When considering the best, the most opportune time to open your first business, all the data points to the moment when you’ve just become the single mother of your third kiddo with a couple fresh credit cards to max out. Four of five successful businesswomen will agree.
This is how the story of Orleans's Salty Crown Boutique starts. Kelly Lungo, born and raised humbly in Brewster, stashed her co-stars, the aforementioned little ones, under display tables & behind the counter while she built up the business she’d set to simmer on low heat for 10+ years.
Beware Gateway Uggs
It was after climbing into the proverbial conversion van to score her first fix in high school (a Coach bag and a pair of Seven jeans) that she started chasing the elusive red-bottom dragon. When we talked to Kelly we were positive there was some fashion icon or lighthouse she was rowing toward. Were there color schemes that whispered to her in dreams? Nope. Was she trying to impress guys so pretty she wanted to cry? No again. Could it really be just Delia's catalogs? Cosmo and Teen Beat mags? Back issues of Bop with the ripped out pages taped to the walls? Friends episodes? We pushed, we prodded, we did everything we could to lead the witness …
Finally she broke (the pressure of heavy interrogation can break even the most ostinada) and through tears of distress and curses & slurs, she revealed that one of the most forceful factors was curating the shop itself, that it would be her signature. “All boutiques are like the fingerprints of the owners.” And her shop has the evidence to prove that’s true.
“I really try to keep a laid back vibe in my shop. I like to hear the laughter when they read some of the cards or the candles. There’s good music playing, my playlist is a lot of 80s and I love when customers sing along while they shop.” That approach has harvested her a handful of regulars who appreciate her dedication to the approach. Are there personal shoppers at Salty Crown? No, but “I have a lot of customers that know I know what they will like when they come in. I love helping them find something that makes them feel good, confident, and comfortable, I really think it matters whatever age you are.”
If you’re familiar with the Salty Crown’s instagram you’ve seen the running theme: Kelly’s mirror selfies styling the stock. The shop has its own rotating color palette, it’s got long running staple brands (looking at you, Nikibiki), and it still has those same offspring bouncing around - 8 years older and fully equipped with an office to hideout. The more ambitious of whom flashes her wares for you at the register.
“That's the experience all of us boutique owners aim for our customers to have, an experience you can't get online. Not to mention you're supporting a local family, and the money you are spending is staying within the community. That's why shopping small is so important! And I'd say more than ever right now.”
But the distinct style of the shop wasn’t the only thing about running her own place that drew Kelly in: empirically we know, when you’re putting everything on the line to build a life-dream on the rock solid foundation of a brick & mortar retail business (what?!), that the massive risk will obviously provide … structure and a semblance of stability in life? Yup. Compared to the raw fuckery of the restaurant world, where she worked for many moons up until the doors opened in 2017, that’s exactly what the Salty Crown did for her - kept the boat in calm waters.
The Long Way to Window Display
To make sure she’s able to give her customers a dose of product they’re not going to find just anywhere, Kelly hits the markets: Dallas Market, Coterie in New York, Magic in Vegas … it’s not just road trips up & down Speedway 6 to local shops anymore. Maybe her eyes light up walking through the convention floor racks with her niece, Chayse (burgeoning fashion critic & sales rep at Salty Crown) – but she keeps her discipline. Would she wear that skirt or those shoes? Yes. Will those sell in Orleans? “Excuse me, do you have any other cream tops?”
I’m sure the post-market brainstorming sessions are lively (maybe wine soaked?) sparring match up between the Challenger “what do you like best?” and the Undefeated Champion “what will we move in the store?” Some of us pull for the underdog but he probably doesn’t sell tickets to the show. But the real curation has to happen then, the moment she presses her thumb into the ink pad and prepares to leave the next season’s mark. She’s gotta thread the needle between what she knows will appeal to the crowd that pass through Orleans and what she wants to look at every day when she walks through the store. And that’s a risky puzzle because you never really know if you’re going to sell out and need to scramble for another box of something ... or if you’re going to unload something you swore would fly onto the sale racks. Not for the faint of heart.
Permanent Gold
When Salty Crown Boutique is headlining the bill and they come out to raging fans and people tossing various unmentionables on stage, screaming for the hits … what are the hits?
Jewelry! A good part of the store is claimed by jewelry - and the hot shit right now is permanent. There’s a small touch weld machine to bind bracelets. There’re a ton of earrings, necklaces, and rings. Those are movers. Bags too. Sunglasses, candles, lotions. During the summer, the bright colors are it: dresses, tank tops, lightweight longsleeves … those move over (or out) for the brown & other neutrals in the fall. Pullovers, hoodies, jackets.
Another thing you notice walking the floor in the Salty Crown, Kelly doesn’t stock up on typical Cape fare. Aside from a BEACH hoodie or a woven sweater with a lobster on it (would you like that in blue or white?), you don’t find shells or vials of sand to take home. The local talent she’s showcasing is her own. That’s not to say she’s not tied into who’s doing what in the area - we learned about artists she’s worked with who helped with the design & decor in the shop, photographer friends who help her to stay dynamic - but if you can find it somewhere else, it’s less interesting to Kelly to have it there.
Ya Know, For Kids
Another strong move she makes every year is working with the fashion photography program at Nauset HS. She has the kids come to the shop, pick out some looks, style themselves, and stage a shoot. Yes it’s altruistic and encourages kids to lean into an interest that’s likely less common in the area, but it’s also a way for her to see what the youngs are gravitating toward. The ig page is littered with young ladies on the beach or in the shop mirror showing off in the most confident and wholesome way possible.
It’s not impossible that this is something that Kelly is excited to give back because it’s not something that was available to her. It wasn’t so easy to pull the deep-seated drive to open the business from her and I’m not confident we even got half of the motivation in the limited minutes we spoke but, to paraphrase the great Christopher Walken (as Vincenzo Coccotii, a potential friend of the elder Lungos?), “she doesn’t want to show me nothin but she’s tellin me everything.”
The humble, maybe even tough, beginnings, the taste for out of reach style, the fuck-college path, the leap into massive uncertainty at a most-vulnerable moment, and, ultimately, the success she found when she took flight … giving opportunity and inspiration back to the girls who could have been her or her friends seems to be a deeply satisfying thing she’s taken on. Bravo.
A Change in the Weather
The next big event coming is Kelly’s addition of an ecomm store, which will give her opportunities not only to dial up the off-season offerings but also to be sure the visitors who find her in the summer can stay on top of what’s turning her wheels in the colder months. With some shares and proper algorithming, Salty Crown Boutique will find fans and customers that outstrip the tourist traffic between the holidays. That in and of itself will provide Kelly with a real opportunity to pick up a few of those items she leaves on the post-Market brainstorm cutting room floor.
Salut to that.
