‘Life is short, wear cute clothes’
Valerie Ragaza-Miao opens her second Valerie Joseph boutique at Ward Centre
Ask Valerie Ragaza-Miao her last name and she hesitates. Depends why you're asking. Ragaza-Miao would be her legal name; in design circles she's known as Ragaza; and the fashion crowd addresses her as Valerie Joseph, the boutique that bears her name combined with her husband's.
Valerie Joseph
» Grand opening party: 5 to 8 p.m. Saturday
» Place: Ward Entertainment Center (former Pink C space, down row from Coldstone Creamery)
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Context is everything, and Ragaza-Miao brings that philosophy to her boutique, creating context to reflect the lifestyle, the ambience, in which the clothing is intended to be worn.
"I want people to feel it when they walk in, feel a certain aura. It's truly an experience here."
Ragaza-Miao opened her first boutique two years ago in the McCully Shopping Center, and on Saturday celebrates the opening of her second, in the Ward Entertainment Center. The boutique offers trendy, affordable apparel and accessories for women, i.e., tops and dresses running $36 to $105, plus a small men's section catering to her clients' boyfriends.
And shoppers seem eager to adopt her mantra, "Life is short, wear cute clothes."
"I realized it when I was coming up with a mission statement. It helped define the company and what we're trying to do.
"I've seen mission statements that are paragraphs long and you read it and go, 'What does that mean?' I wanted something simple that people could relate to and remember."
JAMM AQUINO / JAQUINO@STARBULLETIN.COM
Yasmin Dar wears a Valerie Joseph label keyhole dress, $75, inside one of the boutique's well-appointed dressing rooms.
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Ragaza-Miao had a diverse retail career before branching out on her own, "working for many operations of all sorts," she said, running down the list of everything from off-price retail, to swimwear, to tuxedo rentals.
"All of that helped me to develop an overall picture of how the retail industry functions," she said. So, when she wanted to start an interior-design business four years ago, she drew on her retail experience.
"Interior design uses the same basic principles as fashion. You're working with color, texture, silhouettes, but instead of working on a wall or body, you can take it to the home and office."
Now she's drawn on her interior-design skills to bathe the shopper in an aura of luxury, with a chandelier centerpiece, counter of antique Chinese cabinets and plush dressing rooms designed for comfort.
Most of all, she prides herself on providing the kind of service she wants when she shops. This would include her "At Your Service" program, which provides a personal shopper to pull appropriate garments, a reserved dressing room, refreshments and a free gift with purchase.
The drawback is that clients can become dependent. Now busy with the Ward store, Ragaza-Miao said she's been getting calls from clients in McCully who've grown accustomed to hand-holding and miss her help and advice.
She apologizes, saying, "I love working with clients. I'd rather be with them than being in the back doing paperwork, but I think I have to be here (at Ward) for a while."
JAMM AQUINO / JAQUINO@STARBULLETIN.COM
Sean Jones wears a Dragon dress shirt from Mondo, $105, with metallic studs and dragon image in back, and metal dragon embellishment in front. Yasmin Dar wears a C. Luce Inc. cocoon dress, $68.
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JAMM AQUINO / JAQUINO@STARBULLETIN.COM
Yasmin Dar wears a To the Max dress with lace detail, $118, and $17 necklace, while Sean Jones wears an embroidered shirt by Mondo, $98.
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JAMM AQUINO / JAQUINO@STARBULLETIN.COM
Valerie Ragaza-Miao drew on her experience working for diverse retail companies in creating her lifestyle boutique Valerie Joseph.
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