Hello! We are Cathy & Corina, who started Azalea Boutique in July of 2003. We were introduced in San Francisco by a mutual Cornell friend and immediately bonded over our loves of good food and clothing brands like See by Chloe, James Perse, Sonia by Sonia Rykiel, Rag & Bone, and more. Our foray into the world of clothing retail began by throwing trunk shows in hotel rooms, nightclubs and Corina’s house. For the first year, what would soon be called Azalea consisted of two girls with a traveling rack of clothes, doing fashion shows and selling items online that we modeled themselves. After one really successful trunk show at Spa Bar, we decided to look for a space to make into Azalea Boutique. After exploring several different shopping areas but were most impressed with the atmosphere, location and existing businesses in Hayes Valley.
Since the store first opened in 2003, our customer base has steadily grown, allowing us to expand to nearly twice the original size in September 2007. And though the physical appearance of Azalea has changed quite a bit, our primary goals and foundations have stayed the same. We want the Azalea experience to be truly unique. We want every customer to be greeted at the door and treated as part of our family, and we want them to be able to find something to fulfill every one of their shopping needs – clothing, beauty products, accessories, jewelry and even a beauty treatment or two! In the same spirit of inclusiveness and eclecticism, we want to provide a variety of brands and styles – we are not afraid to mix high end A.P.C. jackets with $30 tees from SF’s very own Upper Playground or Milly party dresses with casual denim jackets.
But nowadays taking care of the customer does not just end with providing aesthetically pleasing merchandise. We also want our patrons to feel good about the items they’re buying and the beauty treatments they’re indulging in, and we are proud to say that we carry a wide range of eco-friendly clothing brands to choose from — Loomstate, Threads for Thought, Fuze, Stewart & Brown, Beau Soleil for example — and we only use natural and/or organic products for our nail salon services. At Azalea, you can help the environment and look chic too!
Besides, when you feet are tired from shopping all day long, what could be more perfect than a fabulous pedicure and foot massage?
