A new store within a store has opened at Bradley Fair

Love of Character owner Mary Billings is known as the balloon lady for her artistry with balloons, but she may soon be known as the paper lady, too.

Billings, who has stores at Douglas and Hillside in College Hill and at Bradley Fair, now has what she calls a shop within a shop at the Bradley Fair store with a dedicated area for Rifle Paper Co. products.

“They’re a big name in the stationery world,” Billings said. “But they expanded a lot over the years.”

Rifle carries paper, wallpaper, pillows, rugs, totes and now even jewelry featuring the company’s prints.

“They kind of started that folk floral artsy kind of look,” Billings said.

She was thinking of a store-within-a-store concept before Rifle even had one.

“We actually had approached them a few years ago about the concept,” Billings said.

She said she thought it would be a fun way to draw attention to the brand by having its products and patterns all in one spot, which Billings said looks great.

Rifle launched its new concept on a smaller scale at a store in Boston. At market in January, Billings said she started discussions with the company.

At the store within a store, Billings painted one wall a Rifle color and put one of its rugs in the space.

There are samples of the rugs and wallpaper — including a large display on one wall — but they have to be specially ordered.

Billings also hired a former Rifle employee, Thu Nguyen, who wanted to move closer to family. In addition to being what Billings called a fun addition to her team, Nguyen also helped in the Rifle installation. Billings said Nguyen makes paper flowers for the store and customers.

Love of Character recently had a flower bar with real flowers that Nguyen spearheaded as well.

Billings said she plans to continue to host events like that.

The College Hill store also carries Rifle products, though it doesn’t have as large of a section in the store.

That store opened six years ago. In March 2020, Billings opened the Bradley Fair shop as a pop-up store.

“We’ve kind of had some moments of quick expansion,” she said of that store and the store within the store.

Now, Billings said she wants to hone what she’s doing before thinking of expanding again.

She does want to stay at Bradley Fair, where her store technically is still a temporary one. Billings refers to it as “like a rolling contract right now.”

She said she does see an eventual long-term deal, though not necessarily for that huge 6,000-square-foot space the store is in now.

“We’ve liked being at Bradley Fair,” she said. “It’s close to a lot of our customers, which is nice so they pop in a little more frequently.”

She said she thinks customers are going to enjoy the new Rifle store within her store, too, which she said is a small scale of what the company offers at its Winter Park, Fla., headquarters.

“It’s kind of fun to give a little bit of that experience for our customers here,” Billings said. “It was a fun thing to bring to Wichita.”

This story was originally published May 17, 2022 at 4:42 AM.