When she was frustrated by a lack of choice in cowboy boots, the answer came ..

Girl of the Golden West has loaded up the wagons and moved from The Promenade Shops at Briargate to Manitou Springs.The store, which sells high-end women’s Western wear, reopens Monday in its new location, 110A Canon Ave. in Manitou.

Owner Phoebe Schmidt opened the store in February 2007 at The Promenade Shops at Briargate, seeing the upscale shopping center as a good match for her target customers. Lower rent and the hope of more foot traffic attracted her to Manitou, she said.

The space, about 2,300 square feet, is about half of what she had, Schmidt said, “but it’s probably a good thing, because we had way too much inventory — sort of a beginner’s mistake that I made initially.”

The store had ventured into men’s and children’s wear, but with less space Schmidt is dropping those lines, at least for now. One item she made certain did make the move is the massive, 1870s-era wet bar that was the centerpiece of her old store.

“It’s rumored to have been owned by Al Capone, but who knows,” Schmidt said.

Schmidt started Girl of the Golden West, named after a Puccini opera, after she moved from New York City to Colorado Springs.

“I met my husband online and then I came out here and I had this cash from the sale of my apartment in New York,” she recalled. “And so I thought, ‘what should I do with myself?’”

The answer came when she was frustrated by a lack of choice in cowboy boots while shopping in the area. There was only black and brown — nothing fun, she said. So she decided to open her own store, intent on offering quality, versatile Western wear.

“What I like to say we’re doing here is Teddy Roosevelt meets Ralph Lauren,” Schmidt said.

Schmidt said she is enjoying the vibe in Manitou. “What I’m finding is it resembles my old New York City Greenwich Village neighborhood,” she said.

She’s hoping Manitou’s tourist traffic gives a boost to her business, which hasn’t made a profit yet, and is looking at potential events, such as a Western film festival, to draw customers during the slower months.

In the past several years, Manitou has worked to recruit businesses that appeal to locals as well as visitors and dispel the notion that the town goes into hibernation when the summer tourism season ends. Girl of the Golden West “is a really good complement to the merchandise mix that we’ve sort of been morphing towards,” said Kitty Clemens, economic development director for Manitou Springs.

“It seems a little bit crazy that you don’t have a store in downtown Manitou Springs that sells cowboy boots and things like that. Now we’ll have that.”(source)