Andrea Whitley, a Northern Kentucky University alumna with a love for keys, is unlocking the power of fashion to uplift customers and build a community around her retail and design business: Blessed Attire.
“Unlock your style,” the digital banner reads beside the key-themed logo on the boutique’s webpage. “I have an obsession with keys. They’re all over my house. I love keys,” Whitely said. “Unlocking the style that best fits you and wherever you are in life” is one of the main goals of Blessed Attire.
Blessed Attire is a predominantly online business, with occasional holiday showcasings and a market store in Montgomery, Ohio. The boutique offers a wide range of clothing, from graphic tees, sweatshirts, and hoodies to boutique styles, jewelry and accessories.
Whitley graduated from NKU in 2001 with a degree in communication. She founded Blessed Attire in November 2015 after a friend in a networking group pitched the idea of starting an apparel company together. Whitley accepted the idea, but the friend bought a second company and backed out before a business could be founded.
Whitley and her husband decided to continue on with the idea and started the online boutique for Blessed Attire. “I learned how to build a website, how to do graphic design work and tried something new,” said Whitley. “When we first started, we were just doing clothes and we’ve added hats, we’ve added boutique style clothing, we’ve added jewelry, we’ve added custom work.”
Although Blessed Attire has changed and grown over the years, their main goal has stayed the same, said Whitley.
“Our main focus is to start conversations in Christ, to start conversations in faith and spread positivity,” she said.
Whitley said she enjoys the process of designing new attire and fitting the puzzle pieces of ideas, materials and production together to create new pieces.
NKU helped prepare Whitley for her career by teaching her how to take advantage of her resources and providing a good backing and support system, said Whitley. “I learned how to read a room, how to talk to people and how to give a training class that somebody could understand what I was saying.”
Ginger McLelland, a long-time client, said, “There aren’t very many businesses that have a mission that is really focused on uplifting people and focused on really uplifting the human spirit.”
McLelland said Blessed Attire sells “quality products with a wholesome message by a very strong, faithful woman who is really doing meaningful work. It feels good to support a business that is so uplifting to people.”
Tonya Hamilton, owner of Vintage Southern Designs boutique, said that companies which sell similar products often compete with each other, but she does not view Blessed Attire as a rival. “Andrea and I have never been in competition with each other. We’ve always uplifted each other,” Hamilton said. She highlighted how Whitley has become a mentor to her and has “always been there to answer those questions, almost like she’s taken me under her wing.”
“She’s authentic, she’s a Christian, her clothes are very good quality and she backs her products up,” Hamilton said.
Andi Curry, a fairly new buyer at Blessed Attire said that Whitley sells “quality products and quality service” and that “she does a great job of customizing.” Curry told a personal story of a Blessed Attire customized t-shirt for her daughter’s tenth birthday. They went to a concert to celebrate. Curry’s daughter ended up on the big screen and was even recognized the next day because of the t-shirt.
Whitley advises NKU students who are thinking about starting their own businesses to take as many entrepreneurship classes as they can and to learn how to carry on a conversation and communicate effectively.
“Learn your strengths and weaknesses early and get people in your world who can back you up on those things,” said Whitley. “You are the key of your own success.”