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April 14, 2010 •
Sibling Revelry
The proverbial sky might be falling outside, but inside the stationery boutique Paper Doll, located in Chicago’s Wicker Park, the mood is pure jubilation. After all, there are countless reasons to celebrate every day — a beautiful milk-headed baby was just born, someone’s matriarch lived to see her 93rd year, two odd ducks became one odd couple.
Run by sisters Stacy Swett, 40, and Kelly Swett Riordan, 37, Paper Doll’s loft-like space is a 1,200-square-foot homage to cuteness in all its varieties, be it vintage, modern or miscellaneous. In addition to boxed stationery, greeting cards and custom stationery, the shop also embraces celebratory accoutrements like hand-picked gifts, artist-designed T-shirts, themed journals, whimsical dog paintings and tiny scented candles.
Whether Brit Pop or Big Band, Indie Rock or Motown, the music’s always pulsing and the venerable house Pug, Maude, is guaranteed to be holding court. You may have come in for stationery, but you’re going to leave happy.
We Are Family
A self-professed party gal and art major, Stacy Swett toiled as a “shop girl,” selling everything from clothing to painted toilet seats, before transitioning to advertising. But after four years of the corporate world, Stacy found herself nostalgic for retail — well, her vision of it. That vision ultimately hinged on three key things — her sister Kelly, the Wicker Park neighborhood in which she had lived and worked for so long and some unbelievably cool stationery (which was lacking in that location).
Although Kelly, who had earned both a master’s degree and Master of Library and Information Science degree (MLIS), was in Colorado at the time pursuing a career in the museum world, Stacy’s proposal piqued her interest.
As they talked about the would-be business, they reminisced about the myriad cards and gifts they had mailed to each other across the country over the years. They also waxed nostalgic for their first joint venture, Ogabes (the shoe brand Sebago, spelled backward), handmade 3-inch by 5-inch greeting cards sold out of the back of a wagon.
By the end of the conversation, it was clear that the sisters had a tremendous love for each other and stationery. So what would they call their business? “We played with paper dolls as kids . . .[and] wanted a name that gave reference to paper goods, plus we are two gals — hence paper dolls,” Kelly explained.
