ANDERSONVILLE — Hallie Borden and Dana Karlov weren't very close growing up.
Born eight years apart, the sisters didn't run in the same circles, and the elder Karlov long thought that would never change.
"I was definitely nervous growing up, like, this girl is going to always annoy me — She’s never going to be cool enough to hang out with," joked Karlov, perched beside her sister a week before the opening of their new shop, Honey Bridal, 5135 N. Clark St.
For the last decade, Karlov has flirted with the wedding business as the owner of Bagable Gifts, which makes gift bags for weddings and corporate events. Besides working at Abercrombie while in high school, Karlov doesn't have much experience with retail, she admits.
Meanwhile, her sis Borden has racked up retail experience running her womenswear boutique Milk Handmade, 5137 N. Clark St., for five years. When the two decided to open Honey Bridal, Borden was adamant it be next door to Milk.
"That was kind of a road block," Borden said of finding a home for the shop. "We thought it was going to be way off down the road because there was a tenant here. The day after we decided to go for it my landlord called before I could call him and said 'they’re breaking their lease.'"
"I felt like we couldn't really start until this space was available," Borden said. "It was stuck in my head: it had to be here. I still feel like that — Milk and Honey will feed off of each other."
From 6-9 p.m. Friday, they'll celebrate the five-year anniversary of Milk Handmade alongside the grand opening of Honey Bridal. Saturday they'll hit the ground running, hoping to transform the bridal shopping experience.
"I think the traditional bridal experience is just really precious. You treat the bride as a bride and not as a person who’s getting married. You kind of expect her to fit into this role, [expecting] them all to be the same, and them all to want the same thing. I think we’re really going against that," said Borden.
Hallie Borden (l) and Dana Karlov (r) will open Honey Bridal on June 2. [Courtesy of Honey Bridal]
Growing Up And Apart
About a mile away from the two shops is the North Center home the two Borden sisters lived in until Karlov went to high school. Before their family relocated to suburban Highland Park, they'd visit Lutz Cafe and Bakery Shop weekly for "sisters night out," they said.
As they grew older, Borden continue to follow in her big sister's footsteps, even thought their age gap sometimes made it difficult.
"I went to college when she was in grade school. When I got married, she was 15," said Karlov, adding that her sister came to Las Vegas as a teen for her bachelorette party. "She would come to dinner then we would all go out and she would buy WiFi in the hotel room."
"I still remember my mom dropped me off in the hotel room alone to go to Chippendales with them," Borden recalled, laughing.
After graduating college, Borden was finally old enough to keep up with her sis, and their relationship flourished. Now, as entrepreneurs embarking into a new business, their roles have flipped — with Karlov looking to Borden for guidance, they said.
"We have not only a great familial relationship, [but] we’re also really close friends," said Karlov. "This is a dream come true for us, to be able to see this vision through together is really fun. I have no clue what I’m doing, so I’ll call Hallie like, 'What kind of mannequins do we need? What do we do with the window? What are we doing with this?'"
A Family Affair
While the sisters have been contemplating collaborating for years, they began brainstorming the bridal shop after searching for Borden's wedding dress. Borden, who got married in August, described the experience as "precious," but not in a good way.
"Everybody had expectations of me that made me really uncomfortable. I’m standing next to brides on platforms that are crying and fanning themselves and I’m like, 'this one is fine,'" she said.
Fifteen years ago, when Karlov was getting married, her experience wasn't much better, she said.
"It was the same thing. The same selection of gowns with a little variation. Nothing much had changed... The stores all look the same. They still brought you the dresses rather than you being able to see their selection," said Karlov.
"Every salon has an idea of what you should look like, which is weird, because they don’t know you... We’re like the anti- that. We’re like, 'what do you like?' so you can try it on. We’re trusting in their personal style. We’re trusting that they know who they are and what they like."
The shop will have more than 50 dresses from independent designers, including some traditional gowns and others you can't find anywhere else. The experience will also be more personalized, focusing on the individual, with just one bride in the shop at a time, custom cocktails and music tailored for the wedding party, the sisters said.
"We want a bride to feel like she can just be herself. She's just looking for a dress for her wedding, she's not playing 'dress-up' as a bride," said Borden.
"We want people to have fun. We want it to be a low-pressure situation. We want people to come in and be relaxed. We’re laid back, were not pretentious. We’ve been calling ourselves the 'cool girl' bridal shop because it's ... for a woman who knows who she is and what she wants.
"The wedding isn’t the best day of her life, its just one of them."
[Courtesy of Honey Bridal]
