Tina Goes Gaga For Nana

Ed. note: Tina has expanded her coverage from Mt. P to also include U Street. Don’t worry, Mt. P shall not be forsaken, there will simply be a mix.

Nana is located at 1528 U Street – upstairs from Millennium (a PoP fave). I stopped in the other night and gave my usual, “So, I write for this blog…” speech, and was super excited to find out that not only had the store manager heard of it, but also, it was one of her favorite DC websites, and she had actually read and remembered MY posts!! Fabulous!

Anyhow, Nana is one of my favorite clothing shops in DC. They have been open for five years, and were located just down the street until about three years ago when they moved into their current location. Sarah had a long history in retail, but she started with Nana as a customer and developed a relationship with Jackie Flanagan – the store owner. When Jackie had a family, she needed some help and brought Sarah on board as a manager.

Incidentally, this is also one of the things that Sarah mentioned she likes the best about working at Nana. It’s very much a neighborhood shop and it’s not uncommon for the staff to develop friendly relationships with customers. Their goal is to make the store accessible and welcoming for everyone. And their prime location surely doesn’t hurt. In the past three years Sarah’s seen U Street grow into a destination, where people will spend the whole day. This is great for the neighborhood, and also for business, as almost daily people are stopping into Nana for the first time.

Nana is always full of really cute and original items. Almost everything you’ll find comes from an independent designer, and a lot of their inventory comes from Canada. There are some great fashions to be found in our neighbor to the north, and Jackie and Sarah come across a lot of them at the many trade shows they attend. There is also a small (but good) selection of vintage attire in the back room.

My one gripe about Nana is that fashion doesn’t always come cheap here. Nana’s prices are sometimes a little high for this non-profit girl, but they frequently have good sales including the everything-in-the-store-is-50%-off sale, which happens a couple times a year to clean out seasonal inventory. I happened to stumble into the most recent sale just a few weeks ago and scored a fabulous skirt that I had been coveting but couldn’t afford at full price!

www.nanadc.com