Pasadena Lifestyle — Alternative Outfitters Q & A

Alternative Outfitters Boutique owner Jackie Horrick grew up loving fashion, but for a time was frustrated by retailers’ limited offerings. So she partnered with a close friend Henny Hendra in 2004 to create an online retail boutique that offered animal-free and environmentally-friendly clothing and accessories, such as jackets, wallets, belts, purses, shoes and personal care products. The web site was such a hit with contemporary shoppers looking for alternatives in their fashion that Horrick and Hendra decided to take a leap of faith two years later and open a store called Alternative Outfitters Boutique on Pasadena Avenue. In addition to being hailed as one of Pasadena’s top boutiques, the retailer has also received accolades from PEDA, Farm Sanctuary and Animal Acers. PSS reporter Jade Mangahis met with Horrick to discuss her fashion savvy retail store.

What was the inspiration for your boutique?
JH: Well I’ve been a vegetarian since I was nine, and I haven’t worn leather since I was sixteen so for years I’ve known the struggle to find clothing options that fit my lifestyle. However, I definitely didn’t know we would instantly receive so much support from local and national animal rights groups and all the vegans out there when we first launched the website. You know, when I was growing up there weren’t a lot of vegetarians or vegans. Everyone would kind of look at me oddly, but now, especially in this generation, there are more and more.

Do you feel your specialty gives you an advantage over your competition?
JH: Well we’re defiantly different. We actually do a lot of web sales. A good 10% of our sales are international sales. We also have people coming in from all over Pasadena, Los Angeles and Orange County to try on the things they’ve seen online. Then we have people coming straight from the airport with their luggage and everything! So the support we get, as I said earlier, from animal rights groups help market us online and thus allow us to reach a much larger audience. Though we focus on carrying difficult to find items that are safe and sustainable, we still want to also focus on the fashion. We want people who aren’t vegans to visit and still like our styles. The goal is to carry items everyone will want because the more they buy from us, the less they buy from them.

What are some of your more popular items?
JH: Shoes are defiantly our bestseller. We have a nice selection of shoes, we have J-41 Eco Design, Madden Girl, CL- the synthetic junior brand of Chinese Laundry- and so on. You won’t find flip-flops here because appropriate flip-flops are relatively easy for vegans to find. As you can see we have a wide variety of heels, wedges and boots because they tend to be more difficult to find. Our handbags also do well, because again, leather free handbags are difficult to find. Our personal care products do well, also.

What’s on the horizon?
JH: We really do hope to continue to grow. Possibly have more retail stores down the road. Someday we may even launch our own line of shoes or accessories, but that plan is not in our immediate future. We are really excited that the vegetarian and eco-friendly communities are becoming more main stream and people are becoming more aware that the choices they make in terms of their retail purchasing power really can make a difference. There is a true market for vegan and eco-friendly fashions and the brands are really taking notice and offering more fashionable alternatives to meet this demand.