Our story:
Nearly forty years ago Dawn Stevenson
opened the first Mode O Day store in downtown Casper, Wyoming. The store was a
retail clothing franchise offering clothing for women at moderate prices. It
prospered and soon became a Fashion Crossroads, the evolution of the Mode O Day
franchise. At its height, the Mode O Day/Fashion Crossroads company had over
800 stores across the nation. When the recession hit in the 1980's, the
franchise was bought out by another corporation and within a very short time
went bankrupt. During this time of uncertainty, Dawn chose to keep the business
afloat, buying her franchise agreement out and going into business as a private
owner. She kept the lines that were working and also began to branch out to
include other new lines that focused on career wear for women. This
new merchandise mix, a focus on excellent customer service, and the loyalty of
her customers allowed Dawn to prosper despite the tough economy.
Since
that time, Fashion Crossroads has expanded twice. The first expansion was into
the adjacent building, then Singer Sewing Machines. With this expansion the
store doubled its square footage from 2500 to 5000 square feet. The second
expansion happened when Kyleen joined the business in 1999. Dawn had begun to
experiment with off price goods in Fashion Crossroads. The reception to these
lower priced goods was favorable and the number of units she carried steadily
increased until it became apparent that this was a viable business. When the
building next door to Fashion Crossroads became available, Dawn purchased it
and, together, the mother daughter team opened FC Outlet, a discount retail
store offering career wear to women at a 30% to 80% discount. Between the two
stores, Fashion Crossroads and FC Outlet offer an amazing 10,000 square feet of
career clothing for women. As a result, one of the true strengths of the
business is the large selection of carefully chosen merchandise.
In the
last eleven years, Dawn and Kyleen have enjoyed their partnership and continued
to grow the two businesses together. They have maintained the singular focus of
providing the best selection of career clothing in town and have expanded the
inventory to include special occasion and casual wear too. In town customers
continually comment that the two stores offer the most unique items in
town. Also exciting is that the company has a large following of out of town
customers who bring an extra suit case to shop at Fashion Crossroads and FC
Outlet when they visit Casper. It is truly edifying to have customers who live
in much bigger markets like Denver and Salt Lake City and yet still choose to do
all their shopping here. This, along with our loyal customer base, is a high
compliment.
