Clothing and accessories from Boden, a British label known for using bold colors and prints, are mostly sold online, via catalog or at department stores like Nordstrom.
But for the past few years, fans of the brand driving on Interstate 81 en route to upstate New York, visiting northeastern Pennsylvania or just on a lunch break in Scranton have been able to browse a selection of its offerings at a Boden outlet in that city.
Tucked away at 542 Biden St. in downtown Scranton, it’s currently the only free-standing Boden store in the United States — or anywhere for that matter, after the company’s two locations in London closed in recent years.
Why Scranton?
While it’s the birthplace of President Biden and home to the Electric City Trolley Museum and the Steamtown National Historic Site — not to mention a branch of the fictional Dunder Mifflin Paper Company from the sitcom “The Office” — the city isn’t exactly a shopping destination or a fashion capital.
But it is only about 11 miles away from Boden’s U.S. distribution center in Pittston, Pa., making it a convenient location for a store selling overstock and items returned to the company. The outlet was previously in Pittston for about a decade, before moving to Scranton in the summer of 2020.
Around the store are large photos from past Boden catalogs that channel the brand’s aesthetic, which could be described as a cross between J. Crew and Lilly Pulitzer. A small framed map of London mounted near the posters nods to the company’s roots in Britain, where its fans include Catherine, Princess of Wales, and her daughter, Princess Charlotte.
Boden’s founder and creative director, Johnnie Boden, introduced the label in 1991 with a since-discontinued men’s wear line. In addition to women’s clothing, its current offerings include a Mini Boden line for children and, as of last month, a new Baby Boden collection.
On a sunny Wednesday in late August, vibrantly colored and patterned dresses, bathing suits and skirts hung on four racks inside the store. A few pairs of pants and T-shirts, including Boden’s signature style with Breton stripes, were folded on shelves against a wall.
Prices at the outlet are similar to those at Boden’s sample sales in cities like Boston, Pittsburgh and White Plains, N.Y. Boots and coats were recently listed at $75, shoes and dresses at $50, sweaters at $40 and T-shirts at $20. Children’s items started at $15.
Although the selection at the cheerful little outlet is random and fleeting, the faithful often seem to find something.
Virginia Barrett, 43, a lawyer, said she could see the store from her office window at the Lackawanna County Courthouse across the street. “I’m here once a week,” said Ms. Barrett, who was wearing Boden sandals and sunglasses.
Mileise Allegrucci, 39, a stay-at-home mother in Clarks Summit, Pa., who stopped by the outlet with her 3-year-old daughter, said she used to shop at the Boden outlet in Pittston. She left the store with a couple items, including a pink dress with stars for her daughter’s first day of school.
“It’s a spinny dress,” her daughter said.
Dr. Beth Lewis, 52, an internal medical physician who lives in Teaneck, N.J., took advantage of the store’s proximity to her family’s lake house and popped in with her 13-year-old twin daughters, Madeline and Zoe.
Dr. Lewis had never shopped at the Boden outlet before. “It’s a little cooler than Lilly Pulitzer,” she said of the brand.
Four sisters — three with vacation homes and one who lives year-round in Lake Ariel, Pa., where the women grew up — dropped by en masse a little too early. They arrived at 9 a.m., and then returned as soon as the store opened an hour and a half later.
One of the sisters, Peggy Quayle, 64, who lives in Austin, Texas, had a fitting next door for a mother-of-the-groom dress at Vecina, a dressmaker that she discovered on a visit to the Boden outlet a couple of months earlier.
Ms. Quayle likes Boden garments for their colors and textiles. “The clothes are optimistic,” as she put it.
She bought her grandson a coral-orange T-shirt with Mount Vesuvius erupting on it. Her sister Carol Gardner, 61 and from Denver, picked up a bathing suit with a neon zigzag pattern.
“I have eight to 10 in different patterns and colors,” said Ms. Gardner, who also bought a T-shirt with a French provincial-like design and trimmed with yellow mini pompoms around the neckline and sleeves.
Marie Luciani, 64, who works in investor relations at the nearby Peoples Security Bank & Trust, said she tried to visit the outlet daily. She was wearing a bright blue-and-white Boden checked skirt with pockets, a feature she particularly appreciated and emphasized by slipping her hands into them.
“I feel fortunate, this store is the one and only,” she said.
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