By Gabriela Resto-Montero
DNAinfo Reporter/Producer
UPPER EAST SIDE — No silly bandz for these sophisticated tweens — the customers at a new accessories boutique aimed at fashion-conscious girls offers Henri Bendel bangles along with other costume jewelry.
Style-Licious, which is set to open next month at East 74th Street and Second Avenue, will offer a mix of trendy clothes and high-quality jewelry for tween and teen girls.
"There's really no store that caters to them in a boutique format, there's only Claire's and Icing," owner Norma Hafif said, describing the dearth of high-quality accessories stores aimed at teenage girls.
"The store is about me personally shopping for the teenagers and tweens and doing all the work for them," said Hafif, whose 15-year-old daughter, Shelly, is a style consultant for the shop.
Hafif will take over the storefront left vacant by Berkley Girl, a clothing store also aimed at the elusive tween market that has another branch on the Upper West Side.
Berkley Girl's owners decided to relocate from the Upper East Side location because Second Avenue subway construction was interfering with the store's foot traffic and was just too noisy, said Cynthia Santana, manager of the store.
"It was just going to get worse," Santana said of the construction taking place at East 73rd Street, a block away from the store.
But representatives from the MTA have assured the owner of Style-Licious that construction wouldn't get any worse than it is, Hafif said.
The store's prices range from $8 for cupcake-print pajama bottoms to $300 costume bangles from Bendel, and are designed to bring in business from kids as well as their moms, the owner said.
As the parent of a 15-year-old fashionista herself, Hafif said she got the idea for the store when she realized there were no shops designed especially for her daughter's interest in one-of-a-kind pieces.
Many of the items that make it to the shop's sales floor will have Shelly's stamp of approval, Hafif said.
If Style-Licious does catch on, Hafif said she plans on branching out around the city and making the store a destination for hip girls.
"I'm starting small but I'm thinking big," she said.
