If it always confused you that 4 Seasons was the store that sold the perfume and sexy lingerie, while Allure was the one that sold the clothing that changed with the seasons, you can strike that conundrum from your list of troubling Ann Arbor nomenclatures. Now both stores have merged into Allure.
The lease at 4 Seasons expired at the end of March, and Abraham Hejazi, who opened 4 Seasons ten years ago and Allure about three years ago, didn’t see the point of maintaining two storefronts. The perfume (men’s as well as women’s) is now in Allure’s back room. Hejazi specializes in discontinued perfume brands–“things you won’t find at Macy’s. We travel a lot and buy from boutiques in Paris.”
“You might be able to buy them online,” adds manager Libbie Bollinger, “but then you’d have to pay shipping.”
The lingerie inventory has been pared down to the best-selling essentials (largely Hanky Panky thongs and boy shorts in every shade of the rainbow, and Betsey Johnson bras) and interspersed with the rest of the Allure inventory of dresses, bags, shoes, and jewelry. In addition to managing Allure, Bollinger, twenty-seven, is the buyer for everything in the store except perfume–and she says it’s a dream job. “It’s just like shopping. I read lots of fashion magazines, and every few months I go on buying trips to Chicago.” Young, slim, pixieish, she just asks herself “Would I wear it?” (A formula that doesn’t hold up for purses, she admits. She doesn’t know why women buy the purses they do and has had to develop some less subjective guidelines for that.)
“I’ve already ordered for fall,” she says. “I hate to say this, but it’s a lot of black and gray. I didn’t see a ton of color, but the sweater dresses are cute. And I have some great magenta heels coming in.”
Allure, 607 E. Liberty. 302-4060. Mon.-Sat. noon-5 p.m. Closed Sun. www.allureboutiqueannarbor.com
Got a retail or restaurant change? Send email to tonymcreynolds@tds.net or sallymitani@gmail.com, or or leave voicemail at 769-3175, ext. 309.
