Passionfly reopens as black market boutique

Bellingham Business Journal, Nov, 2009

Passionfly Clothing & Exchange, a women's clothing consignment store located at 2010 N. State St., closed in late September and reopened in mid-October as Black Market Boutique.

Owner Colleen Milton bought the business more than two years ago and has slowly changed many things about the business, to the point that she finally decided to revamp the whole operation and give it a new name.

"I've changed so much that it has kind of evolved into its own thing," she said.

Passionfly was focused more on namebrand women's clothes and Black Market Boutique offers vintage and handmade items for both men and women, Milton said. In the handmade section of the store, Milton offers locally handmade products from knitted hats to jewelry to one-of-a-kind T-shirts printed by Burly Girls.

The switch to vintage clothes better represents Milton's own style--and the market for trendy second-hand clothes has become more competitive, she said.

"Since I bought [Passionfly], there have been several new second-hand stores that have come into the market here in Bellingham," she said.

Along with renovating the 1,200-squarefoot space, an important part of updating the business was coming up with a new name. To do that, Milton said she imagined her shop as a sort of traveling fashion show full of items that can't be found anywhere else. Thus she came up with the "black market" theme.

"While I am being very legitimate about how I do business, I wanted to give this an air of intrigue and represent the kind of unique items that we have," Milton said.

For more information, call Black Market Boutique at (360) 756-9440.