Lioness owner Kristina Holt in her gift store, which recently opened in Northside. (Jack Jacobs photo)
A trip to a Madrid marketplace inspired a recent addition to the Bellevue neighborhood’s retail scene.
Lioness, a small shop that sells crafts and gifts sourced from around the world, opened last month at 4009 MacArthur Blvd., in the same building as wine shop Once Upon A Vine.
Behind Lioness is Kristina Holt, who opened the business after a recent six-month trip through Europe and Mexico.
What started off as a bit of personal soul-searching evolved into business research when she visited the capital of Spain. There, she hit on the idea of opening a shop back home that focused on international items.
“It was really when I went to Madrid,” Holt said. “There were so many vendors there, and none of them sold their products in the U.S. I was shocked by that.”
Ahead of the trip, the Northside resident had quit her job selling houses for a homebuilder. Holt said travel rekindled her interest in the retail industry.
Prior to her stint in real estate, Holt worked various jobs in the retail sector. Among them, she worked as a buyer for a department store, in public relations for American Eagle and as a regional sales manager for a wholesale company.
“I wanted to clear my head and figure out what made me passionate,” she said. “I started going to the gift shops to see if it was still in me, and it was.”
Holt rents an 80-square-foot space from Once Upon A Vine owner Robert Kocher, who owns the building that’s home to the wine shop. Holt said that Lioness is modeled on what she saw overseas. The gift store stocks jewelry, clothing and pet items from countries such as Italy, Spain, England and Morocco.
“It’s a tiny store but it’s a European-styled store. It isn’t packed or overwhelming to shop,” Holt said. “I felt like there wasn’t anything local representing a lot of small vendors from all over. It’s handmade and international.”
While foreign items are a focus of Lioness, the store also sells domestically produced items, among them scrunchies that Holt makes herself.
The storefront comes as a new chapter for the Lioness business. In 2020, Holt started to make scrunchies and sell them on Etsy or at pop-ups. She created the Lioness brand in 2022 and did pop-ups under that banner ahead of opening the brick-and-mortar store.
Lioness will soon have a new neighboring retailer up the street, with candle and fragrances company Maven Theory planning to open a storefront in the redeveloped Samis Grotto Temple building.
Other commercial tenants in the commercial corridor along MacArthur Avenue include juice bar You Matter and music store One Three Guitar.