Angie Courtney in her new shop on White Street. (Photo by Dustin Racioppi)
By DUSTIN RACIOPPI
An ideal night for Angie Courtney usually goes something like this: Hitting the town for dinner, drinks, and then a couple hours of lingerie shopping. And she suspects that’s the case for a lot of women in the Red Bank area.
And so Courtney is bringing sexy back to Red Bank.
The 28-year-old maven of unmentionables this week opened Sweetest Sin Boutique, a seller of lingerie and other items she hopes will prove popular with lace-loving shoppers in the area.
“People are walking in and they’re excited,” said Courtney, of Aberdeen. “They’re like, ‘We’ve been watching, we’ve been waiting for you to open.'”
Even before she’d opened her store, Angie Courtney drew a crowd during the Red Bank Sidewalk Sale in July.
Nestled on White Street kitty-corner from Starbucks, Sweetest Sin is the first business in town to try picking up where Spykes left off. That purveyor of naughty undergarments closed its doors on Shrewsbury Avenue three years ago with plans to reopen on Bridge Avenue. But the reopening didn’t happen.
Courtney, who refers to herself as the Chief Executive Sinner, has gussied up the space with flowers and chandeliers amid walls of bras, nightgowns, beauty products, “and then panties galore,” she said.
She pretty much has it all, carrying popular brands like Ed Hardy, Betsy Johnson, Spanx, Hanky Panky and Wacoal, as well as her own line of loungewear. She’s got sizes from extra small to 4x, from Double-A to Double-G.
“I can fit everybody,” she said. “It’s definitely diverse. I have something for everybody.”
One of her main focuses at the shop, though, will be consulting. She says a majority of women are unknowingly walking around in ill-fitting intimates. So she offers a private space in the back of the shop for fittings.
“There are so many factors that go into your bra size. Most women don’t know that,” she said.
Courtney will also hold wedding showers and bachelorette parties, which she’s already started booking, hopefully a sign of future brisk business, she said.
Despite this shaky economy, Courtney believes it’s a worthwhile gamble to open up a shop of luxury items now. She had been selling lingerie from her former home in California and decided that she wanted to make it her life back home in New Jersey.
“People were kind of telling me, ‘Why start now?'” Courtney said. “But why not? There’s nothing in the area like this.”
And she thinks Red Bank is the perfect location to run this kind of business. Time will tell, but she wants to be here for a long time.
“I hope so,” she said. “That’s definitely the plan.”
Courtney plans a grand opening on November 21, complete with ribbon-cutting, borough officials, champagne, hors d’oeuvres, the whole nine.
You can check out the shop at 11 White Street or online.
