By Sierra Brown

You wouldn’t expect Malawi, an exuberantly decorated children and women’s clothing store along Union Turnpike in Queens, to be hosting an event tied to the elite Mercedes-Benz Fashion Week.. Nestled between a real estate agency and a closed down art store, its purple awning is sprinkled with multi-colored stars and affixed with a checkered canopy–a far departure from the more restrained décor of many luxury retailers.

The owner’s daughter sits at the cash register above the glass front counter, which is plastered with pictures of children who patronized the store over the decades. Its walls are painted with rainbows, Ty stuffed animals sit daintily on shelves and baby socks dangle from strings like holiday streamers. Women try on clothes in a communal dressing room in the back. But the store’s merry façade and ”mom-next-door” clientele didn’t keep store owner Mimi Geier from participating in Fashion’s Night Out, the much anticipated Sept. 10 shopping initiative.

“I tell ya, I’ve been treated like Bergdorf Goodman,” said Geier, about event organizers who welcomed her participation—even if her store is hardly a socialite haunt.

The one-night-only city-wide shopping soiree was spearheaded by the Council of Fashion Designers of America, Vogue magazine and the City of New York to encourage consumer spending and to promote New York Fashion Week, which commenced earlier that day. More than 700 participating stores offered exclusive discounts and special guest appearances and kept their doors open until 11 p.m.

“I thought Fashion’s Night Out was a great idea,” stated Geier, 59, who after finding out about the event in an issue of Women’s Wear Daily immediately registered online. “It seemed welcoming to any store in Queens” explained Mimi of her decision to participate in the event.

Some stores, like Malawi, stationed donation bins within their establishments for used clothing to benefit the New York City AIDS Fund.

“They have really cool clothes,” said Tess Korn, 11, who, along with her mother and grandmother, came to the store to shop and donate a large bag of clothing. The store sells a host of children’s clothes, ranging from Ugg boots to decaled jeans. One of the store regulars, Tess sprawled a number of tie-dyed and embellished tee-shirts on the leopard print carpet, which is customary for Malawi customers to do while viewing store items.

While big-name Manhattan stores put on lavish events featuring celebrity sightings (the Olsen twins mixing drinks at Barney’s New York and Charlize Theron greeted attendees at the Dior boutique), in Queens, Malawi was one of only three independent boutiques of 11 stores participating in Queens, according to the event’s website.

So in the absence of bold-faced names like Sarah Jessica Parker appearing at the Fresh Meadows storefront, Grier hired members of the West African dance company Les Enfants du Soleil to entertain the crowd.

Malawi shoppers and, joined by a few others, gathered two doors down at Studio E, a dance school, that donated the space, to watch the group of six dancers and two drummers perform traditional Malian, Guinean and Senegalese choreography and beats.

“It’s great to be involved with the New York community; this is a great opportunity for us,” said Dionne N’Diaye, 30, the troupe’s business director, who is also a dancer in the company.

For Geier the event was a financial and charitable success. Having promoted the event for several weeks, with homemade signs decorating the front windows, Geier said her efforts were rewarded with a mass of customer traffic throughout the day and customers filled two large cardboard boxes emblazoned with Fashion’s Night Out signage to the brim with donations of used clothing.

“I’m proud to be part of this,” said Geier. “An event that stresses profit, charity and community–it’s bound to be successful.”

Prompted by a $30 discount emailed to the store’s contact list, more shoppers were lured to Malawi where they shopped Thursday, providing the small business with added revenue. Though she hadn’t calculated the total revenue earned for the day, Geier said that many of the shoppers spent hundreds on items. “It wasn’t small sales; they came in to spend” said the delighted store owner.

Ten percent of the profits will go to benefit the music department at Manhattan’s Beacon High School, where Geier’s son is a graduate. Geier said she would happily add more money if 10% didn’t net enough.

Though long-time customers of Malawi seemed happy to participate in the chichi event, that doesn’t mean they want their local boutique turned into a frenzied Manhattan haunt.
“It’s a great place to shop—they style you,” said Tess’s mother, Nicola Belzer, 47, about the boutiques helpful associates. “I always feel like I should write to Lucky magazine about [Malawi], but then I think, ‘I don’t want others to know about it.’”