Female entrepreneurs Nathalie Vleeschouwer and Karine Vally join forces and strengthen their collaboration with a new brand store within La Bottega
Since Saturday March 8th, the Nathalie Vleeschouwer shop by La Bottega is open. The shop-in-shop is housed in a separate department. On about 160m2 you can experience the entire Nathalie Vleeschouwer universe as if it were a brand store.
The collection has been sold at La Bottega since 2011, making them one of the brand's most loyal retail partners. The range has been expanded steadily, but has struggled to keep up with customer demand.
Nathalie Vleeschouwer: 'We regularly received requests from customers for a real brand store in Hasselt, but this was never an option given our good collaboration with La Bottega. This is the best possible scenario for us: the end customer experiences a real brand store and we strengthen our partnership with La Bottega.'
The interior of the store has been redesigned by Nathalie's husband, Jan Bevernage. The look is in line with the recently renovated brand stores in Antwerp and Knokke, with custom wood and marble as mood makers. Daughter Felix also repeats her feat with an impressive wooden 3D cabinet with sculptural elements. Design and execution are by hand, just like in the other renovated brand stores.
This family of 'makers' fits in well with Karine Vally's business operations. Both women started their business in the early 90s and, together with their husbands, they each expanded the business to major players in the Belgian fashion landscape, always independent of investors. Both Karine Vally and Nathalie Vleeschouwer won the WOMED award from Unizo for female entrepreneurship, respectively in 2008 (Vally) and 2010 (Vleeschouwer). There is therefore a lot of mutual respect between the two enterprising women.
Nathalie Vleeshouwer shops at La Bottega
Paardsdemerstraat 9
3500 Hasselt
Monday to Saturday, 10am – 6pm.
Photos by Jef Van den Bossche