Frilly Lilly

Debra Van Dyke is a homegrown Calgary success. Opening the city’s first Frilly Lilly beauty boutique in the Mission district in 2005, her business blossomed. A decade later, the boutique has six Calgary locations, with additional boutiques now open in Airdrie, Vancouver, Victoria and Santa Monica, California.

Frilly Lilly boutiques specialize in waxing, manicures and pedicures and carry a full line of house-brand Frilly Lilly handmade beauty products as well as unique jewellery and accessories. Naming the shop was a family affair — Debra’s grown children Lisa and Jeremy, who work for the company in visuals and marketing respectively — both had a hand in it along with Debra, who thought the moniker silly until she sent it to a graphic designer and loved the whimsical result.

Debra, who started out as an aesthetician, envisioned opening her own salon with a full spate of pampering services including facials. She quickly realized the amount of laundry generated in her first cramped little shop was overwhelming the staff, and made a decision to specialize. “I’d done a lot of studies on branding and thought we would have to do a few things really well, rather than be everything to everybody,” she says. So she narrowed her focus to waxing, manicures and pedicures. The gamble paid off, and Frilly Lilly quickly generated business and buzz — soon followed by interested franchisees.