In the past five years, what started as a pandemic project has turned into something more for Annie Austen.
Her accessory brand, under the same name, began as a line of mask chains in the winter of 2020. By the spring of 2021, the online shop had expanded to include jewelry, and Annie Austen began making in-person appearances at pop-up events and markets later that same year.
The brand continued to “snowball” from there, opening its first brick-and-mortar storefront in July 2023 at the Zona Rosa shopping district in Kansas City, Missouri. This week, Annie Austen will make a debut on the other side of the state line.
Its new storefront will open its doors in downtown Overland Park on Saturday.
Annie Austen is coming to 7941 Santa Fe Drive
- The shop is opening in a space just off 80th Street and Santa Fe Drive in downtown Overland Park, near Penzeys Spices and The Upper Crust.
- Women’s boutique Ensemble previously occupied that space, before the store closed in July.
- Once it opens, Annie Austen will operate from 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. Monday through Friday, 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. Saturday, and 11 a.m. to 5 p.m. Sunday.
Annie Austen is a “one-stop” shop for accessories
Annie Austen’s inventory includes a wide variety of jewelry items, from necklaces and earrings to rings and bracelets.
In addition to jewelry, Annie Austen offers other apparel and accessories like hats, claw hair clips, tote bags and jewelry boxes. The shop also has a “charm bar” with a wide selection of charms to add to bracelets and necklaces.
Annie Austen markets its jewelry as tarnish-resistant, pricing each piece under $30.
Though the Overland Park shop will be fairly similar to the brand’s flagship store across the state line, Austen said the new shop may particularly lean into some new offerings — including custom embroidery for items like hats, sweatshirts and tote bags.
“We’re really excited to kind of experiment with some new things and really get to know the area,” she said. “But (also) to offer a lot of the same things that we’ve had a lot of success with.”
This marks Annie Austen’s first shop in Johnson County
Austen and her brother, Matt Callicotte, first launched the Annie Austen brand in November 2020. Austen’s sister, Lucie Callicotte, later came on board as Annie Austen’s chief operations officer.
Though Annie Austen’s jewelry and accessories have already made appearances at Made In KC‘s Lenexa City Center store, the downtown Overland Park spot will mark the brand’s first storefront of its own in Johnson County.
By the time the former Ensemble space became available, Austen said she and her team had been pondering expansion on the Kansas side of the state line for a while.
“We know that we have a good customer base there, between our pop-ups and our online orders that we get,” she said. “We are so excited to be a part of such an established community with the downtown Overland Park area and just really be able to kind of reconnect with our Johnson County customers in a larger way.”
Expanding to Johnson County, in part, means being a bit closer to some of the brand’s loyal customers who might not be as inclined to make the journey to Zona Rosa. But Austen said she’s also looking forward to getting to know a new batch of customers altogether.
“I think that it will just be so much fun to reunite with the customers who have been shopping with us for years, but who we maybe haven’t seen as much in person because we are up north,” she said. “I think that there are so many wonderful shops down there and so many loyal shoppers who are in the downtown Overland Park area, and we want to get to know them too.”
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