By Emily Wolfe Explore Big Sky Managing Editor
BIG SKY – When Amy Langmaid and her sister Alison were young, they loved dressing up, putting on fashion shows, and dancing to Ricky Lee Jones. It’s perhaps natural that Langmaid, 30, would open a women’s clothing boutique.
Formerly a Nordic ski instructor and manager of Lone Mountain Ranch’s retail shop, Langmaid has lived in Big Sky for seven years. When a spot in the new building, 32 Town Center Avenue, came open for rent in late September, Langmaid jumped at it.
“The whole thing was a very quick, between me deciding to do it and it coming into shape,” she said. “It’s been a little whirlwind-ish but great.”
Rhinestone Cowgirl will have “a Western feel with a little bit of an urban twist,” Langmaid said.
On Dec. 3, she and her father Dwayne were installing steel shelving in the open 1,350-square-foot space. Local friends had already helped her paint the walls pink and the ceiling buttery yellow; install wood flooring and track lighting; and build wooden ladder shelves and sliding barn doors, which hang on tracks from an old barn in Vermont, Langmaid’s home state.
Before the Dec. 10 ribbon cutting, she hung four chandeliers and brought in her clothing line, which includes cowboy boots from Ariat and Liberty Black, clothing from Blu Pepper and Tulle, KUT From The Kloth and Second Clothing Co. jeans, and Montana-made jewelry.
“I’ve always really liked retail and am very into clothing,” said Langmaid, who has also worked at JP Woolies in the Mountain Mall, spent three summers as a wildland firefighter and has an education degree from Elmira College.
Set between Ousel and Spur Pizza Co. and East Slope Outdoors – which recently relocated from Highway 191 – Rhinestone Cowgirl is one of two businesses in the new 9,000-square-foot, two-story building that will also have four apartments upstairs.
“We’ve got all kinds of activities in Town Center – restaurants, famers markets, ice skating, concerts – but I think it’s important for people to have something interesting to buy, something that reminds them of Montana,” said the building’s developer John Romney.
The approximately $2 million project, which abuts the east side of Lone Peak Cinema, is being developed and built in coordination with Romney’s TNG Development and Rotherham Construction. It is phase 1 of a two-part project that will include a second building of the same size next door, slated for construction next summer.
Big Sky resident Michelle Horning says having more local shopping is a plus for Big Sky as a whole.
“I think it’s great to have more retail options, especially clothing and accessories in the Big Sky area,” Horning said after visiting the shop on Dec. 9. “Town Center is really evolving and having more mainstream retail that is focused on year-round apparel with a contemporary flair is a wonderful addition to our community.”
Find Rhinestone Cowgirl online at Facebook/rhinestonecowgirlbs.
