Fashionistas Find Beauty Around Town

It’s a sunny Saturday afternoon in Downtown Crossing’s CVS store, and urban consumers are browsing through the cosmetics aisles. It’s a hodgepodge of shoppers—black, Hispanic, Asian, and white—and marketers of the new philosophy of global branding battle for their attention: Milani makeup for multicultural skin tones; Pro-Line’s hair care line for African American men; Sunsilk’s Anti- Esponja, designed especially for Latino hair.

Despite the push to grab the international fashionista, shoppers like Victoria Alicia Lopez can’t always find the products they want. An executive at Stop & Shop, Lopez drives from her Boston home to as far as Lawrence and Rhode Island for treatments and products that “cater to the African American woman.” Originally from the Dominican Republic, she says, “I would not walk into just any chain salon or mall. They would not be able to do my kind of hair.”

Like many other Boston-area women of color, Lopez prefers independently owned shops tucked into small ethnic enclaves around the city. These homegrown, mom-and-pop operations are neighborhood establishments that still retain family folksiness and ethnic spiciness. “I am friendly to everyone who walks in my door,” says Hoian Nguyen, a jewelry designer and owner of Kim Do Jeweler on Kneeland Street in Boston. Nguyen is one of many foreign-born retailers around the city, operating clothing stores, beauty salons, discount outlets, and other shops.

“Immigrants own more than 8,000 small businesses in the greater Boston area,” says Cheng Imm Tan, director of the Mayor’s Office of New Bostonians. “They contribute greatly to Boston’s economy through entrepreneurship.” In Roxbury, Helen Roy, a West African immigrant, has operated the busy Helen’s Hair Connection on Washington Street for three years, offering cornrows, dreadlocks, relaxants, and deep conditioning. Hair extensions, natural or synthetic strands that Roy skillfully weaves into the scalp, are the most requested service, she says. “Black hair is different; it’s coarser and thicker. We know how to take care of the professional black woman so she looks good.” Next door, the Beauty Supply Supermarket, owned by Korean native Cho Song, offers shelves full of hair picks, barrettes, beads, dyes, shampoos, and gels. Margaret Clark, a native of St. Lucia who now lives in Dorchester, shops for a conditioner for her dry hair. “I keep my hair natural,” says Clark. “I was created beautiful.”

Across town, fashion designer Kim Pham of Kim’s Fashions says her clientele includes

Chinese, Vietnamese, Korean, Cambodian, and Japanese customers. In her small Chinatown shop, she custom designs handembroidered cheongsams, kimonos, and ao dais, all traditional Asian wear. “Customers can pick brocade silk, satin, and other fabric and have matching shoes and bags made,” says Pham, who escaped Vietnam in the 1970’s with little more than the dream of starting a clothing store in America. “I hope someday to be a household name as a designer,” Pham says, who also has a store on Huntington Avenue in Boston.

Brazil has become the largest source of immigrants to Massachusetts, according to a report from MassINC, and Brazilian-owned clothing stores can be found everywhere from Allston-Brighton to Framingham. A shop called Yes Brasil on Commonwealth Avenue in Boston caters to a mostly Central American clientele who shop for items like the popular Vide Bola jeans, which “fit very well on the body,” says owner Berenice Belamarich. “Brazilian clothing is known for hugging the body and showing it off.”

But as geographic boundaries blur and pan ethnicity spreads, more shops are becoming crossroads for all cultures. Simons Shoes in Coolidge Corner is a United Nations of footwear, with form-fitting Ecco boots from Denmark, comfortable sandals from Israel, and Mephisto French sneakers, “the finest walking shoes.” In this Brookline community where kosher restaurants and Judaic offerings abound, other neighborhood institutions such as Wild Goose Chase carry everything from jewelry crafted by Israeli artist Michal Golan to an elegant red silk Mandarin dress.

And as more and more multinational styles filter into the mainstream—African caftans, Tibetan quilted jackets, Russian sheepskin fur cuffs, Spanish shawls, and more—many designers like Pratima Kayiti, a native of India and owner of Neha’s in Westford, find themselves serving both “typical Americans” and more recent émigrés. Kayiti sews kurtis tunics and salwar suits, as well as the more traditional sarees. “People from all countries like the Indo-western styles, especially the embroidery, bright colors, and fabrics,” she says. “My customers include those with eastern ancestry and those who just like the fashions.”

Indeed, as Tan, of the Mayor’s Office of New Bostonians, says, “Community businesses know the skin and hair types of their culture, but they also serve the outside community as well. Everyone is welcome.”

Debra Moses-Owens of Dorchester, shopping for beauty products at Looking Good in Roxbury, said it best. “I shop anywhere and everyone. My money is the same color wherever I go.”