[For this installment of our local holiday shopping series, we interviewed Jessica Johnson, who last month opened LaSource at 44 Elm St.]
Jessica Johnson opened her first LaSource store in Darien a little over one year ago.
Jessica Johnson, Founder/Owner – LaSource, 44 Elm St.
A successful commercial real estate agent who used to work as a professional ballet dancer, Johnson had the idea in creating the shop to “try and reinvent a lingerie store.”
“I grew up a Victoria’s Secret customer in my 20s and everybody knows how Victoria’s Secret sells to women and what that looks like,” Johnson said Thursday afternoon from the floor of her warm, inviting new location in downtown New Canaan. “It is very much about seduction, whereas we’ve kind of taken seduction out of the store and tried to just create a beautiful space for women to feel comfortable in and supported. And we offer everything from bra fitting to resort wear and swimwear. And for all ages, really. We think about customers in their teens. We’ve done bra fittings for a number of local high schoolers and all the way up into women that have aged, women that need a little extra support. So we run the gamut.”
Samantha Holmes Alpaca Slippers, $96 at LaSource, 44 Elm St.
Last month, after lingerie and swimwear seller Soleil Toile vacated its longtime home at 44 Elm St., Johnson jumped at the chance to launch her second location.
“We’ve been really happy in Darien—it’s been a great community,” she said. “And we also had some New Canaan shoppers that were coming down. We’d received some feedback from them that they really wished we had been in town. And back in August, we heard that Soleil Toile—which had been here for many, many years—we heard that they were closing. And so we just took the opportunity to fill the void in the market with their downsizing and departure.”
Six weeks in, the New Canaan store has been an early success.
Knipschildt Signature Collection Chocolates 4-24 piece boxes, $12-$60 at LaSource, 44 Elm St.
“We’re really encouraged by the feedback we’ve gotten so far from women and men who have come to shop,” Johnson said. “It’s been good. We feel very welcomed here.”
Johnson, who also launched her own commercial real estate company last year (within four months of the Darien store’s opening), also jumped into the New Canaan community prior to LaSource’s Nov. 1 opening. The store participated in the New Canaan Chamber’s hugely popular Halloween Parade.
“I wasn’t quite prepared for it, but I did have a lot of candy, thankfully,” she said with a smile. “I have two boys that are 10 and 12. We had the most fun with the kids in town. In fact, quite a few young boys were carrying our bags around because they forgot their bags. And I’m like, ‘Do you have a bag? I hope your mom’s okay with this.’ It was super fun. We really enjoyed that. And then we did the Holiday Stroll and we had Santa stop by our store with Mrs. Claus, which was super fun. It’s been great to be a part of the street. Obviously, it’s an awesome street.”
Simone Perele Intrigue Bra & Panty in Cinder Blue, bra $140, panty $55 at LaSource, 44 Elm St.
Johnson said she’s still working hard and traveling extensively for her commercial real estate business while the LaSource stores grow, and hopes in the long term to spend more time locally in the retail shops.
Asked about her passion for LaSource, Johnson, who lives in Wilton near New Canaan, said she views the stores “from a bunch of different angles.”
“I’m a mother of two young boys and I don’t love what they’re consuming visually and media-wise on YouTube and TikTok,” she said. “There’s still a lot of hypersexuality that’s being put out there. And so as a mother of sons, I wanted to kind of show them a different way of thinking about women and their female peers. Which I think I have successfully done to this point.”
Shelley Kyle Linen & Body Powder, $52 at LaSource, 44 Elm St.
And as a former ballet dancer, Johnson said she know what it is to be “super body conscious.”
“I spent a lot of years not taking good care of my body and struggling to keep weight down or whatever,” she said. “And I look back on that time in my life and think, I don’t like that I spent so much time fighting that fight. I don’t think women need to fight that fight. And I also know a lot of women in my family and in the history of my family that really didn’t feel great about themselves because of their bodies. And I think that this is an opportunity to heal some of that and help women feel really good when they leave. That’s really the mission, is: How do we create a beautiful experience for women where they feel really embraced by what we’re doing and they’re comfortable, and when they walk out? We want them to feel really good about what we’ve helped them with.”
Caffeine & Carburetors has partnered with the New Canaan Chamber of Commerce to encourage local holiday shopping by increasing the purchase power of the New Canaan E-Gift Card program by 40%. The gift card can be used at over 45 different retailers in town. More information is available here.