Online retailer, Shelby Jewel, to open in Williamsburg Village

Clothing store Shelby Jewel, which has a pop-up shop at Saddle Creek, will open a store in the newish shopping center Williamsburg Village in East Memphis this spring.

Owner Shelby Tucker said that clothing is her way of expressing her creative side.

“I’m not a painter or a drawer, so this is my art,” she said.

Shelby Jewel began as an online store, when she was given the opportunity to open in Saddle Creek.

“It’s crazy, because most people had to go from brick and mortar to online. And for me, I went from online to brick and mortar,” Tucker said. “I really wanted to create my shopping experience in person. That’s where Saddle Creek came in. It provided me an opportunity to figure out if it’s what my customers wanted.”

Turns out, they did. Tucker called customer response “amazing.”

The Williamsburg Village deal came about because Jonathan Aur‘s wife was a customer of Shelby Jewel. Aur works with Boyle Investment Co., which oversees Williamsburg Village.

Williamsburg Village, on Mendenhall near Poplar, has a number of stores and restaurants already open or in the works, including Mrs. Post Stationary, Southall Cafe, Crumbl Cookies, and Torchy’s Tacos.

Tucker was particularly enthused by the new spot because many of the businesses are woman-owned.

The new site is just over 2,500 square feet and she’s already leased the adjoining space so that she can offer new brands of clothes that are not currently available in Memphis.

The store will employ six people.

Tucker said that Shelby Jewel is the sort of place where folks can take a load off. When they enter, they are offered a drink — coffee or Prosecco. The goal is to offer affordable, easy classic styles for women of all ages.

What she’s bought recently has changed due to the pandemic.

“When the pandemic hit, I started seeing that people are working from home. I definitely had to adjust, but it was still things that I would have picked anyway,” Tucker said. “I want people to feel like they are put together but feel extremely comfortable. When it came to that, I picked things that were soft and flow-y, but when you’re on a Zoom call, you look like you got it together.”