Shopping feels like a stroll on the beach at Lou & Grey, a new retail pearl for women on Southport Avenue. Enter the loftlike space and the ocean washes over you in the assortment of soft chambray separates, sandwashed silk blouses, shell-pink linen tees and seafoam sweaters. Price points are just as breezy; $49.50 for gauzy jacquard shorts, $69.50 for an indigo-dyed sweatshirt dress, $59.50 for beach pants with the look of denim but in a sweatpant knit as suited to heels as sneakers.
Each Lou & Grey store in the cottagey venture — there are seven locations nationally so far — features an assortment of artisanal jewelry, apothecary and home goods, much of it from small-batch makers who live in the local market. On opening day for the Southport store, one shopper bought out the case of Mineralogy jewelry, from Chicago metalsmith Theresa Cowan (www.mineralogydesign.com). Other shoppers left with CSF Ceramics earthenware pots ($39.50 and $29.50) wrapped in tissue paper.
Francoise Olivas, who curates the artisanal assortment as director of new brand concepts for Lou & Grey, says she hopes to start a book club for women out of the store. One shelf there stocked copies of Lena Dunham’s “Not That Kind of Girl” and “Joni Mitchell: In Her Words.”
“A lot of women are such goers and doers,” Olivas said. “We give her space to exhale. Everyone needs that.”
Parent company is Ann Inc., which also owns Loft and Ann Taylor. Lou & Grey gestated within Loft stores but opened its first freestanding store in March 2014, intent on cultivating a distinct identity. Olivas and Lou & Grey design director Ardith Singh say they are operating with the spirit of a startup.
These days relaxed separates often are labeled “athleisure,” but Lou & Grey appoints women for the workday and nights out too, in denim, separates and dresses that include a blue dot drawstring shirtdress ($79.50).
A tip from Singh that can be brand-agnostic: She stocks her own closet with multiple sizes of the same Lou & Grey silk shirts and linen tees, wearing the larger size with skinny pants; the trimmer ones with looser bottoms.
“I don’t care what size it is, it’s how do you want to wear it?” she said. “V-necks I buy slouchier; crewnecks I like to be a little neater across the shoulders.”
Whatever the fit preference, the idea is that all racks at Lou & Grey lead to ease.
Lou & Grey is at 3442 N. Southport Ave. (www.louandgrey.com). Other locations are in Westport, Conn.; Pasadena and San Jose, Calif.; Raleigh, N.C.; Alpharetta, Ga.; Natick, Mass.