Boutique Girls’ Night Out brings back memories

By Lauren Royce —

On Aug. 21, Theresa Lepkowski was bustling around what used to be her shop, right on Front Street in Owego, celebrating the new permanent pop-up of her items in the Owego Maker’s Boutique. Arranging clothes on hangers and having steamed away all wrinkles, she greeted familiar faces and hugged customers who had become like family, eagerly awaiting her visit back home. 

“It was nuts around 4 o’clock,” Lepkowski said. She was overwhelmed with how her ladies showed up for her, and her smile couldn’t be wiped from her face. 

New items for Lepkowski’s permanent pop-up in the store will be shipped in on a weekly basis and managed by Savanna Bennett, who has been working with Lepkowski and the shop for nearly a decade. “It’s like playing dress-up every day,” she said, and with a job like that, it’s tough to be bored.

Lepkowski closed down Lily’s Style Boutique and moved to Clearwater, Florida, to open her new shop, Dunedin (Do-need-in) in December 2024. But when Tompkins recently reached out with an idea to collaborate, a permanent pop-up of Lepkowski’s finds came to be.

Lepkowski said she made it back to town the prior Sunday and spent days unloading boxes of clothing she had shipped to her mother’s house to kick off the event. 

“The fact that now her highly sought-after clothes are back— super pleased, and everyone’s excited she’s back,” Tompkins said.