At South End stands the cosy little shop called Leokadia that has a wide, assorted range of jeans, belts, boots, and umbrellas. This European-themed store is run by an alumna of Northeastern University called Jessica Lynn. Named after her mother who was also a shoe fashionista who owned a 1000 square feet closet filled with shoes and handbags, this shop has been featured by the press multiple times. The shop has been designed inspired from the various trips Lynn had to Europe over her summers.
Lynn wasn’t a fashionista all her career. She is a 2003 graduate of finance and insurance, and worked at J.P. Morgan until she put down her papers one day. “I had no job, no prospects, no anything,” she says. She helped with the management of another shoe store at Boston for three years, after which, she decided to open Leokadia with the support from her father, who is in the retail business field.
She prides in being a store where people can find European goods that they wouldn’t be able to find anywhere else in the city. Attending shows at Milan and Barcelona, she searches for creative designers who are lesser known to people. One of the most desired items in her boutique, she believes, is the custom-made leather Repetto ballet shoe. She feels that there is a message that she is conveying to everyone who did not view Boston as a fashionable city before.
Lynn has won the Daily Candy’s Sweetest Things 2008 for her “impeccable taste”, while the Improper Bostonian featured her in an issue about bachelors and bachelorettes. Stuff@Night wrote about her favourite clubs as well. Lynn has huge ambitions for the future. She wants to open another store in the upcoming five years and expand her business.
N Malavika Mohan