Passion for fashion

Moses Lake woman opens new women's clothing, apparel store

MOSES LAKE - Angela Clay appreciates her neighbors.

The owner of Liberating Style, located at 210 S. Division St., sits in the center of a number of different businesses.

Clay rattles off the names of the businesses, whose customers will come over and talk to her or are places where she can run across the street for a quick cup of water, in appreciation.

"It's just been such a nice atmosphere," she said.

Clay opened her business in Moses Lake June 19.

"Before, I started my business in a little trunk and sold jewelry," she said. "I would take it to work and sell at lunchtime, just people I met out in the community."

From there, Clay began offering her wares at fairs, then started carrying clothes from within her living room.

"Then I remodeled my garage into a store, and I just wasn't getting the foot traffic I really wanted," she said.

She began her home-based business in 2006. It started out as an interior design business, but Clay ultimately decided to pursue her interest in fashion.

"I like to shop, so why not turn my passion for fashion into a moneymaker?" she said.

Originally from rural central Virginia, a trip to Washington, D.C., turned Clay onto the city life and how people dressed.

"I just think your clothes and the way you carry yourself tells a lot about a person," she said. "I think we can convey who we are through the clothes we wear without even having to really say a word. A lot of people have the same passions I do for clothes. Sometimes, just having what you want that's fashion-forward, that you see in the magazines, is hard to find."

Many of the styles Clay saw in magazines were not readily available in Virginia; she experienced the same feeling when she first moved to Moses Lake in 2001.

"The things I was used to on the East Coast, I couldn't find over here," she said. "So I said, 'Stop complaining about it and do something.'"

After much prayer and perseverance, Clay decided to open the store downtown.

"A lot of my steady customers came to me and said, 'You know, I've met so-and-so, and they really like my clothes and my jewelry, but they can't find you,'" she said. "They couldn't get the concept it was a home-based business. Because of that influx, I decided to go ahead and open a store down here."

Some days are busier than others, Clay said. She plans to continue her involvement in fairs, enjoying the ability to get out and meet people and bring her product to the customers.

She is working to create a Web site for her business, and plans to add junior sizes in addition to the plus sizes she already includes at Liberating Style.

"Don't let the fact I carry plus size keep you away," she cautioned. "I think sometimes in our society, being voluptuous and being curvaceous have such a negative connotation, now the industry is seeing more than half of America is plus-sized."

She also anticipates being able to expand to hire employees once the Web site is up and running, and hopes to design her own clothes eventually. A men's line may even follow down the line.

"I just think the millennial group, they are just dynamite," she said of people college-aged and in their 20s. "They have a killer lifestyle, they know what they want - they say they'd be back, they will be back to purchase. I think that's what's lacking in the town, just stuff for them."

Even though she is a member of Generation X, Clay feels she teeter-totters between the two age groups, but she hopes everybody can find something at her store, including those not yet entering their teenage years.

"I really want mother and daughter to be able to shop together, so they can have a shopping experience together, is what my goal is," she said.

Clay likes to carry a wide variety.

"I keep my accessories trendy and funky, so I can always have something for (pre-teenagers) and then I keep some of my clothes for the women that need to go to work but still look fashion-forward but still look professional, and then I have something for someone who wants to go out on the town and still look jazzy and classy," she said.

The business' fall hours begin Tuesday, and run Tuesdays through Fridays noon to 7 p.m. and Saturdays 10 a.m. to 7 p.m. For more information, call 509-764-0940.