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Kyle Bursaw // Curb Magazine

Designer Destination
Madison's unexpected fashion jewel


From her Madison apartment, Cari Schulman starts her morning routine. She wakes up, checks her e-mail, checks her Facebook and then Shopbop.com. With one hand on the mouse and one scooping spoonfuls of cereal, her eyes flicker across the screen as she searches for her latest obsession. Then she stops. “Is it sold out?!” she yells to her roommate down the hall. “Is my flapper dress really sold out?” She lets out a disgruntled profanity under her breath but continues perusing the website.

Shopbop.com has become the go-to site for fashionistas all over the country. Offering one of the most extensive assortments of designer clothing online, it has been featured in magazines such as Lucky and InStyle and has a celebrity fan base ranging from Cindy Crawford to Hilary Duff. Despite its high fashion profile, the company actually got its start in the heart of the Midwest – Madison.

The website was founded as an extension of a State Street store, Bop, which continues to operate as the only store affiliated with Shopbop.com. Located between Badger Liquor and Pizzeria Uno, the spot is a far cry from Rodeo Drive. The store, however, offers designer clothing such as Marc Jacobs, Juicy Couture and Diane Von Furstenberg, venerated fashion brands.

Lindsey Greenwald, a former Bop employee, says fashion-conscious undergraduates often come in to find a special top for going out. “It’s also the only place on campus sorority girls can go for like nice, cute formal dresses,” she explains. Aside from just local sorority girls stopping in, the store has become a sort of Mecca for out-of-towners.

Such is the case for University of Michigan student Ally Yura, who has made the pilgrimage to Madison for the Bop clearance summer sale for the past five years. Her family drives up from Chicago the night before the sale so they can line up by 7:30 a.m. and be among the first to scour for deals. Yura says most of the items are a lot cheaper, but with $600 coats and $450 purses, the bill still adds up.

“We’re not extravagant, big spenders,” Yura says. “But it’s a shopping spree we do once a year.”

Greenwald says other busy times include weekends when the Badgers play schools like Michigan or Indiana, when a lot of students who had heard about the website, but didn’t know there was a store, come in. “They were like in shock,” she remembers. “It was kind of lame.”

Schulman lives just blocks from the store, so instead of making a once-a-year trip, she can stop as often as she pleases. “They have great purses, and sometimes when I’m feeling blue, I buy one,” she says.

She notes she prefers to view the website daily for fashion ideas because, unlike the seasonal displays at the store, Shopbop.com changes its “What’s New” section every day. “Every day except Sunday,” Schulman points out. “So sad that I know that.”



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