Photograph by Kevin A. Roberts
Fifteen years ago, Kelley Hall-Barr left an interior-design job to break into a new industry: fragrances. Over time, she and her husband, John Barr, have established a store recognized in national magazines like Southern Living and Allure, with products sold at more than 2,000 independent retailers and chains like Anthropologie and Lands’ End. In May, the couple took their next step: opening a second location, albeit a temporary one, in the Central West End (26B Maryland, 314-961-1990,khalldesigns.com).
Described as a temporary “pop-up shop,” the store looks pretty permanent inside. The space is packed with bar soaps, candles, bubble bath, lotions, reed diffusers—all organized by scent. Among the 15-plus scents on display, Hall-Barr recommends the Milk fragrance ($11 to $46) and the Barr-Co. collection ($8 to $38). Between neat rows of soap, you’ll find knickknacks like leather-bound notebooks, glass bottles, and shark jaws.
Hall-Barr plans to keep the new location open through this November—and if business goes well, it could stay until November 2013. Among the signs of promise: k. hall’s wholesale distribution has doubled each of the past three years, and new lines from k. hall and its sister company, Simpatico, are being created for some notable retailers.
Will k. hall locations pop up in cities beyond St. Louis? Hall-Barr’s “not ruling it out,” she says. “The world’s a big place.”
