Today we’d like to introduce you to Susan and Hope Roussilhes.
Susan and Hope, can you briefly walk us through your story – how you started and how you got to where you are today.
My younger daughter Hope and I had always talked about opening a women’s boutique. We didn’t know when, and we didn’t know where, but we always knew our boutique would be ours. I had worked in retail during my college years but decided to go into teaching after my children were born. As Hope always had an interest in fashion, we would sit for hours looking through Vogue and Harper’s Bazaar in addition to many other fashion magazines and talk about what we wanted for our boutique. While attending college she interned and worked at Anthropologie and then, she met Oscar PR Girl and interned at Oscar de la Renta in PR in NYC for 2 years, and she learned a great deal about fashion.
As my older daughter Alexandra attended college and then medical school in Boston, we knew that we needed to be together as a family. So, after Hope completed her MBA, my husband Philippe retired from his position, I retired from teaching and we moved from South Jersey to the Boston area to be a family.
Hope, Philippe and I scouted locations around Boston and ultimately settled on Newbury Street. We wanted to come up with a name for our store that had a special meaning for us. Our entire family are animal lovers and we’ve had amazing furry companions. Our first was Max, a Maltese. When Max passed, we were distraught. It took about 2 years to find our Riley, a Maltese-poodle. He completed our family. Unfortunately, Riley passed. We were devastated. We decided to name our boutique after our 2 beloved dogs Max & Riley. It fit. Our dogs are not just pets, they are our family, so when Max & Riley passed we wanted to honor them in this special way.
We wanted to develop a boutique with a sense of edgy, fashion-forward style. We talked to many stylists and fashionistas and curated a collection of trendy, interesting, and fashionable designers.
We have loved every minute in our boutique Max & Riley and we love our adopted city of Boston.
Has it been a smooth road?
Absolutely not – the road has sometimes been a bit rocky! We learned along the way, and some of those lessons were painful and pricey. Some styles just didn’t work in Boston. We learned exactly who our customer is and that meant a lot of experimenting with designers. It took a bit of time to get to know the Boston woman because we were used to a bit of New Jersey in our styles. We quickly learned and now we think we’re offering styles and designers that our customers love.
So let’s switch gears a bit and go into the Max & Riley story. Tell us more about the business.
Max & Riley is a women’s boutique, and that is our specialty. We have developed into a dress store. Many of our customers come to us for special occasions – weddings, rehearsal dinners, bridal and baby showers, graduation and bar and bat mitzvahs, galas, charity events, evenings out, engagement parties, and fun nights out. We’ve become known for our dresses and we were even named Boston’s Best Party Dresses for 2017 from the Improper Bostonian.
We are most proud of our boutique being a family business. We are so proud that each member of our family participates in some way. My husband does much of the bookkeeping and accounting, my older daughter Ali helped us with planning an amazing charity event to benefit Massachusetts General Hospital and specifically the department in which she practices – neurology. She helped with the planning and she was so involved in every aspect of the event. She’s also done some modeling for our Instagram and we have to say that she is one of the most fashionable neurologists in Boston. My son-in-law has often helped putting displays together. Even my little 2-year-old grandson Jackson (Matt & Ali’s son) has gotten in on the act. When he is in the store with us, he greets customers and his drawings add color to our store.
I’d like to think that what sets us apart is our customer service. Hope and I pride ourselves in helping our customers find the perfect outfit and going above and beyond for our clients. It means so much to us when we hear back from customers that they got the perfect dress and felt so wonderful in their new outfit. We love when customers come back to shop with us again and again.
How do you think the industry will change over the next decade?
It’s undeniable that retail has shifted to a significant online presence. Brick and mortar stores, especially independent boutiques, have a challenge in competing with online retailers. Competitive pricing, getting your name out to the consumer, and keeping up-to-date will be more and more of a challenge in the future.
Contact Info:
- Address: 226 Newbury Street
Boston, MA 02116
2 Elm Square #1
Andover, MA 01810 - Website: www.shopmaxandriley.com
- Phone: 617-236-1431
- Email: shopmaxandriley@gmail.com
- Instagram: @shopmaxandriley
- Facebook: Max and Riley
Getting in touch: BostonVoyager is built on recommendations from the community; it’s how we uncover hidden gems, so if you know someone who deserves recognition please let us know here.
