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Kelli Vergotis knows her way around with needle and thread. The Portland fashion designer and founder of Vergotis clothiers also knows her way around the ultracompetitive fashion world.
Despite having had no previous retail experience, Vergotis is fast making inroads into the fashion market with her line of elegant, simple pieces sold at her own French-styled boutique, Vergotis, in Northeast Portland.
Opened just over a year ago, the boutique sells an average of 225 pieces of Vergotis clothing a month, outselling other lines in the shop by three to one, she said.
"The point of opening the boutique was to see how much of her clothes we could move into the marketplace," said Jeff Kahl, Vergotis' husband and business consultant. "As it turns out, while Kelli's line of clothes makes up only 30 percent of store's inventory, it accounts for 50 percent of overall sales. Our goal is to make Vergotis 50 percent of the store inventory, and we believe we can do that in the next six months."
The boutique, located at 1713 N.E. 15th St., carries a dozen...