Read any book about how to start a business and know that is the exact opposite of how hip’tique was created. Just two months after moving to Pittsburgh, hoping to one day open a boutique, I found a 120-year-old building on a great street in Shadyside. The building was filled with love by the previous owners who had an antique store for the past 17 years. However, the building was never rehabbed. I still told them on that day I was going to buy the building… and I did.

I went home, typed up a five-line agreement, met with the owners for breakfast at Ritter’s, and signed our lives away. Both sides knew full well the agreement would not hold up in a court of law. However, the trust was mutual and ten months later we closed.

Renovations began on the building and hip’tique was born. Everyone asks where the name came from. I wish I could tell you something more inspirational but here is the truth: After months and months of driving through the exciting back roads of Western PA while I worked as a sales rep for an industrial power company (not so hip ah?), my mind would be consumed with what I would name my newly purchased building. I would call my most creative confidants, Ande and Jill, on a daily basis, and throw out name after name. I wish I could remember now what some of them were. My brother was so sick of my calls that he bought me a tape recorder so I would stop harassing his family. Anyway, there is no story. Inspired by the open land, I passed another Amish buggy, and it hit me – hip’tique.

On exactly six months to the day of my closing, hip’tique opened. I said I would open on November 13th, 2004, and I did. However, nothing was priced and I had no clue how to operate the register. I was like a kid playing store. Since then, hip’tique has grown and changed numerous times since we opened. We dropped the ‘décor’ from our name and now carry great clothing lines, jewelry, and purses, as well as personal gifts for you, your home and even your baby.

That is our story… power tools to hip’tique. It was a huge transition but I can once again be a ‘hip chick’. I can wear a dress, bring my dogs to work, and listen to music while never being forced to talk about NASCAR again. Most importantly, I get to know the great people of Pittsburgh. Lesson learned – the books are not always right!

Thank you for helping me make my dreams come true!

—Christine Berardi