Brightside Boutique & Art Studio

I have followed the place's page for along time. I liked some of the stuff they posted on facebook so I went in with my 10 months old boy last week. I was with a stroller, the door was hard to open and manage but that's every place these days. I got in and it was empty. No costumers, no employees. I saw some stuff I liked, when finally someone came in she didn't say anything. I mentioned I have followed the place online but haven't been there until now to start a conversation, but she didn't care to talk back. I liked some boots, so I took them and tried them on, again with 0% interest by the woman working there. I saw they were very affordable since they were running a sale at the moment, so I thought - how cool - I can buy my boots for this winter right now!..when I looked at her she was totally checked out again. I think she didn't like the fact that I was moving a stroller through the small space. Well - not much to do about that, since I can's park my son outside obviously. After a few more minutes of me looking around and waiting for some sort of contact with planet Earth from this woman there, I got pissed and took off. On my way out she shouted something thanking me for coming, sounded relieved that I was leaving with my 'uncool' stroller and baby. I would have probably been a regular costumer if I have gotten any service while I was there. I am crazy for clothes and shoes(like most women) I have worked in Fed Hill for years and I know that rent there is expensive, and so is property. So I hope they think that this attitude is worth their clients because I'm not coming back. Also - no way to contact the place through facebook - messages, comments and anything else but shares are disabled.

First things first- this place is awesome. Reasonably priced (not H&M reasonable, but think Urban or Free People) unique, and stylish clothing and accessories in an adorable little storefront in Fed Hill.  I visited recently after lurking their Instagram forever, and I'm pretty gosh darn happy with my haul. So why not five stars?

My situation might be unique, but I thought it was worth sharing. I visited here on a mission to find something stylish, high quality, and dressy but not too formal to wear to a wedding. I also bought a couple other things including a cut-to-your-length maxi dress which is amazing for a shorter gal like me and if I could wear it all day, every day I would. The dress I bought for the wedding was a really cute dress that wasn't *exactly* my style, but it was totally appropriate.

Fast forward a couple of days and their website launches, and I see an AWESOME dress on their that was not in the store. It was wedding appropriate and way closer to the look I normally go for. I bought it, and their shipping was super fast (serious points for this- I  was worried because it was a holiday weekend). I was going to exchange the other dress right away, but waited at my boyfriend's suggestion to make sure the new one fit correctly--plus I live near DC so it's a trek to get up to Baltimore twice in one week. By then, however, I had travel plans to take care of and we were leaving town. I went to exchange it when I got back (I REALLY wanted another maxi dress).

Deeee-nied.  First off-- it's totally my fault for not checking the receipt (I was not warned of this policy at checkout, btw)  but at the same time most places have a 20-30 day policy. This shop's is 14 days, I came back on day 15 :-(.  I tried really hard to be cool about it (part of it was my bad after all) and I figured their return policy was so short because they seem to change their inventory fairly often, but then I noticed the exact same dress I was trying to exchange was still very much for sale in the exact same spot I picked it from. WTH. I felt like an exception could have easily been made, especially since I didn't need the dress anymore because I bought another one from them and not someplace else.

TL;DR: I'm out $70 on something I'm most likely never going to wear. This would definitely deter me from continuing business with any other store, but I will be back to Brightside for sure. I mean, I still need another cut to my length maxi dress in my life.

Brightside Boutique is a wonderful little find in the Federal Hill section of Baltimore. The front half is a retail store with funky clothing, shoes and accessories. Lots of options to choose from at an affordable price. The back half is a tattoo parlor with two great artists - Kike and Hunter. My husband and I found Kike and Hunter to be very easy going and great to work with. Both are incredible artists with a sense of humor. I definitely plan on visiting again in the near future.