April 17, 2023

Chelsea’s Boutique soon will have a new owner.

Founder Chelsea Giedd is selling the boutique to Emma Kuiper, who became the store’s culture and experience manager last summer.

“I just loved her personality,” Giedd said. “She just has a very kind, big heart, and I could tell right away she really aligned with our values, so it was a pretty easy decision to make the move.”

Giedd founded the business when she was 20. It opened in downtown Sioux Falls in 2013 and has been at 220 S. Phillips Ave. for more than six years.

Kuiper also has a history in the boutique industry. Born in Huron, she moved to Rapid City in elementary school and began working at a downtown boutique there when she was 16, doing modeling and then working in sales while being mentored by the owner. She worked there for about a decade.

“I progressed and ended up being assistant manager and just kind of outgrew the job,” she said.

From there, she worked in banking for five years before moving to Sioux Falls with her fiance last year and finding her role at Chelsea’s.

“I realized how much I loved the environment and women’s boutiques in general,” Kuiper said. “Through Chelsea and the message (of her store) being so direct for what I was looking for in my life, something just clicked … and I knew this was my purpose and how I would make my difference.”

While there were multiple interested buyers, when Kuiper approached her about making a deal, “I started bawling, she started bawling, and I think I just felt very relieved because I know her heart and knew she’d take care of it very well,” Giedd said. “My main concern was having someone here who was just about having a business rather than the mission behind the business. I knew she was already invested in it. We just stopped looking because I knew she was the one I wanted.”

Kuiper plans to keep the store’s name and its style, emphasizing even more its mission of empowering women.

“Yes, we are a retail boutique and we sell clothes, but our main thing is to make sure our clients walk out feeling better than when they walked in, making sure they feel seen and they feel heard,” she said. “I think when women come together and stand together, there’s really nothing they can’t do.”

Giedd plans to continue her second business, My Purposeful Life, where she offers energy healing as a reiki master and is training as a shamanic womb healer.

“I’m so excited for that piece and to honestly be able to move a little slower,” she said. “I’ve been moving very fast for a very long time.”

She isn’t done with new ventures, though. She and a friend are launching a nonprofit, As We Gather, to help survivors of sexual trauma. A survivor herself, she saw a need for a way to bring female survivors together and help them heal through understanding and empowerment.

“When we gather as women and look across the room and know they understand us and have been through the same thing … I feel like that’s when true healing happens,” she said.

The nonprofit also will create “safe spaces for women to learn about the wisdom of their cycles, body sovereignty and sex education and through workshops and circles,” she added, in addition to offering alternative healing options for women who are sexual trauma survivors to reclaim their power.

Her first event, which is Thursday, is a fundraiser to help launch the nonprofit. It will feature a runway show focused on survival and a cocktail reception.

Kuiper officially takes over as the owner of Chelsea’s Boutique on May 1.