Feb 23, 2009

Boutique dresses, quaint gifts, community tiesBy Brian NeillBradenton.com

Bradenton, IL — To set the record straight: Rusty Crickett’s Coastal City Cottage is not an antique store, even though it began as a booth in one on Anna Maria Island.

Instead, the store in a quaint two-story cottage in downtown Bradenton is part gift store and part dress boutique that is a favorite of local teenage girls.

“We had originally started with gifts and cottage furniture,” says co-owner Charlie Kennedy of Rusty Crickett’s, 615 15th St. W. “And when I did college tours with my youngest daughter, every college town had clothing boutiques. So I called my partners and said, ‘We really need to do a clothing boutique upstairs.’ And so we did that and I think that’s been the appeal.”

Rusty Crickett’s had its rebirth and reopening in May 2007 and has been going strong ever since, Kennedy says. Downstairs there are decorative items like picture frames, glassware and pottery, all with coastal themes. There are also cookbooks and products from the Gullah Gourmet food line, based on the dishes of the African-American Gullah community in South Carolina’s Low Country.

Upstairs there are several rooms of dresses and quaint changing rooms. Rusty Crickett’s posts a collection of photographs of the girls in their dresses in the changing rooms and girls get a kick out of seeing their friends depicted in their cotillion and homecoming dresses, Kennedy says.

“The kids will come in and they’ll be like, ‘These are all my friends!’ You know, we really cater to the community,” she says. “We love the kids. The moms are happy they’re not driving to Tampa to get the dress.”

The boutique features Voom dresses worn by models like Paris Hilton and Eva Longoria, trendy scarves by Tolani and Tarina Tarantino crystal earrings.

But Rusty Crickett’s doesn’t focus on just higher-end clothing.

Read complete article.