Jill Elliot opened Haberdashey Boutique on a chilly March day of 2001. She was three months pregnant when her retail space came to life in the 450-square foot back room of her father’s Main Street music store. That first day, she said, she sold one two-piece set.

“It was yellow,” Elliot said. “A yellow tank set with a ruffly sleeve, button down the front, and a short, to-the-knee skirt with a ruffle on the hem. It was a yellow floral.”

A quarter century later, Haberdashery Boutique now resides at 221 East Main St., in a space over five times the size of its original location. Elliot also opened Black Chalk Home & Laundry, a furniture and gift store, on Lincoln Street in August of 2017.

Elliot grew up in the north suburbs of Dallas. Her parents moved to the Hill Country while she was studying interior design at Texas Tech University.

Fredericksburg instantly felt like home, Elliot said. After graduating college, she began her design career working under Carol Bolton, who now owns Carol Bolton Hicks Antiques.

During the five years she worked for Bolton, Elliot fell in love, got married and decided to start a family. By 2001, she said she was ready to do her own thing. Her husband, Danny Elliot, gave her $5,000 to start her retail venture.

“Here we are, both in our twenties and he believed in me so much that he cashed in [his retirement] account for me to have that seed money for Haberdashery,” she said. “And then Tony Klein from Arrowhead Bank — it was the first year that they had a branch in Fredericksburg — he gave me my first commercial loan and also believed in me as a young 27-yearold that I was going to do well!”

Three months before the boutique opened, Elliot and her mother, Susie Thompson, traveled to the wholesale clothing market in Dallas called Dallas Market Center.

“It was pretty daunting because it was just sort of a dungeon,” she said. “There was no light and it was just a series of hallways. I didn’t have any brands I knew at that point, I was just coming with money in my pocket to spend and hoping to see something that I liked.”

A mannequin in a green chiffon two-piece caught her eye at the market, she said. She passed the window display 3 to 4 times, she said, before Thompson persuaded her to inquire about the price. Inside the showroom, Elliot discovered racks full of feminine, pastel clothes from a brand called Nataya, which would become an iconic staple of Haberdashery Boutique for years to come.

“I think if anybody is looking to start their own store, they have to be 100% trusting of their own decisions and creative vision for something that is entirely theirs,” Elliot said. “When they do that, that ending package will be entirely cohesive. Just trust yourself.” Early Years

During the store’s first year, Elliot said she and her father, Randy Thompson, would pass newborn Tucker back and forth as they helped customers shopping for clothes and musical instruments. Locals began wearing Nataya dresses from Haberdashery Boutique to weddings, galas and graduation events, she said. Word-ofmouth kept the store alive.

In 2004, Haberdashery Boutique moved to a new location at 203 East Main St., just down the street from the present-day space. The historic building had high ceilings and the clothing racks were hung with local designs from Magnolia Pearl and feminine, ruffled dresses, Elliot said. She remembered rolling clothing racks into the new store as her second baby, Cora, crawled around the sidewalk.

The clothing store has lived in its current location since 2013. Now, Elliot enjoys around 3,500 square feet of retail space. About ten years ago, she said, she added men’s wear to the shop.

“It has been a great hit because there’s not a lot of stuff to do for the men in town and they kind of get bored,” Elliot said. “[Men’s clothing] is about 25 percent of the store now. So in addition to the women’s stuff, when men come in, they’re not twiddling their thumbs, waiting for a park bench.”

Haberdashery Boutique has kept a consistent brand image throughout its 25 years, Elliot said. She credited this to the lesson she learned at her very first retail market in Dallas — Elliot said she buys what catches her eye.

“If I don’t love it and I won’t put it on my body and I won’t put it in my home, then I will not put it in the store,” she said. “That’s been my foundation from the get-go, and it’s kept the look very cohesive.”

Present Day

This past year was particularly hard for local businesses, Elliot said. She started Third Thursday last October, an initiative where locally owned stores and restaurants host events, specials and experiences.

“[Last year] there were some stores on Main street that had been here for a very long time and were like, ‘We might not make it through Christmas if something doesn’t change,’” Elliot said.

Seventy five local vendors gathered at Marktplatz in 2025 to hear Elliot talk about the county-wide decline in sales. The retailers decided to launch a dedicated, monthly locals night.

“If you haven’t been to Main Street, push that preconceived notion out of your head that we’re too busy, no parking and we’re too expensive,” Elliot said. “I think if we can get more of our locals to realize that, even if it does take you one circle around the block to find a parking spot, it’s worth it.

‘Think of that money that you’ve generated in the sales tax that you’ve put into our community instead of the San Antonio community, or Austin community,” she said. “It’s just going to go so much further when you spend that dollar in town.”

At February’s city council meeting, Elliot and Bolton reported that 2026 is looking hopeful for local retailers at restaurants. For this month’s Third Thursday on March 19, she said Haberdashery Boutique will serve mimosas and host a pop-up for an artisan clothing brand out of Dripping Springs called Upcycled Atelier. As always, Elliot said, she found the brand by looking for designs that she would wear.

“I think style is so personal,” Elliot said. “It’s how you see things mixing, it’s how you put outfits together. I just want to feel like I’m unique, and I think style allows you to create that uniqueness where you want to turn a head and you want somebody to go, ‘Oh that’s really fun, I would have never thought about putting those two pieces together but it totally works.’”

The old laundry building houses modern furniture, decor and gifts. Elliot said she stocks with the same method she uses at Haberdashery Boutique: she buys what fits her style. — Standard-Radio Post/McKenna Dunworth