Local fashions a few steps away from campus

You many have passed the Tough Love boutique a few times before you realized it was there.

And even when you did, you might not have gone inside.

But Tough Love isn’t an average clothing boutique. Ashley Reynolds, the owner of Tough Love, set up shop about a year ago in a quirky little building off Hillsborough Street, with bright walls and decorations accenting clothes that are, by her own admittance, “different.”

Tough Love carries independent labels and local clothing and accessories. Reynolds said the store doesn’t carry mainstream brands.

“As far as trends, I’m not the anti — but I try not to do what everyone else is doing,” Reynolds said.

The boutique carries one-of-a-kind pieces, many of which are made by local designers. Reynolds chooses to carry three local designers: Mi Scusi, Domino and Frou, a jewelry line.

With some research, she said she has found other independent items to sell in her store. Reynolds attends trade shows for independent designers and said she takes a lot of her inspiration from big cities like New York. She also carries the brands Almighty and Gentle Fawn, the latter of which is a popular label she said is not found anywhere else in Raleigh.

So what’s selling this season? Reynolds said vintage-inspired, cotton-knit dresses, jackets and anything organic is very popular.

And prices are right, as well, she said.

Prices range from $20 for a top to $110 for a dress or jacket.

“I try to keep price points pretty moderate so everybody can shop,” Reynolds said. Her passion for fashion, and her desire to make it affordable, can be a welcome gesture for the fashion-savvy girl during economic times in which jobs are scarce and financial investors expect 500-point Dow plunges more than they expect the market’s success.

The building where Tough Love is located used to be a Hispanic grocery store, and the building itself has been around for at least 25 years, she said, but the brightly painted walls give it a fresh look.

Mi Scusi, which means “excuse me” in Italian, is one of Reynolds’ local brands. The designer, Andrea Iacobucci, is from Winston-Salem and said she has always made clothing. She knits and sews using all-recycled materials.

For example, Iacobucci said she reclaims yarn from sweaters that she finds in thrift stores, washes them, sometimes dyes them, and then reuses them in her own pieces. She does the same with fabrics, as well.

Lauren Youngman, a designer for Frou, is a teacher but used to work at jewelry stores. Her love for vintage buttons, she said, has inspired her collection. She started making jewelry on the weekends, and now her line is taking off at Tough Love.

Youngman makes rings out of vintage buttons that she finds at “flea markets, Grandma’s jewelry box, and other people’s grandma’s jewelry boxes.”