Native opens beach boutique on Black Rock Turnpike
FAIRFIELD — The bluish tint of the Caribbean Sea has inspired new ground for Fairfield's boutique scene.
A gift shop named Ocean Blu Boutique opened its doors on Black Rock Turnpike late last month with a diverse inventory of home goods, jewelry and more, filling an intricate, blue-toned display that matches the surrounding walls. Owner Nancy Varsos said Ocean Blu extends a boutique scene that was largely missing from the area surrounding Black Rock Turnpike and previously confined to downtown Fairfield.
“I have always been on the Black Rock side, and we said ‘There's nothing up here,' “she said. “There's not a store like this up here.”
ASH Hair Salon & Blow Dry Bar moved into the space that the boutique now occupies in 2019, but has since moved onto the Post Road. Varsos' venture was a leap from the more than two decades she spent in human resources training and development, but as she reached the end of her most recent contract, she saw the store as a fleeting opportunity to fulfill a lifelong dream.
“I always loved to decorate, always loved to color, wanted to go to (Fashion Institute of Technology) when I was a kid, but it just wasn't an option. Parents didn't necessarily want me to,” she said. “But I always dreamed of opening a little beach-type store.”
Varsos said she was sitting in Curaçao during a vacation in January, looking out at the sunset and the ocean's mix of colors when she came up with the name that now welcomes shoppers walking in from White Birch Plaza.
As a self-proclaimed “beach person,” she's crafted the coastal theme at Ocean Blu with years of experience living and vacationing near the water, having grown up in Fairfield and visiting the likes of Cape Cod, Mass., and Sanibel Island and Siesta Key in Florida, not to mention her annual stay in Curacao, on the Caribbean Sea.
The beach aesthetic
permeates the shop's interior design and product selection. Part of the Ocean Blu collection comes from artists spread throughout the region, not just larger distributors. Watercolor paintings from Bridgeport, photographs of bees out of Milford, pewter and silver from the studio of a Rhode Island man and scarves from a woman who weaves in upstate New York all appear within the Fairfield retail space.
She values products that can tell a story and distinguish Ocean Blu from its downtown competition.
“There are things that you won't find anywhere else in Fairfield,” Varsos said.
Varsos said she looked to other businesses, like her favorite gift store in Cape Cod, to brainstorm the makeup of her store supply, which she hopes to fill with pops of color, and fine quality items that
pique shoppers' interest. Her search for inventory has resulted in touches like a weathered postage desk from the 1900s, still bearing the zip codes from its former use, and towels embroidered by Haitian women that raise money for families from the country.
Her products range from simple — candles, towels, hand cream and soap — to elegant, including ceramics and $300 to $400 jewelry. Potterymade
toothpick holders, scented candles and soap from Newport, R. I. have been among the quick sellers so far, she said.
“It's a piece that you put on your coffee table, and you talk about it,” she said. “You wouldn't think about adding that until you come in here, and that's kind of the fun, is ‘I want something unique that changes the personality of my home.' ”
Varsos wanted to bring those retail options closer to the quieter reaches of Fairfield's Greenfield Hill neighborhood and other towns further north, like Easton and Redding. She said her store has become a source of community and conversation for the locals who've stopped in during the first few weeks in business — a role she hopes to continue filling as she settles into her new career.
“We're like ‘It's a bar without alcohol,' “she said of Ocean Blu. “They come, and they sit on the little chair back there. And they relax, and they tell us about their kids and their background. And I want it to be that environment. You feel like you're walking into your home.”