Between Friends Boutique

Fashion is a family affair

When Atiya Smith first announced her plan to open a women’s fashion boutique in Chestnut Hill, her mother, Claudia Averett, would not hear of it. “I fought her tooth and nail,” said Averett.

But Smith did what many daughters do and pushed forward anyway. Without conferring with her mother, she asked a realtor friend to scout a location for a shop in Chestnut Hill. When the realtor found an ideal location, a storefront directly across the street from CinCin, she crunched the numbers, and her mother capitulated. So did her father.

Now, mother and daughter, both of whom live in West Oak Lane, are proud owners of Between Friends, a boutique specializing in affordable silk and knit fashions that cross generational lines – and quite literally stop traffic.

Smith, inspired by her parents, caught the fashion bug early. “When I was a teenager working at McDonald’s, I saved money to buy clothes by my favorite designer Donna Karan,” she said. “During the pandemic, I made a point to be well dressed and wear makeup even if I was just going to the market,” said Averette, adding that her husband also loves fashion and “would spend every waking moment in our store if he could.”

Averette, who has always had at least one foot in the fashion business, said that despite her initial misgivings, the new store has turned out to be more than she had hoped.

Read more here.