Style and Quality at Boutique Firenze
Boutique Firenze fits like a glove for owner Bettina Weber. The shop reflects her Italian name, given to honour her father’s love of that country, her mother’s passion for fashion, and her own ongoing fascination for all things Italian, sparked by a degree in art history and fully lit on her first trip to the country.
She began selling Italian leather gloves to bring all those story threads together. “Everybody loves Italy,” she says, but her love runs deeper. She studied art history and thought a trip to see everything she’d studied would be an ideal honeymoon. It became much more.
On her return, she wanted to share the beauty she’d found and chose to sell fine leather gloves — affordable elegance. Her fashionable mother had always worn the gloves, the purse, the shoes to make an elegant outfit. Some of her mother’s collection is in the museum part of Boutique Firenze.
Of course, launching a business had a few bumps. “We learned some hard lessons the first couple of years,” says Weber. “Then we met reputable suppliers, and we began to grow. They are small, family-run businesses, but now they’ve become friends. They make marvellous things. Some soaps come wrapped in paper another company has created since 1264. This is what we try to bring back to our store.”
After selling gloves and scarves at a variety of venues, Weber opened her store eight years ago and now offers soaps and toiletries, jewelry, Murano glass, and accessories by local, Canadian and Indigenous artisans. And she has the largest selection of fine Italian gloves in Ontario.
“I love the reactions of people coming in,” she says.
Boutique Firenze is Style and Quality at Boutique Firenze, in-person shopping only, to provide that personal interaction and allow customers to see and feel the quality.
Her sister, Marlaine, provides graphic design, and Weber has a childhood photo of herself at a toy cash register while her sister is shopping. “And that hasn’t changed,” she says, laughing.
When she’s not in the shop talking with customers, Weber has been Middlesex County’s Emergency Management Coordinator for 20 years. The flexibility from them has allowed her to merge practical style and community safety with Italian joy for life.
FOR MORE INFORMATION
Boutique Firenze
189 Adelaide St. S.
519-649-4122
boutiquefirenze.ca
