New women’s clothing store in downtown named for owner’s daughter
Published in the November 25 – December 8, 2015 issue of Morgan Hill Life
To see our Business Profile video of Olivia’s Hope Chest Boutique, click HERE.
By Robert Airoldi
Photo by Marty Cheek
From left, Tami Dober and her mother Marilyn Dober in the recently opened Olivia’s Hope Chest Boutique located in the former Just G’s shop in downtown Morgan Hill. The store will participate in Small Business Saturday Nov. 28 and Ladies Night Out Dec. 3.
Mother and daughter team Marilyn and Tami Dober have high hopes for their Morgan Hill women’s clothing store business. They are so confident that the city’s downtown is on an upswing, they recently opened Olivia’s Hope Chest Boutique in the former Just G’s Boutique location between Second and Third streets.
The boutique got its name from Tami’s daughter, Olivia Hope, and the fact Marilyn’s mother has a hope chest that today sits in the store’s front window. Olivia’s Hope Chest sells new clothes and accessories. The styles offered from the store’s rack are business casual to casual.
The inventory includes skirts, slacks and a lot of stylish blouses. There’s also a “country corner” with western-style tops, belts, jewelry and boots. Olivia’s sells clothes ranging from sizes small to 3X, catering to the working woman who dresses fairly casual for work.
They are not specifically targeting the young women, Tami said.
“Since we are fairly new, we listen to what the customer is looking for and if we don’t have it we go out and seek those styles and accessories,” she said. “Right now we’re evolving. We just keep trying new stuff to see what people like. We’re going to go with the trends and the seasons.”
The two women, who along with Tami’s brother Doug own Windvest — which makes after market motorcycle windshields — opened the new boutique despite the dust, noise and frustration of the ongoing downtown construction because they believe in the future of Morgan Hill.
“I think there’s going to be a big influx of tourists. And with all the building going on, a lot more residents will be here in the coming years,” said Marilyn Dober, Tami’s mother.
“It is slow now because of the construction, but we felt that it was a good business opportunity with all the changes coming to downtown. And we feel like it will be great change for customers and we wanted to offer something a little bit different,” said Tami.
The store will participate in the upcoming Ladies Night Out event, sponsored by the Morgan Hill Downtown Association and scheduled for 5 to 9 p.m. Dec. 3. Olivia’s will have a local jeweler on site selling his selection. It will also be open and participating in the Giant Snowflake Scavenger Hunt set for 10 a.m. to 3 p.m. on Small Business Saturday, Nov. 28.
Olivia’s is bringing in some special dresses for the holiday party season that will make women stand out in stylish fashion, Marilyn said
“We are going to have some really cool dressy dresses,” she said. “The bling is coming for the holidays!”
