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Elmhurst, IL —
When you walk into Enzee Boutique, it’s impossible not to wish it were your own personal closet.
Enzee Boutique’s name is a play on owner Natalie Zysko’s initials. She stumbled across the idea for a boutique while she was in college as a fashion design and fashion merchandising major. During her time at Dominican University, Zysko completed an internship at Sears and found herself in a cubicle by herself.
“It wasn’t me,” Zysko says. “I needed to talk to people and interact.”
After quitting her first internship, she was placed in an internship at a small retail store. Although Zysko had been involved in retail since she was 15, she never realized retail was her calling until the store owner took Zysko under her wing. Zysko thought it would be easy to start her own clothing business, and starting planning as soon as she graduated.
“There was nothing in the town here that had women’s clothing or anything so I thought it would be a good area for that,” Zysko said. “It’s a cute little town with a lot of families and women here and nothing for fashion. So, I thought, ‘let’s bring that here.’”
The store has evolved in the past nine years to what it is today — a small boutique with unique clothes and handmade jewelry for women of all ages.
“We cater to many different ages of women — anywhere from 17 to 80 years old,” Zysko said. “With jewelry and accessories, there’s so many people we can hit so we try to gear it towards that a lot. Our clothes are both misses and juniors so the sizes kind of range. We have different price ranges as well, anywhere from $20 to $200.”
Enzee has seven jewelry cases to display their extensive selection of jewelry. Zysko herself tries to make as much jewelry as possible for the shop.
“I’ve been doing it for a while now,” she says. “It’s peaceful for me. We repair jewelry and make jewelry in the back. I do a lot of brides’ custom-made jewelry for them. If there’s something that needs to be repaired or you have that outfit that you can’t find anything for, I have tons of examples and we can custom make something for you.”
The shop has stayed in business for so long because of the unique styles and up-and-coming fashions available at the shop. Esther Krause is a resident of Elmhurst that has been to the shop several times.
When you walk into Enzee Boutique, it’s impossible not to wish it were your own personal closet.
Enzee Boutique’s name is a play on owner Natalie Zysko’s initials. She stumbled across the idea for a boutique while she was in college as a fashion design and fashion merchandising major. During her time at Dominican University, Zysko completed an internship at Sears and found herself in a cubicle by herself.
“It wasn’t me,” Zysko says. “I needed to talk to people and interact.”
After quitting her first internship, she was placed in an internship at a small retail store. Although Zysko had been involved in retail since she was 15, she never realized retail was her calling until the store owner took Zysko under her wing. Zysko thought it would be easy to start her own clothing business, and starting planning as soon as she graduated.
“There was nothing in the town here that had women’s clothing or anything so I thought it would be a good area for that,” Zysko said. “It’s a cute little town with a lot of families and women here and nothing for fashion. So, I thought, ‘let’s bring that here.’”
The store has evolved in the past nine years to what it is today — a small boutique with unique clothes and handmade jewelry for women of all ages.
“We cater to many different ages of women — anywhere from 17 to 80 years old,” Zysko said. “With jewelry and accessories, there’s so many people we can hit so we try to gear it towards that a lot. Our clothes are both misses and juniors so the sizes kind of range. We have different price ranges as well, anywhere from $20 to $200.”
Enzee has seven jewelry cases to display their extensive selection of jewelry. Zysko herself tries to make as much jewelry as possible for the shop.
“I’ve been doing it for a while now,” she says. “It’s peaceful for me. We repair jewelry and make jewelry in the back. I do a lot of brides’ custom-made jewelry for them. If there’s something that needs to be repaired or you have that outfit that you can’t find anything for, I have tons of examples and we can custom make something for you.”
The shop has stayed in business for so long because of the unique styles and up-and-coming fashions available at the shop. Esther Krause is a resident of Elmhurst that has been to the shop several times.
“They have really original designs that are really cute,” Krause says. “You don’t see them anywhere else, so you know you’re getting something unique that no one else is going to have. They also have really awesome sales and jewelry.”
The clothes are different from what you might find at a more commercial retail store. Zysko travels all over the world to gather styles that fit well in her shop.
“I travel all over the place,” she said. “That’s one of the things I love about my job. We do a lot of our buying in New York, Los Angeles, we’re going to Atlanta in October, and I’m heading to Paris ... I spend a lot of my time traveling trying to find unique things to bring here to Elmhurst.”
Despite all of the stylish clothes and fancy jewelry, Zysko would like to think their customer service that makes customers return to the shop.
“It’s a good vibe in here,” Zysko said. “We want to make people feel at home. We specialize in making people feel good and making them feel confident when they walk out of here.”
