Remember the game of dress-up? You know, the one where you invade your mother’s closet, walk around in shoes five sizes too big and smear a crazy amount of red lipstick on your face?
Well, Elizabeth Schmidt still gets to play dress-up every day—a more sophisticated version, of course.
The 23-year-old University of Florida graduate is a fashion blogger and the owner of Calzatura, a trendy boutique in downtown Gainesville.
Calzatura’s atmosphere is chic. It’s like a fashion creamiscle, with clothes of all colors and shapes. There’s statement jewelry covering the counter and drool-worthy shoes on display. There’s a lot of silk fabric in the store (Schmidt’s favorite), and although everything looks expensive, prices are always under $100.
“And you get wine,” Schmidt adds with a smile.
Yes, Calzatura customers are spoiled with wine, sushi parties, Mochi parties and periodically, discounts and contests posted on the Facebook fan page. Not only that, but Schmidt likes to style her customers, helping them find the perfect look for any occasion.
Schmidt acquired the boutique in 2010 when its previous owner listed the property on Craigslist. Her older brother, a commercial real estate purchaser, bought the building. He had been impressed with her work as creative director for the GainesvilleStyle.com and offered her the boutique.
“My brother realized the whole fashion thing wasn’t a hobby,” she said. “It’s what I wanted to do.”
Schmidt hesitated at first. She had planned on going to New York after graduation to get into fashion PR. After thinking it over, she accepted the offer—under one condition. She wanted a trial period of three months to test out whether she could make Calzatura a success.
“I’m two months in and things are good,” she said.
But owning a boutique can get tough. Schmidt spends most of her time working, and at first, she was very sensitive to customer opinions.
“Everything in here I’ve personally picked out—I’ve hand-selected,” she said. “You can’t help but take it personally when people comment or laugh.”
Schmidt goes on buying trips to Miami and Atlanta about every two weeks to shop for the boutique. In the beginning, the buying was hard. What were girls looking for? Should she purchase clothes she personally liked? A close friend then gave her the perfect piece of advice:
“Only buy it if you love it because you can’t sell something you don’t like.”
So she shops for all the different styles of herself, often displayed on her blog, Reinventing the Heel. One day she’s glamorous, the next day she’s hobo. Her styled outfits are always a hit with her followers, and she often features pieces from Calzatura. Today Schmidt is wearing a tan Ark & Co. shirt with square cut-outs, dark jeans, neutral Aldo heels and to tie it all together, her usual selection of bold accessories.
She’s obviously a perfectionist when it comes to the outfits because she points out that she always forgets to take off the hair-tie on her wrist for most of her posts.
“You know, I have to stop that,” she said, almost to herself.
When asked how she came up with her blog name, she credited her boyfriend, Julian Miller, but adds that the name was perfect because she loves shoes.
“That’s an understatement,” Miller muttered in the background.
Schmidt hopes her success with Calzatura will lead to more stores or an even better opportunity in the fashion world. One thing’s for sure—she doesn’t want to stop playing dress-up just yet.