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A boutique () is a small shop that deals in fashionable clothing or accessories. The word is
A boutique () is a small shop that deals in fashionable clothing or accessories. The word is French
French (french: français(e), link=no) may refer to:
* Something of, from, or related to France
** French language, which originated in France, and its various dialects and accents
** French people, a nation and ethnic group identified with Franc ...
for "shop", which derives ultimately from the Ancient Greek
Ancient Greek includes the forms of the Greek language used in ancient Greece and the ancient world from around 1500 BC to 300 BC. It is often roughly divided into the following periods: Mycenaean Greek (), Dark Ages (), the Archaic pe ...
ἀποθήκη (''apothēkē'') "storehouse".
The term ''boutique'' and also ''designer'' refer (with some differences) to both goods and services, which are containing some element that is claimed to justify an extremely high price.
Etymology and usage
The term "boutique" entered common English parlance in the late 1960s. InEurope
Europe is a large peninsula conventionally considered a continent in its own right because of its great physical size and the weight of its history and traditions. Europe is also considered a Continent#Subcontinents, subcontinent of Eurasia ...
, Avenue Montaigne and Bond Street were the focus of much media attention for having the most fashionable stores of the era.
Some multi-outlet businesses (Chain store
A chain store or retail chain is a retail outlet in which several locations share a brand, central management and standardized business practices. They have come to dominate the retail and dining markets and many service categories, in many p ...
s) can be referred to as boutiques if they target small, upscale niche market
A niche market is the subset of the market on which a specific product is focused. The market niche defines the product features aimed at satisfying specific market needs, as well as the price range, production quality and the demographics that i ...
s. Although some boutiques specialize in hand-made items and other unique products, others simply produce T-shirts, stickers, and other fashion accessories in artificially small runs and sell them at high prices.
Lifestyle
In the late 1990s, some European retail traders developed the idea of tailoring a shop towards a lifestyle theme, in what they called "concept stores," which specialized incross-selling
Cross-selling is a sales technique involving the selling of an additional product or service to an existing customer. In practice, businesses define cross-selling in many different ways. Elements that might influence the definition might include ...
without using separate departments. One of the first concept stores was 10 Corso Como in Milan, Italy, founded in 1990, followed by Colette
Sidonie-Gabrielle Colette (; 28 January 1873 – 3 August 1954), known mononymously as Colette, was a French author and woman of letters. She was also a mime, actress, and journalist. Colette is best known in the English-speaking world for her ...
in Paris and Quartier 206 in Berlin. Several well-known American chains such as Tiffany & Co., Urban Outfitters, Dash
The dash is a punctuation mark consisting of a long horizontal line. It is similar in appearance to the hyphen but is longer and sometimes higher from the baseline. The most common versions are the endash , generally longer than the hyphen ...
, and The Gap, Australian chain Billabong and, though less common, Lord & Taylor, adapted to the concept store trend after 2000.
See also
* Types of retail outlets * Types of advertising agenciesReferences
{{Authority control Retail formats