Two Oklahoma women are running Oklahoma City’s first full-service fashion truck. Alysia Jackson and Christin Hill originally started Jaxx + Hill as an online boutique because they wanted to dabble in selling jewelry.
They had no idea they would be able to expand into selling clothing and accessories in their Wandering Boutique.
Inspired by the food and boutique truck life in Austin, the two women launched their own fashion truck in June.
“We traveled around and did a lot of shows, but all of our customers wanted to be able to try things on,” Hill said. “We [thought], ‘How can we combine it and make it easier, and why not sell everything out of the truck?’”
The fashion truck is a 1990 27-foot Frito Lay truck that the business owners spent two months refurbishing and learning how to drive, and now it brings in more revenue than the website.
“Every girl wants to try something on, and a lot of our clothes are so soft,” Hill said. “But no one can tell how soft it is online. Sizing is another big reason the truck is so popular, and people think it’s so fun to get in because it’s a novelty.”
Inside the truck, there are dressing rooms and a sitting area with a princess chair so kids can hang out while their parents shop.
“I had 14 women inside shopping at the same time one night,” Hill said.
The fashion truck makes frequent stops at The Bleu Garten, a luxury food truck venue located at 301 NW 10th St. in Midtown, and Jaxx + Hill posts a weekly location schedule and updates on all of its social media accounts.
This season’s main trends are crop tops, maxi dresses and miniskirts in mint, florals and other patterns. Jackson and Hill try to stay on top of current crazes and let their personalities shine through their merchandise.
“The two of us have completely opposite style,” Hill said. “I tend to be more girly, and Alysia is more edgy. I think that it helps us in our business because we’re able to carry a little bit of everything.”
Their opposite styles feed off each other and make their way into business decisions.
“We’ve started turning into each other,” Jackson said. “She’s merging into the world of floral, and I’m merging into the world of solids.”
The business partners shop at Dallas Market Center for a lot of their merchandise.
“When we go to Market, we try to use code words,” Hill said. “I’ll pick out something, and she’ll be like, ‘Yeah, maybe,’ and I can tell immediately that it’s too far into girly world or is cheesy. Because we have such opposite styles, we’re able to carry something for everybody.”
Local partnership
Recently, Jackson and Hill have been looking for local vendors whose merchandise they can promote in their truck, and they have been able to carry about 25 percent of their stock from local businesses like Local Lather, a mobile homemade soap shop.
There are cubbies in the Jaxx + Hill fashion truck, and the pair are talking about renting them out to local businesses in order to carry more local merchandise.
The business partners try to make sure that everything they carry is available in the fashion truck and online because online shopping is so popular right now, but there are more jewelry and accessories on the truck.
Jackson and Hill met when Hill was working at Coles Garden as a wedding planner and Jackson was the bride. Later, Jackson also started working at Coles.
“We hit it off immediately once we started working together, and we’ve been friends for two-and-a-half years,” Hill said.
Booking the fashion truck for parties or events is free as long as there are at least 10 guests, and the party’s host receives 10 percent of the profits in shopping credit at Jaxx + Hill.
If the party’s total sales are $1,000 or more, the host receives a 15 percent credit to shop the Wandering Boutique.
Jackson and Hill can set up their merchandise in the venue, or the guests can shop inside the truck.
The Wandering Boutique plans to be at Heard on Hurd, a celebration of downtown Edmond with live music and food trucks that takes place 6-10 p.m. every third Saturday from March to October.
In the future, Jackson and Hill might expand the business into multiple fashion trucks or even a brick-and-mortar location.
“Everyone always asks if we have a store,” Hill said. “We’d love to start pushing online more since that’s where we’ve started, and we plan to do more events. We want people to know about the fashion truck because so many people don’t know about it, and we’re excited to be a part of the Oklahoma community.”
For more information, visit jaxxandhill.com.
Print Headline: Trendy truck, Two local entrepreneurs fill their mobile business with fashion instead of food.
