A Passion for Fashion

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Women's clothing store owner never Jaded about her business

When Peoria-area native Jade Venovich got the chance to come home and pursue her self-professed "passion for fashion," she jumped at it.

Five years later, business is good at Belle Mie, one of many locally owned specialty retail stores at Junction City Shopping Center at Knoxville Avenue and Prospect Road in Peoria.

"It was a lifelong dream of mine to own a high fashion clothing store. Fashion has always been my passion and now I am living that dream," Venovich said recently at the store while her two small Yorkies patrolled the premises – or sat on the lap of a visitor.

Venovich was in New York, working as a buyer in the household goods department of a large department store when she learned Miss Goody Two-Shoes was closing its store at Junction City.

Living in New York, the fashion capital of the United States, had also been a dream, one she lived for two years. But coming home to open Belle Mie was an opportunity she could not pass on.

"It was a bold move," she admits. "I think a lot of people, most people in fact, expected me not to make it selling this kind of fashion in Peoria. But I'm still here after five years and business is good."

She averages 50 to 70 hours a week at the store, making sure everything is to her liking, because she has too much riding on its success.

Part of that success, Venovich said, is the fashion she is able to bring into the store or order for her customers if she doesn't carry it in stock.

Some of it is fashion and labels she doesn't think many others in Peoria could get and she attributes her ability to do so on the knowledge she gained working in retail in New York.

Some of the brands that can be found at Belle Mie include BCBG, Vince, Ella Moss, Joie, Alice & Olivia and True Religion.

"Belle Mie is Peoria's exclusive contemporary clothing store offering designers found only in the bigger cities," says the store's description on the Internet.

She describes her clientele as women who are fashionable and fun, who know a good thing when they see it. "My customers become my friends and they know I will do what I can to get them what they want. That kind of service helps the business, of course, but it's also something I want to do for my customers," she said.

Her merchandise is pricey, Venovich said, but if people want the labels she offers they will pay for the name – and for the quality.

Venovich said she agrees with other Peoria-area retailers who believe there is no reason for anybody to leave Peoria to shop, unless its strictly something they want to do.

"Anything they need they can get here in Peoria. If its not in stock at a store, it can be ordered. Even people who own businesses here in Peoria still go to Chicago to shop and it can get frustrating. But again, it's personal choice," she said.

"But I promise you, I can get them what they want here."

Belle Mie
Junction City Shopping Center
5901 N. Prospect Road, Peoria
(309) 693-7777
www.newjunctioncity.com

Offers exclusive contemporary fashions carrying labels only found in larger cities,

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