[ad_1]
DOUGLAS — A small business in Douglas has announced the completion of an expansion and has reopened for the year.
The store, Endora — 36 Center St. — opened in 2019 shortly after Layne Postilion returned to Michigan from Chicago. Originally from a small town outside Detroit, Postilion left the state as soon as she turned 18.
“I ended up living all over the place, but ended up in Chicago,” Postilion told The Sentinel. “I became an interior designer, which I thought was my dream job. It really turns out that interior design is just like high stakes marriage counseling and I really didn’t like it as much as I thought I would.”
Postilion and her husband started looking for seasonal towns, seeking a career that matched her love for travel.
“I wanted to build this business plan around this idea of showing people the world on my Instagram and then letting them see what I bring back and have it in the store,” Postilion said. “I started doing that as soon as we moved.”
Postilion has traveled to Paris, Morocco, Italy and London to name a few. Each time she visits a new destination, she does it with a specific item in mind.
In Morocco, she rode a donkey for hours to the top of a mountain to find a tiny tribe that makes a unique type of rug. Each rug tells a story. In addition to bringing rugs to Douglas, she learned how to read them to customers.
“Now I love to match those rugs up to people because those in the tribe believe that if you relate to the story attached to the rug, the woman who made it never really dies,” Postilion said. “So now I have rugs around babies being born and love letters and things like that.”
Postilion has collected a little bit of everything. Today, she sells jewelry, books, candles, clothes and journals, and also offers fresh and dried local flowers.
“Every single piece in my store has a story,” she said. “I try not to talk too much, but every piece has an origin, a provenance, a woman whose imagination is attached to it, and I love to tell people all about those stories.”
The store is closed from late December through the end of March, but Postilion hosted her grand opening this month and is officially open for 2023.
“I was kind of afraid when I moved here that people may not like me, that they wouldn’t like my vibe,” Postilion said. “But they love it, and there’s such a local community of cool girls who I love so much. I am so fortunate to be a part of that.”
For the month of April, the store is open Fridays-Sundays. In May, she’ll add Thursdays. During the summer, the store is open every day but Tuesday.
“I really feel like I’ve cracked the code,” Postilion said. “Because I’m off and I get to focus on the travel part and then I’m here and I can focus on the store. It’s super validating.”
In addition to her recent expansion, Postilion is also revamping and working the store’s website — endorashop.com. To see more about Postilion and her travels, follow her on Instagram at endorabohemian.
“Everything in my store is a doorway to a woman’s imagination, and a room full of that is a pretty magical place.”
— Contact freelancer Austin Metz at ametz@gannett.com.
[ad_2]
Source link