STATELINE, Nev. — Will & Ivey Children’s Boutique is hosting a Grand Opening Party on October 9-10, fulfilling a lifelong dream for Owner/Designer Sandra Ney.

Ney has worked in the fashion industry for much of her life. She attended the Fashion Institute of Design and Merchandising in Los Angeles. While living there, she met her husband, Karl, and worked as the head designer at the Beverly Hills Polo Club.

In 1991, the couple had their first son and Ney was discouraged by the available baby clothing.

“I became very disenchanted with the children’s clothing out there,” Ney said. “They were covered in busy patterns with dinosaurs and trucks and millions of snaps and that sort of thing.”

She began designing a line of children’s clothing, inspired by her son Hunter. The patterns were simple so people could focus on the baby’s face, which she said was the real piece of art, instead of busy patterns.

The Ney’s would spend hours sitting at their kitchen table working on the brand. Sandra would be cutting out patterns while Karl would be attaching tags to clothing.

However, Karl was the drummer of the Christian Rock band Guardian. The recording studio moved to Nashville so the Ney’s packed up and moved. Ney wasn’t able to find manufacturers to make her children’s clothing there so she put up the swatches and designs.

They lived in Nashville for 29 years and during that time, Ney worked in the fashion industry but she never forgot about her dream of a children’s clothing line.

In 2011, a friend of hers opened a denim company called Southern Blues and asked Ney to be the designer. At the time, she was working with a nonprofit called Lifesong for Orphans.

“One of the things that is a big heart beat of mine is, I always longed to have a company with a mission to care for children,” Ney said. “So when I got to do the denim company, I said, ‘hey, what do you think about designing baby jeans… and with the sale of those jeans, give a large percentage to this nonprofit.”

About two years later, the owner of Southern Blues decided to pursue another career so he closed the doors on the company. While Ney was sad, she realized it was time to pull her old designs and patterns out of the closet.

She found partners in Tenn. to work with and in 2015, she launched Will & Ivey. Will & Ivey focuses on minimalist children’s clothing designs, featuring mature solid colors, soft fabric with elastic waists, easy on and off outfits with minimal snaps and buttons.

“I’m finding a lot of moms are really thankful that the fabrics I choose are either organic or Oeko Tex, which is free of toxins, so the fabric is extremely soft and not only safe for the skin but safe for the environment,” Ney said.

Helping children in foster care and adoption was still a passion for her. Ney’s own mother and her four siblings had been abandoned in San Francisco. She was adopted and has recently been able to track down her siblings and reconnect and watching the reunion struck a cord for Ney.

A percentage of each garment purchased from Will & Ivey goes to towards Tennessee Kids Belong, a company that helps children as they transition from the foster care program into adoption, or towards filling backpacks through Tennessee Alliance for Kids’ TAK PAK program, where backpacks are filled with essential and comfort items for children when they are abruptly removed from their homes.

Ney grew up visiting the home her grandfather built in Carnelian Bay and she always felt a pull to go back to Tahoe. In 2020, her and Karl purchased a home off of Kingsbury Grade. After running their business for five years online, they decided to open a brick and mortar store.

Karl loved Clyde’s Coffee House and wanted the store to be near there. Sure enough, there was a space right next door that was for rent. Ney describes it as “serendipitous.”

Ney is now looking for local producers so that the clothing can be all local and she’s looking for local nonprofits to partner with.

Sandra and Karl have four children and Sandra said she’s not pressuring her kids to give her grandchildren, but she is excited to one day possibly dress her grandchildren.

The grand opening will be held October 9-10, 2021 at 292 Kingsbury Grade Unit #32, Stateline, Nev 89449, next to Clyde’s Coffee House. The event will feature in-store only sales and specials, as well as online sales to celebrate the event.

The shop will offer baby and children’s clothing from size newborn to 6T, and the assortment features dresses, tops, bottoms, gowns, one-pieces, and accessories.

For more information, visit Will & Ivey online at http://www.willandivey.com.