No woman likes to see a void in her shopping landscape. Real estate agent and Obsess Boutique owner Kelley Schweet is no different. In July she opened a young women’s clothing store in a former art gallery on the brick-lined main drag in Montgomery. “I’ve lived here for 19 years. We needed a shop like this,” she says. With personal service and a fun, wearable assortment of well-priced, on-trend pieces, this small store is a giant leap forward for the neighborhood. Meaning: A multicolored “peacock” top from Karlie ($109) would look just as good over lunch at the Camargo Club as it would amid the happy hour scrum at Nada.

Schweet, who is 49, and her daughter Carley (a freshman at Indiana University) do all the buying for the store. “Fashion and shopping are something we’ve always enjoyed together,” says Schweet. They got their retail buying trial by fire in June at the massive Atlanta Apparel Market, a fashion trade show. “We didn’t know what we were doing,” Schweet admits. They just bought what they liked. Whatever inter-generational fashion mojo they have going, it works. They stocked Obsess with denim from Joe’s, James, and Fidelity; knit shirts and coats from Tulle; jewel-toned leather handbags and clutches by Hobo; and modern jewelry from Marjorie Baer. With Kenwood Towne Centre casting an ever-growing shadow, Schweet smartly snagged local cable ad time on MTV’s popular reality-based show The Hills. While the store’s commercial may feature Carley and her friends, most of the clothes and accessories here hew closely to the Obsess credo: “Fashion for the young...and young at heart.”

Obsess Boutique, 9393 Montgomery Rd., Montgomery, (513) 793-4777

Originally published in the November 2008 issueof Cincinnati Magazine.