This bold, red coverup over a free-hand black-and-white print helps Janet Barnette make a powerful entrance. Eileen Fisher jacket with pants by Multiples. Photo by Nikita Shokhov
BY TRACY ZOLLINGER TURNER
When Cheryl Nichoalds opened Tivoli Fashions 30 years ago, her goal was to provide well-made classic clothes for professional women. Already the owner of a boutique in Bedford, Indiana, opened in 1973, she frequently heard women in Bloomington say there was no place in town for post-college-age women to find the clothes they needed.
In the years since, Nichoalds has worked to keep pace with evolving tastes. When Tivoli opened in 1987, she says, suits were standard career wear for most women, but styles are very different now.
“It has changed in the respect that people are dressing so much more casually,” Nichoalds says. While a dress jacket might still be perfect work-to-evening wear, the trend is toward higher-end novelty knits and prints that fall well over dress pants or a pencil skirt.
Tivoli maintains an extensive collection of career, casual, and special-occasion wear from fashion houses all over the world. Nichoalds seeks out new inventory four or five times a year at shows in Chicago, Atlanta, and Dallas. A fine jewelry boutique adjoins her shop, which also carries costume jewelry, handbags, scarves, sunglasses, and other accessories.
While she carries multiple pieces by popular designers like Frank Lyman, Nichoalds says she carefully selects each look in the store to reflect a Bloomington aesthetic.
“I want the pieces to be unique and I want people to see themselves in them,” she says.
