Through a partnership with Jennifer McAlexander of JM Consulting, Suzi’s Boutique in downtown Grinnell now offers color analysis and image consulting services for shoppers.
Lifelong Grinnell resident Susan Schmidt opened Suzi’s Boutique in 2018 with the primary goal of catering to women ages 40 and above. “I felt like we had a need for some kind of clothing for women over 40. So I mean, I have something for everybody, but I kind of cater to that,” Schmidt said.
Schmidt and McAlexander met in the mid-1990s while working at Grinnell’s now-closed Hamilton Travel agency. It wasn’t until McAlexander became certified as an image consultant in 2018 and launched JM Consulting in 2019 that their friendship merged into a business partnership.
(Chhayachhay Chhom)
After hosting one joint event in 2020, their plans to offer consulting at the boutique were disrupted by the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic. In the past few months, however, McAlexander and Schmidt have once again joined forces.
McAlexander said that the idea to partner her consulting services with Schmidt’s business occurred to her after she realized how many major chain retailers offered in-store styling. “I said, ‘You know, we could do something like that, and schedule something that would work to give our local customers another feature or service to the boutique she already has,’” she said. “She has the clothes, I have the consult.”
“It kind of amazes me how many people come in that really just want guidance, for a lot of different reasons,” Schmidt said. She described McAlexander’s consulting services as “something new and something for people to learn from.”
McAlexander is certified through an image consulting organization called Style By Color. She uses a system that is a combination of the seasonal system, which groups people into seasonal color palettes, and tonal analysis, which considers the level of contrast between various facial characteristics. To analyze clients, she uses a set of “casting drapes” that contain sets of compatible tones.
“There aren’t usually colors I will say not to wear — it’s the intensity of the color, so how light or how deep the color is, rather than, don’t wear yellow, don’t wear blue, don’t wear purple,” McAlexander said.
Both Schmidt and McAlexander added that another benefit of the consulting services is to ensure that shoppers feel confident in their purchases. “It’s important for people to purchase clothes from her boutique, and then not feel like they made a buying mistake,” McAlexander said.
“Of course, I’m selling things, but I want you to like it, and I want you to wear it. I don’t want you to buy it just because I’m here. I want you to come back and be like, ‘Oh, I still have my top from last year, because it still looks good,’” Schmidt said. “That is the best thing ever.”
McAlexander and Schmidt are planning to host the next color analysis and styling workshop on Thursday, Feb. 20 from 10am until 7pm. Suzi’s Boutique is located at 823 4th Ave in downtown Grinnell. McAlexander’s 15-minute consulting appointments start at $40, with the additional option to purchase physical or online swatch databases.
