At a time when even corporate-backed clothing stores appear and disappear (such as Forth and Towne), Cindy Speare has survived in the fickle world of fashion retail for nearly three decades.

Powder Room clothier Cindy Speare (left) is accompanied by her longtime friend and assistant, arts patron Revele Kelley.

In 1981 she took over the former Red Lion Tavern on First Avenue and created Retro Viva, a hip vintage and new-wave boutique. That store blossomed into a local chain that lasted until 2002. Ten years ago she opened the Powder Room on First and Stewart, specializing in affordable style for young women. She's since added a second Powder Room on University Way, with a third planned for Broadway next spring. A self-described "retail slut," she's also a major collector of Hawaii-kitsch art and furnishings, and regularly participates in the annual Home Tiki Bar Tour. The following are excerpts from an interview taken in mid-July, when Speare was briefly in town, in between business trips to Los Angeles and to Honolulu.

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"Retro Viva opened as The Finishing Touch, a combination antique store/vintage clothing store. The antique furniture wasn't moving, the clothing was; so I turned it into a vintage clothing store. Then I found in the mid-'80s it was getting harder and harder to find vintage clothing; so I started traveling to New York and L.A. and made it half vintage, half new. It was really kind of a young urban teenage-to-twenty-something, punk-rock/alternative store. Our main colors were black, black, and more black. That's what the customers wanted-black clothing and rhinestone jewelry. After like 19 or 20 years it [the store] wasn't a teenager anymore. I needed a young-adult store. At one time I had 5 Retro Vivas and 2 Powder Rooms. I didn't start closing the Retro Vivas until 2002. It was time. All businesses have a beginning and an end. It was time to kill it. My customers started coming in and they were 35 with kids in tow and saying this had been their favorite store when they were 14. The Powder Room is the grownup that Retro Viva could never be. The problem with Retro Viva was every single year we had to generate new customers. In the late '90s and early 2000s the girls were getty more preppy, more Abercrombie. The Retro Viva concept became less popular.

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The Powder Room is geared toward young urban women's clothing. My idea was to make it look like an expensive boutique. We had chandeliers and gilded furniture in the store; but everything in the store was $50 or under. Our motto is 'Guilt-Free Shopping.' We probably turn our merchandise over once a month. Eighty percent of the stuff is turned over and over all the time to keep it new, and to keep our customers coming back. We really try to stay on top of the trends and get them in as fast as possible, and get them out as fast as possible.

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We're now a blouse/top-driven company. We sell several tops to one skirt or pant. What I see going on in the fashion scene for the last five years is these girls do not have a problem dropping $150 or more on a pair of jeans, and they probably have five or six pair at home. Designer jeans have taken over the cocktail dress; they've taken over everything. Where we come in is we sell them the cute tops to go with their designer jeans. We don't sell high-end designer goods. It's all 'designer-inspired;' 'knockoff' is another word. We do a lot of polyester, but it's good polyester.

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Fall's going to be be metallic metallic, metallic, silver, bronze alloy, gold, a lot of bling bling. that's what's happening for fall. Low-riding jeans are not going out of style. For the first time, fashion's not going in any direction. There are no rules. In the past it was the bohemian look, the ethnic look, the Asian-inspired; now it's a free-for-all. We always used to have one item per season we could sell and sell; we don't have it now.

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Fashion don'ts: When their jeans are two sizes too small. The muffin top. Pants that drag on the ground and get all frazzled. Stirrup pants are horrible-please! Padded shoulders-Woo! Acid dyed jeans are horrible. Midlength skirts: They're not good. The trend I don't like that's happening now is this stupid maternity-ward or baby-wear trend, smock tops. When they got into that really bright neon organge color I didn't like it. 'Size zero' jeans I won't sell. What woman would want to be a zero?

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I've seen some trends come back three times now in 30 years, like that military camouflage, or animal prints like the leopard and zebra. That hippie stuff keeps repeating; but they keep changing it, so you can't just wear the same things. Fashion is always like 20 years behind now; they're trying to bring back leggings that were popular in the '80s, but not the padded shoulders. The Members Only jackets are making a comeback. I sold a ton of belly-dancing belts in the '80s. The motorcycle jackets were huge in the '80s, but I don't see those coming back. I had a really big business selling used fur coats in the '80s; they're not coming back. The Levi's 501s were popular in the early '90s; Japanese would come in to a store and buy up them all.

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Belltown is good as a retail destination. I've got a corner location too, which helps. We have a good business down here. In the wintertime it's not that hot, but in the summer it's great with the tourists and all. I get a lot of business from the condo residents. And also the working girls who work downtown. We have a lot of regulars. A more sophisticated, more city-working-girl look is what sells down here. The U District store's more high-school and college student oriented. One day there were 12 little girls that came in in a limo for a Sweet 16 party. Another day we had 50 women come in from a church group.

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Belltown was a wasteland in the '80s. We used to call it 'the dead energy zone.' All there were were parking lots, and little one-story antique shops. The only places I remember from then were Mama's Mexican Kitchen, Munger's Antiques, and Bushell's Auction House-I bought a lot of great stuff there. I bought all the jewelry; I made money on everything I bought there. There was the Vogue, that was the only place to go out and party in Seattle back in the '80s. I remember the [original] Cyclops, and the Trade Winds. I loved that place. Who was the piano player-Ruby? Howard Bulson played there, definitely. I remember the first condos I think that were built in Belltown, those three big ones on Elliott. My old condo, the Newmark [at Second and Pike], was a hotel too. I lived there in 1996, for maybe a year. I loved living downtown. I loved everything about it. I had a beautiful view. It was like living on top of a mall. We had the movie theaters and the Italian restaurant, retailers, a coffee shop, a Pay Less drug store. In the morning I'd go down in my pajamas to get coffee with the businessmen.

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I think the grunge look was much bigger than Britannia Jeans. That really put Seattle on the fashion map. That was a whole look. To me it was a real silly look. When Vogue magazine was quoting Kim Thayil of Soundgarden, who liked baseball and beer, as if he was a big fashion icon; that was ridiculous. The guys would dress in thermals; they were all skinny with long hair, cutoffs with combat boots and a tight t-shirt. That was all they wore. That and a plaid shirt.

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Chris Cornell used to work for me twice; he was my Christmas help. Stone and Jeff from Pearl Jam used to love Retro Viva, and Andy Wood of Mother Love Bone, who should have been famous, he was a big customer. People like the Clash came in, and Robert Plant, and the Cure. It was fun back then."

-Interview by Clark

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The publishers of The Belltown Messenger, inspired by longtime Belltowner Carole Jordan, are proud to announce the formation of a new monthly award for honoring outstanding members of our community: the Belltown Exceptional Local Luminary - or BELL - awards.

Every month we will profile an exceptional local luminary and designate that worthy our BELL winner for that month. At the end of each year or so we'll stage a presentation event and party, the BELL Awards Gala, during which we will elect a Belltowner of the Year from amongst our monthly winners.

Our intent is to recognize and celebrate the talented, compassionate, civic-minded people who make Belltown such a great neighborhood.

Nominations need not be limited to residents of Belltown: we are looking to honor those who have acted in ways that benefit our neighborhood. Businesspeople, civic activists, philanthropists, artists, you name it. Aside from the profile in The Messenger, each monthly winner will receive a framable certificate of merit, nice gifts from our sponsors, and a one-year voting membership on our board.

Needless to say, nominees cannot be employees or relatives of employees (or contributors) of the Belltown Messenger or of the founding board.

We need your nominations for our Belltown Exceptional Local Luminary for August: please send them to bellawards (at) belltownmessenger.com, or to our "virtual office" care of P.O. Box 61370, Seattle, WA 98141.