Kristian Duhon, founder and owner of BeLush Boutique in River Ranch, is a picture of following your dreams. She got the idea to start her own fashion boutique, and she hasn’t looked back since.

The start.

Like most fairytales, this story goes from (teensy bit) gory to big, big glory.

“Before fashion, I was in the dental field for six years. After that, I went into assisting cosmetic surgeries, and I did that for a year. One day, I was in the middle of doing a tummy tuck; there was blood everywhere, and I just thought ‘I don’t know why I’m doing this.’”

(That’s deep.)

“That day I went home and told my husband that my real passion had been to open a boutique, and that I wanted to go for it. We opened the very next week. That was four years ago.

We started in Abbeville, and we did amazing there. We then decided to branch out into River Ranch, and that was the best decision I ever made.”

The present.

“I love what I do. I seriously love it. There have been so many highlights and good memories. For example, when someone comes in who doesn’t feel pretty or is having a hard time, it’s a wonderful feeling to help them feel beautiful. Or maybe it’s that they don’t know how to dress in the way that they want to. We’ll help them find something trendy and fitting for their age and personality.

Once, we had a lady come in looking for a wedding dress. She was on her fourth marriage, so she didn’t want anything that was too formal or wedding-like. When she bought one of our gowns, it was a total “say yes to the dress” moment. I was almost crying.”

(Sounds like a customer is able to have much more than a shopping transaction with this local inspirer!)

“At BeLush we focus on unique styles. I tell everyone – be bold, be unique, be yourself. You know, be your own kind of beautiful. We make sure we cater to all sizes from extra-small to 4X.

Also, we dress people from head to toe. If you come in looking for something for an event, we help you find the whole outfit. We get a lot of returning customers because of that. It’s not always easy to find boutiques where you can get the full outfit.

We always want to welcome customers with a warm smile because it’s hard for some to walk into a boutique. I try to hire very down-to-earth team members. We know all of our customers – where they’re going, how their recent trip was. Stuff like that.”

The future.

“My focus is to always make everyone happy. We’ve grown a lot in three years, and we just keep growing. We love being an Acadiana business. There are maybe 11 boutiques around here, but we all work together. I love that about this area. I wouldn’t want to have another location, I just want to keep making our customers happy. We’ve never had a bad review and everyone feels like family.”

(That really says something, right?!)

“I work hard everyday just to make sure everyone is happy. Even with being a mom and having a lot going on, it’s important to me to create a good environment in here.”

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