Mourning the Closing of My Favorite Go-to Boutique

Free Reign Style Our Brand

Dressing Washington’s fashionistas for decades

Liz nailing her wedding dress in one try with Trina Turk

For 32 years, Betsy Fisher – and her eponymous Washington, DC boutique – has curated collections of inspired – yet not outrageously expensive – designer clothing. A magnetic trove of treasures, Betsy and her store pulled in women who defied Washington’s reputation as a place of bland professional wear and backwater fashion. Our love of Betsy’s talent for selecting the best of standard bearers like Hilton Hollis and creative teams like Philadelphia’s Heyne Bougut – and her excitability for dressing you when you walked in the door – brought us back time and again.

Betsy’s loyal devotees kept her business healthy and thriving even as Washington endured a series of economic recessions and an urban renewal that spurred ever higher rents. But as with so many retail establishments, COVID-19 has been one storm too strong to survive. With downtown streets empty, workplaces reinvented, and special occasions moved to a virtual universe, the search for a fresh piece for your everyday wardrobe or that special occasion ground to a halt. My heart broke when I read Betsy’s letter that she would be closing up shop.

I’ll admit it: Betsy saved me from a bland and uninteresting Washington wardrobe. She’s been my fashion navigator and muse for over a decade. Betsy turned business casual into something creative not just comfortable; sold me gala dresses that turned heads but didn’t break the bank; and saved me when I was trying to figure out what at girl at 52 should wear when marrying her wife at a farm wedding. It’s true. With her help, I bought the first dress I tried on. And, because Betsy and I are built so similarly, from the moment I walked into her boutique, she always knew exactly what would fit me.

With a heavy heart, I went downtown to wish Betsy well on her next adventure. She heads west to Colorado with her husband Lyle at the end of the month. We spoke about the future of retail, what looks best on smaller-busted women like us, and the value of a versatile piece like Free Reign’s Everyday Tank in your wardrobe.

For 32 years, Betsy Fisher – and her eponymous Washington, DC boutique – has curated collections of inspired – yet not outrageously expensive – designer clothing. A magnetic trove of treasures, Betsy and her store pulled in women who defied Washington’s reputation as a place of bland professional wear and backwater fashion. Our love of Betsy’s talent for selecting the best of standard bearers like Hilton Hollis and creative teams like Philadelphia’s Heyne Bougut – and her excitability for dressing you when you walked in the door – brought us back time and again.

Betsy’s loyal devotees kept her business healthy and thriving even as Washington endured a series of economic recessions and an urban renewal that spurred ever higher rents. But as with so many retail establishments, COVID-19 has been one storm too strong to survive. With downtown streets empty, workplaces reinvented, and special occasions moved to a virtual universe, the search for a fresh piece for your everyday wardrobe or that special occasion ground to a halt. My heart broke when I read Betsy’s letter that she would be closing up shop.

I’ll admit it: Betsy saved me from a bland and uninteresting Washington wardrobe. She’s been my fashion navigator and muse for over a decade. Betsy turned business casual into something creative not just comfortable; sold me gala dresses that turned heads but didn’t break the bank; and saved me when I was trying to figure out what at girl at 52 should wear when marrying her wife at a farm wedding. It’s true. With her help, I bought the first dress I tried on. And, because Betsy and I are built so similarly, from the moment I walked into her boutique, she always knew exactly what would fit me.

With a heavy heart, I went downtown to wish Betsy well on her next adventure. She heads west to Colorado with her husband Lyle at the end of the month. We spoke about the future of retail, what looks best on smaller-busted women like us, and the value of a versatile piece like Free Reign’s Everyday Tank in your wardrobe.

Liz nailing her wedding dress in one try with Trina Turk

The Future of Fashion Retail

Liz: If feels too early to bury the concept of the boutique. Do you think this is a prolonged devastating downturn or a retail turning point? How can women continue to find your style of personal touch and knowledge of independent designers as retail consolidates and e-commerce proliferates?

Betsy: It will be prolonged – and it is a devastating downturn. A positive aspect is that excess retail per square foot per person and excess inventory will decrease. A huge downside is that we can’t even conceive of how badly this will affect people all around the world who manufacture clothing and components but live on the margin of starvation.

This type of specialty retail will always be appreciated by the few who can take the time, enjoy the personal attention and care deeply about their appearance. Stores like this will reemerge, but it’s going to take special entrepreneurs who love both the challenge of finding the pieces and matching them to people who come through the doors.

It takes skill to make money doing this. There is nothing easy about it.

The point of choosing a boutique for shopping is that when you come in, there’s somebody (owner or staff) who cares about what you’re wearing and sees you. Seeing is more than visual, it’s getting a sense of who you are. You can’t do that on e-commerce. You might be able to get a sense of personality with repeated Zoom meetings, but the in-person benefit of touching and feeling fabrics makes the experience less compelling and interesting. Good shopping is an incredibly tactile experience. The need and the desire to participate in the personal, tactile experience will drive merchants and customers back to specialty retail businesses.

The Best Styles for Smaller-Busted Women

Liz: You and I have connected over our similar bust size and the limited offerings of bras with the comfort, coverage and shape for our needs. Having dressed so many women over the years, what clothing styles work best for those of us whose busts fall on the smaller end of the spectrum?

Betsy: We have more options open to us. It’s slightly easier to be smaller-breasted and find clothes that work. We can wear crew necks. We can wear v-necks. We can go with a deeper v without too much cleavage showing. We don’t have to worry about our breasts walking into the room before we do, and our shopping experiences don’t revolve around making sure that doesn’t happen!

Crafting a great look depends on shoulder size. If you’re narrow in the shoulder, you need to consider how to balance your top and bottom. If you’re broader in the shoulder, relative to your hips, you balance more naturally, and that proportion and good posture make it easier to wear clothes.

A Tank Top with Polish and Built-in Convenience

 

Liz: I’ll be ever grateful that you served as a wear tester for the Free Reign Everyday Tank. You’ve always carried at Betsy Fisher classic layering tank tops in solid basic colors. What’s unique about Free Reign’s take on this essential piece?

Betsy: The Free Reign tank marries a polished fabric with built-in convenience. With a 2-in-1 design, you save me trouble. I care about a finished look and the line a top creates. It’s great. I feel comfortable wearing it under a suit jacket and I prefer the substance of the Free Reign tank to a thinner layering piece.

I also really appreciate the seamless chest band. I was once traveling and extremely self-conscious about not wearing a bra because I had developed a long-lasting bruise from an underwire that was misshapen. If only Free Reign had been around then. . .

The Free Reign tank offers freedom, health, ease and polish.

Liz: Free Reign is a new brand that reimagines the bra top into a modern, elevated basic for smaller-busted women. Do you have any advice for us as we build our market for ultra-comfortable yet fashionable wardrobe essentials?

Betsy: Reimagining an essential is a super challenging undertaking, and now that your product is out in the market, my advice is simply to be open to where customer reaction takes you. Every designer puts their baby out there with the goal of reaching a particular market segment, but I love that your market is broader – and narrower – than expected.  No single item fits every small-busted woman because bust size is a single variable, but it’s marvelous that some larger-busted women are also finding their way to a product that offers them comfort, support and ease of wear. Keep looking for the common denominator of the women who gravitate to Free Reign to indicate the way to follow-on products.

When Betsy and I finished our conversation, we toasted over a sip of champagne to Betsy’s next chapter and Free Reign’s future.

We spoke about the ways Betsy would find a silver lining in her pandemic-spurred closure and migration to the beauty of the Great West. Likewise, I reflected on my own good fortune for having known Betsy and her shop, Betsy Fisher. Thanks to her I built a classic, enduring wardrobe, though largely unworn during these past pandemic months, that will still look and feel great long after the doors shut on her fabulous boutique.

Fashion curator extraordinaire Betsy Fisher sporting Free Reign Everyday Tank
with her Marie Saint Pierre jacket