There’s no obvious connection between customers at a women’s boutique needing help with a chunky necklace and customers at an appliance store needing help with a troublesome oven. Elaine Felag, however, knows differently.
Felag’s father and uncle launched Barrington Radio and Electric Inc. in the 1940s, and Felag worked there during high school. Her brother and her cousin still run the business.
“I answered phones,” Felag said. “I know a lot about appliances. During the holidays, people would call that their ovens weren’t working and they couldn’t cook their turkey. We’d take them our own and eat dinner late.”
Those lessons in customer service have served her well.
For more than four decades, Felag has owned and operated Feminine Fancies, an upscale women’s boutique on County Road in Barrington, where clients can browse through racks of colorful dresses, handbags, lingerie and sweaters.
Felag grew up in Barrington. “There was camaraderie,” she said. “I still have good friends from then. It was nice growing up in a small town.”
While she was in high school, she also worked at the local Cherry & Webb, a now-defunct women’s apparel chain. She liked funky fashion and would wear her grandmother’s castoff orthopedic shoes and 1940s dresses. It gave her a hint of what was to come.
“It clicked in my brain that Barrington needed a lingerie store,” she said.
But it took a while for the entrepreneurial bug to take hold. Felag went to Providence College and majored in political science, thinking she’d become a lawyer. She then switched to social work because she liked helping people. After graduating, she worked for the Arthritis Foundation, as well as in hospitals and clinics.
“I was mostly counseling women, especially when things weren’t going well and needed answers,” Felag said. “I dealt with child services and domestic situations. It was depressing.”
By 1982, it was time to try something new: operating her own store on County Road.
“I gave myself five years and if it didn’t work, I’d go back to social work and get my master’s [degree] and maybe open a practice,” she said.
By then, she’d married Walter Felag, a local politician.
“I didn’t take a paycheck, but my husband said don’t worry about it, and I didn’t take one for several years,” she said.
Early on, Felag created her inventory of underwear, pajamas and maternity wear by contacting people in the lingerie field, then meeting them at her mom’s house. She also visited New York City showrooms.
“It was mostly men in lingerie sales back then. It was kind of weird but also awesome,” she said. “I thought, ‘What do men know about women wearing a bra?’ But they knew a lot.”
She’d learned from her dad’s business the importance of good customer service, opening early for a client, for example, or dropping off items at their house. She was also one of the first in town to hold a men’s night at the store, typically near Christmas or just before Valentine’s Day, she says.
“We served hors d’oeuvres and hired professional lingerie models,” she said.
Not surprisingly, a lot of men attended.
“One time, there were people outside handing out cookies as a kind of protest, but the audience for the show was men bringing their kids to buy a present for mom. It got me a lot of publicity,” Felag said.
Felag says the business has changed over the years. During the 1980s, shoppers spent time carefully looking through items on the boutique’s racks; in the 1990s, the influences reflected mall culture and global branding. After that, it was less-expensive fast fashion from China, which Felag didn’t want to follow, so she shifted some of her business to online and Instagram.
Her clients range from professional women to stay-at-home moms, and their tastes have shifted from high-end office wear to something more casual. Along with the oversized look and eco-friendly sourcing, it’s a trend that accelerated partly due to COVID-19, she says. Customers range from 12-year-olds to women in their 90s.
Over the years, Felag has learned one of the most challenging parts of the business is ordering.
“Don’t overbuy,” she said. “Since I love everything, especially color, I have to do spreadsheets to make sure I don’t buy too much.”
She also stays current with the fashions by going to shows around the country, tracking trends: what’s sustainable, what’s hot when it’s slow versus fast fashion. She tries to have something for everyone, but a recent worry is the effect tariffs will have on merchandise, from higher costs to whether store deliveries will be delayed in customs.
Another big factor: weather. Climate change is affecting her business.
“In a cold, rainy spring, people don’t want to buy summer dresses. They may only want a sweater,” she said. “If it’s a hot fall, people aren’t looking at winter coats. Global warming affects people’s buying trends. It’s a buy-now, wear-now culture.”
