Biz Profile: Dandelion Boutique

JaVonda Cave has always been in love with fashion. Truly.

Since she was a young girl growing up in Edinburgh she was exposed to the latest fashion trends via three generations of the women in her family beginning with her late great-grandmother Mary Jane Norton, a hair stylist who lived in Columbus.

“She was such a tiny and classy lady,” Cave says. “She would have women come over to have their hair done. I loved to go to her house.”

During the 1950s, in Edinburgh, Cave’s grandmother Juanita Johnson owned a dress shop. Granted, it had opened and closed by the time Cave was a kiddo, but her mother Betty Jane would entertain her with stories about how she and her friends would go in the shop and try on clothes.

In lieu of a cool shop to explore, Johnson had something else.

“She always had this Spiegel catalogue she would get,” Cave recalls. “I just couldn’t wait for her to get that catalogue because I loved the stuff in it. That inspired me a lot.”

Through a child’s eyes, the catalogue opened a whole new world of beauty and style. An inspiring world.

Cave was raised in a very modest household and wore dresses throughout school until she reached the ninth grade.

“Once I started wearing my own style, I loved it,” Cave says.

Flash forward to the 1990s which saw Cave opening and closing JaVonda’s The Country Place furniture store and then Brown’s Furniture Plus on Thompson Street, which closed in the neighborhood of the year 2000, both in Edinburgh.

For the nearly two decades following, Cave went to work for the late chiropractor Dr. Gregory Sweet in Hope. Working both his Hope and Edinburgh offices kept Cave happily close to her roots and communities that she loved.

Then, around the time of the pandemic in 2020, a pivotal conversation took place.

While helping out the ladies at WILLow LeaVes of Hope, Cave mentioned in passing one day her desire to open a clothing boutique. The idea was floated, “Why don’t you open one here?” and the rest, as they say, is history.

Following a trip to an apparel show in Atlanta, GA, in 2020, the Dandelion Boutique made its debut as booth space in WILLow LeaVes. Specializing in women’s fashion, Cave found success offering shoppers an array of casual to professional styles in both traditional and plus sizes for every age, she says.

Prior to the apparel show, the pieces of Dandelion Boutique began to fall together early-on.

While at WILLow LeaVes, though Cave adored and appreciated the space she knew she would branch out. During that time, she had been offered and accepted free clothing racks, acquired a slew of hangers, and even scored a couple of mannequins.

Then, as it seemed the stage was set, fate intervened.

“Greg Sperling came in WILLow LeaVes and said his building was open if I was interested in looking at it,” Cave says. “Everything seemed to fall into place.”

The building was once home to Beeker’s Beauty Box, a salon owned by Vi Beeker. Suffice to say, the space continues to hold the charm it had back in the day.

Cave opened the Dandelion Boutique at 601 Harrison Street in downtown Hope in November 2022.

Named in equal parts as a nod to her daughter’s name, Danielle, and her late grandfather Sam Johnson’s knack for always making dandelion wine, Cave says.

Whether it is ordering new merchandise or visiting with shoppers who come in, Cave says she enjoys meeting individuals from “all walks of life out there” and getting to know them as regular customers, even shoppers from outside Bartholomew County and as far away as Florida and Ohio.

“It’s exciting and I’ve had a lot of people say they don’t have to go into town to shop,” she says. “It is exciting to know you have something to offer that people in the community are wanting.”

Cave says her husband, James, and family have been tremendous support with this adventure.

“I’ve truly been blessed,” Cave says. “I just want the community and my family and friends to know that I am very grateful for them. I am not a success without them.”

And the journey is far from over.

“I am going to continue to grow,” she says. “Who knows? Hopefully, they’ll know me world-wide.”