Local Commotion

“If you want something unique and unusual, go to Local Motion,” says customer Abbie Kane. “They have things you’re not going to find anywhere else.” Word-of-mouth is owner Barbara Heinrich’s best form of advertising. “I’ve been in this location for twenty years now, so I’ve built up a big clientele,” she says.

As with any company, repeat business is one of the main reasons Local Motion Clothing has been successful. In retail, that translates into a constantly updated merchandise selection and customer service that excels above the competition. Heinrich, a longtime fashion designer, not only knows her customers by name, she remembers their previous purchases and makes sure to ask how an outfit went over. “What I hear a lot from my customers is that they’ll go to a party and ten people will come up to them and ask where they got the great skirt,” Heinrich says. “I just love it, and I think my customers like saying where they got things too, because it’s a smaller store.”

Women from twenty to seventy can find something here from the slew of miniskirts, T-shirts, coats, jeans, skirts, and dresses that crowd the racks, all in a great variety of prints and textures. Heinrich’s artistic eye for fashion is evident in every item and her eclectic energy is felt throughout the store. There may not be a rhyme or reason to the shop’s layout, but there is a definite rhythm.

The store carries styles from fashion capitals such as Paris and New York, but they aren’t the draw here. Locally designed looks are what make Heinrich’s store a standout. The store’s concept evolved from a designers’ co-op called the Warehouse Club, which Heinrich helped found twenty-five years ago in Minneapolis’s Warehouse District. Initially, a group of ten local designers rotated hosting Tupperware-style parties featuring group members’ newest creations. Designers invited their friends, who invited their friends, and so on. After the media caught wind of a party, waiting lines formed. Eventually, the group opened a tiny shop by the same name on 1st Avenue in Minneapolis, and members took turns manning the store. When they moved to Heinrich’s current Uptown location, twenty years ago, the co-op soon dissolved, but Heinrich kept the storefront, changed the name to Local Motion Clothing, and narrowed the concept to reflect her vision.

Heinrich started going to markets in New York, LA, and Chicago, and added items that weren’t available locally. Today, she still looks for “unique things that you’re not going to see at the malls, things that set the store apart.” A top concern for her is affordability, so she’s always working to keep prices down. Knit blouses start at $25; skirts and dresses typically are less than $100. This summer she went out of her comfort zone to stock a $659 wedding dress. “I’ve never really carried anything that expensive,” she says, “but I just fell in love with that design.”