the Academy Awards. Madeleine Dahl, who loves color, zany patterns and is the "wild child" symbol for Irresistibly Plus, brought Patricia Neal to the boutique. The acclaimed actress chose a silk leopard-skin pattern pants outfit to wear to the Oscars the year before last. This year she returned to the store to select an ensemble for the Lifetime Achievements ceremony. Now you know what Patricia Neal knows: You should look beautifully turned out at any size, and you can at Irresistibly Plus.

Not everyone shops for exclusive items in actual stores. Many browse the virtual ones-about 83 million of us, according to recent figures supplied by Pew Research and Forrester Research. Two-thirds of Internet users are online shoppers, and the online retail industry will sell roughly $120 billion in goods this year.

Susan Lake of Naples wants a piece of that retail action and she is brilliantly positioned to acquire it with a new online business called Blue Lime. Susan spent 20 years in Austin, Texas, working at Dell. Last fall she cashed out, moved to Naples with her husband, and began to explore new career options.

"I was intrigued with the idea of having my own business, and on a flight from Chicago to London some time ago, I had a long conversation with a man who owned a tabletop accessories business in Chicago," Lake says. "Subsequently, I visited his store and he was kind enough to help me. Then I purchased a book with some title like 'Retail for Dummies' and taught myself how to incorporate, get a tax I.D., all that."

Lake initially wanted an actual store and she knew she'd deal in vintage and new table linens, china, pottery, silver and glassware. "I had lived in England for a while and I have sources for acquiring lovely old things that make a gracious table," she explains, "items like special pie forks and Victorian fish knives, crystal wine decanters, sterling-silver tea services, hand-painted porcelain platters, napkin rings, compotes and beautiful candy dishes. Along with that, I wanted to have some new but exclusive things such as Jersey Pottery and Emma Bridgewater ceramics. These are things not readily available to Americans but highly prized in Europe for setting a beautiful table."

Lake started her business by having friends and relatives host small private parties to let her introduce her inventory in a controlled and informal way. "The parties were a huge success, but I still hadn't found a store to lease in the Naples area," she says. "Finally, it occurred to me that maybe I didn't need a store or showroom, at least not right away. I could use my computer skills to set up a virtual store on the Internet and let people order on the Web."

The result is bluelimeinc.com, a convenient and dazzling place to shop any time of the day or night and from anywhere in the world. Susan Lake may or may not eventually have a shop in Naples. But the virtual one she established certainly fills a home décor niche, and it's given us a new way to browse the aisles and to acquire unique items for our homes. Isn't it nice that the universe of shopping options just keeps expanding.

One feature of actual shopping that will send many of us to virtual stores on the Internet is the phone etiquette of sales associates who conduct personal cell conversations while "helping" customers. The worst offenders are young clerks in the discount mall shops. I guess they're bored and management hasn't trained them any better.

But lately I've experienced similarly rude treatment in up-market places where grown-up sales associates should know better. While I was shopping in a family-owned boutique, for instance, a 40-something saleswoman was involved in a protracted and intimate conversation with her mother about her son. It was embarrassing to hear but impossible not to since the shop was small and the talker loud. When she began to ring up the items I'd selected, she wrapped, bagged and accomplished the credit-card transaction without ever interrupting her phone conversation except to nod and mouth "thank you" when I left. I'm not going back.