Sep 15, 2008

Wearing her art on her sleeveBy Julie Cope SaetreIndyStar.com

At age 6, Joan Carney was already a budding fashionista with a strong preference for selecting her own outfits on family shopping trips. During one such outing, she was allowed to choose only one pair of shoes for the upcoming season. Her parents suggested a practical black pair. Carney’s choice? Red.

“My dad said, ‘If she wants red, she’d better not ask for another pair in black (later)’,” Carney remembers. “And I got the red shoes, and I didn’t complain.”

Today, that self- described, deeply ingrained “passion for fashion” plays out in Carney’s wearable art shop, Lilly’s Boutique Gallery, in downtown Zionsville. A nod to Carney’s childhood nickname, Lilly’s stocks clothing, shoes, jewelry and other accessories crafted by artisans from around the world.

Adjoining Lilly’s is another Carney-owned shop, Z’Upscale Resale Consignment Boutique, carrying gently used designer clothing and accessories.

Carney says she has built a loyal clientele of women in every age demographic. In fact, despite current economic instability, her businesses have experienced their best two sales months ever this summer.

But the road to retail success wasn’t a direct one. Before launching Lilly’s in 1992, Carney was in a second marriage, caring for her stepchildren — she had already raised two sons from her first marriage — and working part time at Stacy LaBolt’s, a women’s clothing shop in Zionsville. But Carney knew she wanted to do more.

A native of Wisconsin, she had attended Marymount College in Tarrytown, N.Y., drawn by her fascination with the NYC fashion scene. After graduating with a degree in art history, she returned to Wisconsin, married and had her two sons. (“They didn’t have a fashion degree at that time. We were either teachers or nurses, and so I was a teacher.”)

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