Truth Fashion Boutique Moves into Eastwood Mall with Eyes on Expansion
By Hannah Werle
NILES, Ohio – Just a few months after opening their company, Auntashae Tates and Terrance Warran have moved Truth Fashion Boutique into the Eastwood Mall.
The store, which offers women’s clothing of all sizes, opened in Warren early February, but the co-owners decided on the move to increase their available space and take advantage of nearby foot traffic.
Truth Fashion’s grand opening will be held on Aug. 9, but the store will be open for business starting July 19. Despite the location not being open, the store does have an online shopping option with international shipping and in-store pickup available.
“We really don’t have women’s clothing stores near here… I said ‘Okay, well, I’m going to try to do it myself,’ ” Tates said at a ribbon cutting Wednesday. “I’ve always been an online shopper, so I thought I could shop online and then just bring it here.”
Tates and Warran have high aspirations for Truth Fashion. Beyond their original store, both hope to eventually expand the company to include menswear and franchise their boutiques.
“Hopefully, this will help us so we can open up more boutiques in different states,” Tates said.
“We want it to go through the roof,” Warran continued. “We want to have it be so that, if we can, we can have it expand. Not only to think inside the box, but to start thinking outside the box as well. Hopefully we can be elsewhere and in other places too; that’s what I want to do.”
The partners employ three including Lakira Gunther, a longtime friend turned sales associate. Gunther is thrilled to see her friends succeed. She hopes to continue working with the pair as the store progresses and to one day help them franchise and expand.
“There are no words for it. I’m beyond excited… It’s a big upgrade,” she said about the move
Joe Bell, director of corporate communications for mall owner The Cafaro Co., said it’s important for the mall to include locally owned businesses. The Eastwood Mall Complex, both inside the mall itself and on the outparcels, currently boasts 62 locally owned businesses, now including Truth Fashion Boutique.
“Independent businesses that really add flavor to the shopping center. They bring the personality of the community. They give people lots of niche products that they wouldn’t get anywhere else,” he said. “We think it’s a very positive thing to bring in local people to run their particular kind of business.”
Pictured: Co-owners Auntashea Tates and Terrance Warran will open the newest site of Truth Fashion Boutique next week.
Copyright 2024 The Business Journal, Youngstown, Ohio.
