"Sweet dough pies are a dying art," Alyce says. "It'used to be a Cajun staple. I got the recipe from my grandmother, and I bonded with Nancy and Granny over our common love for these pies. The words 'dying art' break my heart to say. They sound so harsh, but truly people that make them are now are so few and far in between. It's a tricky dough that's hard to work with - it takes that right touch."

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Granny - who personally tied every one of the signature elaborate bows that went out of their two stores - was beginning to fail, and Nancy was looking ahead to slowing down. They saw potential in Alyce. Nancy kept touching base with Alyce and then one day she offered her the dress shop.

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"I had the thought that Granny and Nancy might be looking for someone to eventually take over, but I pictured myself in that charming little kitchen making my pies. I never thought I would be a boutique owner. But when Nancy offered the dress shop, it made sense somehow. It was just the right thing at the right time, so I went for it. I suppose it was sort of an ah-ha moment for me. I had always liked putting outfits together. I'd modeled vintage clothing for people before. I was passionate about beautiful, meaningful clothing."

 

It all seemed rather fated. Her work in tourism and marketing all prepared her for being a business owner in Southwest Louisiana. Her fascination with history drew her to Grand Coteau. Her love of her grandmother's pies bonded her with Nancy and Granny who wanted a younger woman to pass their legacy on to.

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The "thread" woven through her various jobs was more than just her passion for dressing up. Her interest in fashion, too, was not just about clothes.

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"The thread in my work history was really the connection that each place had to the local culture. Whether it was through music, food, historic sites, or the fashion piece of it that I'm doing now, it all relates to this local culture that has always inspired me. Whether it's a dress I've discovered that puts you in the Festival spirit or the dress for the Mother of the Bride that she can dance in all night long. It's all about community. That's where my heart is, and Pistache represents that. It's a place where mothers, daughters, and even grandmothers can all find something that speaks to their souls."

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There is another thread that has woven itself through Alyce's work and life: a passion for carrying on culture and tradition through generations of women.

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Alyce always wanted to learn how to tie Granny's bows and she spent hours by the older woman's side, visiting in The Kitchen Shop, but they somehow never got around to working on bows. One day Granny appeared unexpectedly in the dress shop and said: "It's time for you to learn how to tie the bows." They spent hours together that day until Alyce got it right. A few weeks later, Granny returned to check on her progress and make sure she had it down.

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"I thought it was strange," Alyce says, "because she never came to the dress shop. So I suppose I wasn't surprised when she passed away just two months after that day she came in to teach me how to tie the bows."

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Learning at the knee from older women comes naturally to Alyce. She absorbs their lessons and wisdom like a sponge.

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"We've been to market in other cities, but Nancy just took me to market in New York for the first time this summer, and she and her husband Jesse taught me so much." Nancy is an experienced retailer and Jesse is an artist by trade. They both have a good eye. "Going to market is like thrift-store shopping on a huge level, but spending like $10,000 instead of $10."

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You have to have an eye for it but Alyce is a natural.

 

"I know a good piece, a good designer when I look at it," Alyce says. "Even if it fits all my other criteria, bottom line, I have to like it. It has to make me feel good."

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Her shop is designed to make other women feel good. 

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"Pistache has this overarching aesthetic, like a little story, it has an heirloom feel, romantic, feminine, with lots of textures, pretty patterns, softness. It's a place where women come with their girlfriends to escape, ooh and ah, laugh, try things on, treat themselves."

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The original designer featured when Nancy first opened Pistache was April Cornell out of Burlington, Vermont. Nancy carried her linens and aprons in the kitchen shop and her clothing line in the dress shop. She is still Alyce's signature designer at Pistache. Alyce and Nancy recently went to see the designer in Vermont. "April is an amazing woman. She has been designing for almost 40 years, she has seen so much of the world, she has spent her life creating beauty, but she is so real and her designs are for real women."

 

Bell bottoms are one of the latest things in the new April Cornell line for Fall - and they are deliciously embroidered at the bottom of the bell bottom.

 

"I thought it was a really risky move," Alyce remembers. "My core clientele ranges from 45-60 and they've already done bell bottoms. I was worried they wouldn't go for it a second time, but they love them."

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Surprised to learn her bread-and-butter at the shop is 40+ women like us?

 

Alyce says women from all over the world come into the shop with their daughters when visiting the Sacred Heart Academy. They buy gifts for the girls, but they are shopping for themselves when they hit the door at Pistache.

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Mata Traders is another of her favorite designers - organic cotton, fair trade, out of Chicago, female-run. "They are mostly A-line to the knee dress styles - swingy and pocketed - perfect for Louisiana festivals and dancing. They've got a good twirl factor."

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At the thought of dancing, the subject rolls back around to love and the topic of her recent engagement.

 

"I think love, it's all in the timing. Can you receive the love that's being offered to you? There are times in your life when you can, times when you can't. The timing just has to be right."

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Her words are reminiscent of her comments about the boutique when it was offered: how it was just the right thing at the right time.

 

"Love?" she says with a small sigh. "I don't know, think about it, what's better than love? There's no better feeling. Even the parts that are hurtful, it's so real, it's so consuming. Do I believe in true love? Yes. Even though I'm practical and I say love is about timing, at the same time, it's about finding that one person that just makes sense for you, who is clued in to what makes you tick, your personality, your interests, you just match, you mesh... He just fits."
 

Fits. What an interesting word choice. Fits like your favorite dress.

 

"I just knew," Alyce says wistfully, "I knew right from our second date that I was going to marry him."

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And as we know, Alyce has an eye for these things.