Have you strolled around the Crown Point Square lately? Nestled between the antique shops and restaurants is a gem of a boutique called mink64. It's a treasure trove of super stylish clothing and re-purposed home goods.

“Mink was founded in December 2013 after stomping pavement in NYC. Moving back to the Midwest allowed collaboration of styling celebrities, merchandising windows for big box stores, managing a store of freelance visuals, and educational fashion studies in Chicago let a dream develop into reality.

Selling trendy pieces of costume jewelry was the first step. By July 2014, mink evolved its collection and brought in merchandise. Selling to clients in several means, through the boutique, hosting trunk shows, along with being a handpicked vendor in Crown Point Indiana’s Hunt & Gather Pop-Up Market. By November 2014, mink had a collection of over 65 styles of merchandise and shoes.
”

— mink64

Kristen La Rocca and her Mom MJ Poracky opened the boutique in it's location on the Square together on Black Friday in 2015. Kristen runs the clothing side, while her mom gets creative with the home goods. Right when you walk in, we promise you will feel inspired by the decor and fashion. We love all the little details! It shows how much care and love Kristen and her mom are putting into this store and the things they sell. Are you curious yet?

We were excited to meet with Kristen to discuss a collaboration over lattes from The Sip. (A shout out to another cool place around our Square! We highly recommend the Honeybee and the Lavender-Honey!) Kristen let us know that she only orders 6 pieces of each item and when it sells out it's gone! So if you see something you like, don't hesitate. It's great to know that you will have an (almost) one of a kind piece. The best part is that everything is also very affordable. We feel like we are giving away a juicy secret here, but she gets new looks in all the time. Seriously, you need to check out this store.

The looks we had our eyes on had a very young and free vibe so we thought it would be a great opportunity for a few of our 2017 senior reps to model the clothes and have a fun styled shoot.

We were so happy that Maddie Chambers agreed to join the dream-team again. She's an amazing hair stylist that can whip up a braid or two on the fly. She also added the gold make-up at the end. We absolutely love what she comes up with.

Haley Johns was our makeup artist. She just graduated high school last year and is the daughter of one of our former brides, Angie. We thought it would be a great opportunity for Haley to work on a photo shoot and start building her portfolio.

Madeline doing some touch ups and switching up the hair on Jordin - Carmen's Rep from Lowell HS

For the hair and makeup we wanted to keep the vibe natural with an edge. Our models are natural beauties and we wanted that to shine through. We think the clothing, hair and make-up really brought out the young and free spirited vibe we were going for. We imagined these girls heading to a music festival or just hanging out at a party.

Alyssa and Abby - Jamie's Senior Reps from Lake Central HS - being fierce and rocking their outfits from mink64

To mix and match mink64's clothing was so fun. Everyone found something (or some things) that they fell in love with. Jordin, Abby & Alyssa were rocking it! They looked great in everything.

A big thank you to everyone who made this collaboration possible. Especially to Kristen and her Mom for letting us hang out in the store and pick whatever we wanted. We would have used every outfit in the boutique.

Fashion Mom (to be) Kristen - seriously how cute is she with this little baby bump?

Now that you have seen a sampling of what mink64 have to offer, make sure you stop in and see for yourself. Kristen and her Mom are super sweet and Kristen is about to be a Mom herself. As mothers and business owners ourselves, we love to support one another and wish her all the best!