KAPA‘A – Kim Manchester is a jewelry artist, but since she’s opened the doors to adorn’ments, she hasn’t had time to even do jewelry for her shop. The contemporary women’s boutique, as Manchester likes to describe the shop, is located
KAPA‘A – Kim Manchester is a jewelry artist, but since she’s opened the doors to adorn’ments, she hasn’t had time to even do jewelry for her shop.
The contemporary women’s boutique, as Manchester likes to describe the shop, is located along the busy main sidewalk of Kuhio Highway in Kapa‘a, in the Hee Fat Building. Upon entering the front door, all signs of the hustle and bustle are left behind, as strains of contemporary music soothe and massage the mind into the warmth that greets the soul.
Manchester is no stranger to the boutique business, the original a-dorn‘ments shop opening at Artisans’ Landing in the days of the Westin resort back in the 1980s. Another shop greeted patrons from its Fashion Landing location until the winds of Hurricane ‘Iniki forced its relocation to the Coconut Marketplace, Manchester utilizing this period to create jewelry for other accounts as well as develop her own skills.
Her new location is home for Manchester, who is pleasantly surprised by the large number of resident shoppers she’s received in Kapa‘a.
“When we opened, we were geared primarily for visitors,” she said. “But, we’re getting more visits from the local women.” Part of this might be due to Manchester’s observation that a lot of the clothing stores are geared to the younger set. Manchester says her market is the next level up. “We have a good age range,” she said.
Unlike the bigger department stores, Manchester limits her selections, and utilizes a lot of artists to create her designs, which she says offer the woman something from hats to shoes.
“We also have a good price range,” Manchester said, even though a lot of her items are artist-created.
Some of these include a variety of handbags and shoes as well as her jewelry offerings.
A-dorn’ments also carries Manchester’s own private label of clothing that centers around easy-care cotton fabric, one of her more popular tops being made of cotton gauze.
A-dorn’ments is open six days a week, Monday through Saturday, from 10 a.m. until 5 p.m., and Manchester still eyes the jewelry counters and looks forward to the day she can design material for her own shop..
Dennis Fujimoto, staff writer and photographer, may be reached at 245-3681 (ext. 253) or dfujimoto@pulitzer.net.
