Dan's Papers - May 23, 2008 -

Get your credit cards ready, because this Memorial Day weekend Bellhaus in Wainscott, a luxury lifestyle boutique, will fête its grand opening. The party, which follows the Bellhaus ribbon cutting ceremony, will be hosted by Kelly Ripa and Mark Consuelos.

Bellhaus is a one-stop shop for all things luxurious, stocking Carolina Herrera, Lanvin, Vincent Longo and many more. Amidst the craziness of preparing for the big opening, Dan's Papers caught up with Bellhaus owner Shawn Bell to get the inside scoop on the newest East End addition.

Shawn: It developed as a very young child. My mom was a real fashionista and she always had on fashion TV. So I think by default, I watched it all the time and would see all these women all dressed-up and I would go, "I think she's wearing the wrong dress!"

Well, innately I'm a risk-taker and despite having all these corporate jobs and doing really well, I didn't find it fulfilling. So, I thought to myself what would I love to do, and that was fashion. I saw a need for a place where customer service and fashion were married. My store is 30% fashion and 70% customer service. You can get anything online, but we can give you that special personal attention and service.

Bellhaus is a play on words. It's my house - fashion and lifestyle - it's the best of the best. That's one part. The other is the way it's spelled. House is spelled "Haus" which is German. Germans get it right or don't do it at all - like BMW and Mercedes. My house is a house with the German take...relentlessly looking for perfection.

Where there is a demand there should be a supply and I think this is an area where you have educated, world travelers who want special things, yet there is nowhere they can get that and great service. That laid the perfect groundwork to do the research to see whether this was plausible and once I realized that it was, I moved forward.

We only do exclusives. Some of our brands are exclusive only to East Hampton, but many are exclusive to the whole Hampton area and some don't do retail anywhere besides Bellhaus.

We offer an event called "Getting to Know You," where we bring designers and clients together to discuss fashion and their vision. We offer car service to/from the store. Also, we work with specialty dry cleaners and we'll pick garments up from our clients and send them to get dry-cleaned. But I don't want to give too much out yet!

Your boutique carries clothing, home decor, books. How did you make your selections?

Everything is based on getting things that are cool and that you can't get anywhere else. I don't just want a Brian Atwood shoe; I want the Brian Atwood shoe that has something special. So, it's really about digging and finding those special opportunities for our store and our clients. Our store will actually be the only place you'll be able to get the red patent leather Walter Steiger shoes featured in the Sex and the City movie!

Do your research. Know the lines. Know the history behind the lines. Know what your financial stands really and truly are and know what the labels' financial stands really and truly are. You need to know everything before you invest even one dollar.