Local retailer expands to Brookwood Village

After spending years in Riverchase Galleria as a kiosk station, Amy Harper recently found a more permanent home for her business, Harper Lane.

“It started as a 4-by-6 kiosk at the Galleria, and I expanded it three or four times to a point that I was 16-by-16 and they said, ‘Amy, you have to get a storefront because you can’t expand anymore,’” she said. So, she moved her boutique to Brookwood Village, just a few windows down from the food court.

“I just wanted to be here since this is a revamped, up-and-coming place to shop again,” she said. 

The Birmingham native said her storefront is about 1,500 square feet, a size that gives her the chance to greet and interact with her customers. 

“This is, I think, the best area to be in right now,” she said.

And she’s just a short walk away from another store she owns in the mall, Indigo.

Indigo was opened about two years ago, and Harper describes it as an art gallery filled with gifts and decor handmade by local artists. 

“Aesthetically, it’s completely different from this store,” she said. 

Using her interior design background, Harper created all that Indigo is today. Some of the handcrafted accessories sold in Indigo do cross over to Harper Lane, such as Harper’s own creations and accessories made by Gypsy Queen.

But her intention for Harper Lane is to be a women’s clothing boutique, she said.

“I definitely think they needed a women’s boutique,” Harper said of Brookwood Village, noting that previously, her kiosk featured only jewelry.

 Upon moving in to the new storefront, Harper said she ordered all new clothing to be sold in the boutique, but she tends to avoid “southern markets.”

“Those southern markets, everybody ends up with the same exact thing in their storefront windows. And I wanted to be different,” she said, noting that everything she orders comes from Los Angeles. She described the feel of her clothing to be similar to that of Altar’d State.

She carries a variety of clothing, and although there isn’t necessarily children’s clothing, she said there is “something for everybody” in Harper Lane. “I still adjust bracelets for young ones all the time,” she said.

The storefront Harper Lane is in is technically temporary, as Harper already has a signed lease for a 4,000-square-foot space across from Books-a-Million in Brookwood Village. And she has big plans for the future.

Harper said she wants to carry “anything you can accessorize your living space or your body,” in her future business, she said. The larger space would serve as both a clothing boutique, as Harper Lane is now, and an interior design showroom, where she could feature locally made furnishings and decor. Indigo would remain as more of an art gallery, keeping the two stores distinct.

“I like how different they are,” Harper said. “And giving Brookwood Village two different types of stores to shop in, plus being my own competition, is just smart retail business.”

Harper Lane is open from 10 a.m. to 9 p.m. Monday through Saturday and from noon to 6 p.m. on Sunday. Indigo’s standard hours are noon to 5 p.m. Tuesday through Saturday, although Harper said it is often open for longer hours. 

Learn more about Harper Lane on Facebook, @harperlanebrookwoodvillage, or call 223-1259. Learn more about Indigo on Facebook, @indigoboutique, or calling 585-5381.