Today we’d like to introduce you to Ashley Bowling.
Hi Ashley, thanks for joining us today. We’d love for you to start by introducing yourself.
I started this boutique, Proper Pieces, in 2018. I was seeking a new creative outlet and I have always loved fashion and dreamed of running my own business.
I come from a a family of entrepreneurs. One of my grandfathers owned and ran a farm for many years. Then when I was a child, my dad owned his own painting company. This combined with my mom’s creativity and style inspired me to pursue starting a boutique. While in high school and college, I worked in several women owned small businesses. I admired their passion for those businesses and what they offered to their communities.
Some of my favorite aspects of running Proper Pieces are selecting unique, high quality brands to carry. I love helping clients feel their best. I aim to select pieces that are proper for many occasions and fun to wear. I believe that clothing is more than what we wear. It’s one of the most outward expressions of ourselves. We each have different styles that allow us to stand out and allow us to feel good. The joy of finding something great to wear is a special feeling.
Shortly after opening this business, I soon realized I wanted to create designs of my own. I taught myself how to use Adobe Illustrator to design graphics for t-shirts and other items. These designs include many with phrases to inspire literacy, offer humor, or spread inclusivity.
In addition to running the website, properpieces.com, one avenue that my family and I have enjoyed is doing pop-up booths at weekend markets. Vendors work so hard to set up a shop, do business, and take it all down in the same day. So much hard work goes into those markets and the business owners are such creative hard-working people. Many of these events are family friendly so you’ll see my kids with me helping run a booth from time to time.
I was formally a vendor in Painted Tree in Round Rock until they closed in early 2026. I currently rent a long term vendor booth in a retail store/coffee shop in Granger, TX called Vintage Arts Coffeehouse and Bistro. I enjoy these collaborative stores because they support multiple small businesses under one roof and offer customers a unique shopping experience. This business model also allows me time to pursue other professional endeavors. I have some big long term goals to have a retail store front of my own one day. In the meantime, I continue to work a full time job while managing Proper Pieces. I am so thankful to wonderful customers, talented artists, and makers I have connected with through this business.
Can you talk to us a bit about the challenges and lessons you’ve learned along the way. Looking back would you say it’s been easy or smooth in retrospect?
Like many businesses, my road in this business has not been all smooth. Small business owners are paving paths inspired by great people and businesses around us. Some of my struggles have included balancing my other responsibilities – personal family changes, working another job, and many economic changes. In early 2020, just before the pandemic, our infant son passed away from RSV. It was a very challenging time to navigate that grief while finding motivation to keep running a business.
Retail is an incredibly fast paced environment that it has evolved immensely over the past several years. One business challenge I’ve faced is that while it’s awesome to have multiple avenues to sell products, it’s challenging figuring out how to best utilize the limited time I have in a day to make the biggest impact in my business and see the return on that investment. It’s a lot to keep up with the social media platforms, selling through brick and mortars, and deciding what I want growth to look like. Growth is not linear and understanding that there are busier and slower months is challenging at times. I find gaining repeat customers especially through my website to be very difficult. It’s a goal to continue to strengthen this within the business.
As you know, we’re big fans of Proper Pieces. For our readers who might not be as familiar what can you tell them about the brand?
I’m a one woman show with help from my husband and some family members and friends who assist seasonally. I’d like to think of myself as a ringleader of a really fun circus, but most days I feel more like the juggler trying to keep all the different balls in the air and hoping none of them fall. I love finding brands that are either repurposed from vintage pieces or have that vintage inspired feel to them. Some of the brands we carry are Jaded Gypsy, American Recycled Clothing, and our own in house t-shirt designs. I look for inspiration everywhere. Customers have described our business as “boho” and “hippie” styles. Some styles you’ll always be able to find from us are jumpsuits, overalls, funky harem/genie pants, and graphic t-shirts. We carry pieces that will last through many seasons. We offer custom graphic designs.
Are there any apps, books, podcasts, blogs or other resources you think our readers should check out?
Apps: Instagram and Facebook are some essential apps for advertising; Spotify because I love having music playing when I’m working
Books: the Bible to keep me grounded in my faith, The Lean Startup by Eric Ries, Essentialism by Greg Mckeown, Dare to Lead by Brene Brown
Podcast: How I Built This with Guy Raz
Contact Info:
- Website: https://www.properpieces.com
- Instagram: properpiecesboutique
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/ProperPiecesBoutique
- Other: https://www.facebook.com/vintageartss
