These moms mean business
Their eclectic boutique brings the world home to Millburn
SEED387 was born the day two stay-at-home moms were introduced by their husbands. Nancy Levy and Judith Rudman discovered they shared a passion for shopping, an eye for style and a dream to one day open their own business—a simple, elegant shop filled with stylish home and personal goods. Together they channeled their energies, wrote a business plan and in October 2010 opened a 2,000-square-foot boutique in Millburn.
The duo haven’t stopped shopping since, scouring the globe to bring the latest and greatest to their home base— an eclectic mix of merchandise that includes well-known names like Jonathan Adler and Stephanie Johnson. The partners recently sat down with Morris/Essex Health & Life to chat about their burgeoning business:
How did you choose your location and name? Levy: We both felt that, if we could find the right location, it was important to be in Millburn. We live here and we each have three children in the school district, so we really wanted to support our community. Seed stands for Simple Elegant Design at 387 Millburn Avenue.
Did either of you have any previous retail experience? Rudman: I had been home with my kids for a long time, but before that I had retail and management experience and had done some design work. Levy: I worked in creative for years—at Liz Claiborne and the National Football League—and had lots of retail experience too. We are the perfect yin-yang. When you start a business it’s like a marriage; it’s a big financial, physical and mental commitment.
What do you love most about your shop? Rudman: When we’re out shopping in the Hamptons or San Francisco, our favorite kind of store is the small, specialized boutique. When customers come here, we want them to feel as if they could be shopping in London or SoHo or anywhere in the world. Levy: We travel extensively, and we like finding items for customers and doing special orders. Customers know the shop is a very warm place where they are likely to bump into a friend. That’s why we have a tremendous customer base. We keep it personal.
As the buyers, how do you decide on the ever-evolving mix of merchandise? Levy: We add and take away all the time, and after a while you get a sense of what customers want. We are constantly researching in our travels, shopping at trade shows and surfing the web. We even get emails from people about great items they find. Rudman: We have about 3,000 products in our store, and when we put it all together we try to tell a story. When someone comes in to buy a gift, for example, it might turn out to be a tray with glasses, napkins and a book—all from different vendors, but combined to create one gift with a common theme. —Dora Johnson
Getting there
SEED387
387 Millburn Ave., Millburn
973.564.5070
seed387.com
