After creating a popular and loyal customer following on Cape Cod, the fashion boutique Diesel & Lulu’s has been making waves in this area.
The Avon shop opened last year on East Main Street, offering women’s fashions and accessories in an intimate shopping space.
Its owner, Kristin Hinkle Trainor, says the store is a sister-shop of the Diesel & Lulu’s that has been a popular shopping destination on Cape Cod since 2012. The East Sandwich, Mass. boutique is owned by Peri Olson, a friend of Kristin’s since their art school days.
“We’re close friends from college and we’ve worked on various ventures together,” Kristin says.
They came up with the idea to open another Diesel & Lulu’s in this area after Kristin, who owns a jewelry design business, 10-ton goldfish designs, took part in a trunk show at the Cape Cod Diesel & Lulu’s.
“It was such a successful show and we were kind of laughing because so many people who came to it were from this area; West Hartford, Farmington, Avon, Simbsbury, etc. We joked about how we should open a Diesel & Lulu’s in Connecticut because we already had a large customer base of people here who summer on the Cape. I was at a point in my life where I was rethinking my business model, traveling around to do pop up shops and outdoor shows. Mother Nature can really ruin a good open air market. Then one day Peri called me and said "What do you think, should we open a Diesel & Lulu’s in Connecticut?.”
Less than two months after Kristin signed a lease for the Avon store they opened in May of 2022.
“It was one of those things that happened really organically,” she says.
The 850 square-foot shop offers “colorful, casual, comfortable and stylish” fashions at affordable prices,” Kristin says. “After Covid and the last couple of years people really respond to a couple of things in their fashion choices: color and comfort. The age of only neutrals and button up stiff business clothes is gone.”
Diesel & Lulu’s sells apparel that “you can dress up or dress down; clothing that’s casual enough that you can throw on a baseball cap and tennies and look great, or you can put on some flats and a tennis bracelet and go out to dinner at night. To be able to do that back and forth is something people really respond to. Coming off the pandemic people lived in T-shirts and yoga pants and now they want to go out and look nice but they don’t want to give up that comfort.”
Nor do they want to spend a fortune for that kind of flexible fashion, Kristin says, something that Diesel & Lulu’s price points reflect.
“Our price points are very reasonable. One thing Peri has always said is ‘It’s a sweater, not a life decision" and it shouldn’t be.' You don’t want to make a huge financial decision about clothes and our pricing allows people to try out styles they might not otherwise consider.”
Kristin grew up in West Hartford, lived in Denver and Ireland for a time and came back here a few years ago.
“I know this area well and I know the clientele, so I knew the clothes and the vibe of Diesel & Lulu’s would work well here.”
Peri has since opened a third Diesel & Lulu’s location in Plymouth, Mass.
And the name? That’s a question Kristin and Peri get all the time. The store is named after two much-loved dogs that Peri owned, Diesel and Lulu.
Diesel & Lulu’s
24 East Main St., #2, Avon
Online: dieselandlulus.com
On Instagram @dieselandlulusct
860-986-2511