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By:Mackenzie Branstad

Sitting in a large office chair in front of her bright colorful desk, Addie Ashmead gets ready for the big Spring Flip event coming up for her at work at Beautiful Lives. She goes through inventory carefully choosing what items in the back will make it to the big display in March.

“I am a counselor to everyone that works here. I coach a lot of conversations for in-store merchandising and community bonding,” she says though her full title is Director of Operations at Beautiful Lives Thrift Boutique.

“Addie has an incredible ability of making anyone who works under her feel appreciated and heard,” says General Manager Rachel Schneider. “Addie is amazing at making any space look more vibrant and exciting at work but that is also just her personality,” continues Schneider. Rachel loves working with Addie and when I asked to talk about Addie wirh her she immediately responded with, “how much time do you have?”

Photo sent by Addie Ashmead 

In 2025, Addie and her colleagues at Beautiful Lives processed over 122,000 pounds of clothing in just one year. 122,000 pounds means that just the donated items of the community equal just in pounds to roughly three full semi-trucks weight of apparel women would have otherwise thrown out to end up in landfills. This is with Ashmead’s help but also the help of the community because the community is the one donating apparel. 

Every year in the United States 34 billion pounds of used textiles are thrown away. In order to combat this wasteful behaviour many Americans turn to thrifting for this reason as well as others like one-of-a kind finds and cheap prices, thrifting has become more of a trend, instead of being used purely out of necessity. There are currently over 25,000 resale consignment and not-for-profit resale shops in the United States. Places like Beautiful Lives.

Beautiful Lives was started by Melody Taylor with the New Heights Church but what  Addie was drawn to was the store’s vintage aesthetic and focus on the community. The point of Beautiful Lives is to better the shoppers and make buying quality clothes affordable for women in order to make them feel confident. 

Now the store has four locations and a thrift-out. A thrift-out is where clothes are sent that don’t measure up to the boutique quality they sell on racks to minimize apparel waste. They have locations in Fayetteville, Springdale, Bentonville and Siloam Springs with more to come this fall.

The first time Ashmead walked through the doors of the little two-story red brick house, Addie had just moved to Fayetteville a few months prior and thought she was in for an average weekend shopping trip but quickly found something much bigger. She felt known and comfortable immediately upon entering the space. She loved the feminine atmosphere and instantly felt at home.  

“Just by walking into the store it is obviously designed by women for women,” says Addie. There is an area for kids to play with a mat, toys and books. “I wish all stores had this,” a shopper says to me, without any knowledge I am doing a story. “It is so nice my son can play while I shop,” she says grinning from ear to ear as she inspects a pink satin maxi dress which suited her short blonde bob haircut.

While her son stares at his book peacefully reading. Everyone inside the store seemed so lively even on a dreary Wednesday evening in February. Shoppers are clearly excited to be there, and the customer excitement is what feeds Addie to continue doing what she does. Addie fosters an environment where shoppers greet one another instead of quietly shopping. It is the community she cares about. 

Addie’s favorite part of her day though, is catching up and getting to hangout with her coworkers. Getting to talk to them, trip with them, counsel them she loves all of it. “The community here is unlike any other,” she explains to me with a genuine smile. There is only one man who works at the entire company, and he started six months ago. 

“Working with over 62 power-house women who all consecutively link arms with one another to work hard and implore one another to be better employees but also people is the coolest community you could ever ask for,” she says. Addie loves her communities whether it is at her work or her church she is extroverted and loves talking to all different people and tries to include everyone in her work as well. 

While sitting with her, her face lights up when talking about her colleagues, her work she does, her family (especially her two sons) and her faith. She has been to many different thrift shops since she moved from Colorado, but she knew right when she walked through the doors of Beautiful Lives Thrift Boutique this was something unique. Her curiosity sparked her to talk to employees and the owner and made her weekend activity into a career 

Ever since Addie was younger, fashion was a major part of her life. She uses her clothes as an outlet of self expression. “Growing up there was no cap on how far I could go with my wardrobe,” she says. Her Mom was her fashion icon growing up and always encouraged her to continue her fashion journey.

Photo taken for Beautiful Lives sent from Addie Ashmead.

She often went thrift shopping before this, but she felt the community in this boutique specifically. Ashmead has always had a special eye for mundane items, as she was a photographer and majored in photojournalism in college. She was made for a creative career. Her Sarah Jessica Parker curls, vintage jeans and kind smile. Her vibrant attitude and perfectionist mindset comes in handy when it comes to her displays. 

After four years of finding unique items and continuously shopping at Beautiful Lives, Addie knew she needed to get involved. Addie wanted to not only be a shopper, but she felt the need to do something with the strong women she was talking to, especially the person who started it all, Melody Taylor. 

The US second hand apparel market is projected to grow from $49 billion in 2024 to $74 billion by 2029. Fayetteville also has local secondhand apparel programs like “Fayetteville Resale” on GroupMe or resales on Instagram or Facebook Marketplace. These still don’t give the human shopping interaction that Addie thinks so many people are craving.  

“What shoppers are really hungry for is community and human interaction while shopping” says Addie. In a time where everyone is shopping online and there are so many online trendy options from fast fashion outlets at extremely low prices, Addie thinks that people come back to her and the store because they crave the human interaction portion of shopping.  

Her customers crave the kind of shopping done with friends, when trying on clothes  friends say to buy it because it looks perfect. This is an environment Addie strives for at Beautiful Lives because she wants women to feel powerful and that is why they have so many locations and are growing in popularity because it is something that is special to them which is why Addie fell in love with it in the first place. 

Since the store was started through the New Heights Church, the women working there all have similar beliefs, the main belief is that they need to give back to the community. Looking in the back room there are dozens of black trash bags full of clothes laying one on top of the other. It is overwhelming to look at the amount of work it would be to sort all the bags out but the community is the ones giving Beautiful Lives clothes and they are more grateful than stressed. That is why they don’t throw anything away as well as their sustainability effort. 

Looking on the bright purple walls and carefully written on each matching plum tag, the phrase “Lift Women Mend Community” is written. Every month, Addie helps Beautiful Lives collaborate with a charity that directly supports women. Whether it’s women getting out of a violent relationship, women who have been trafficked, women dealing with an unexpected pregnancy, women who are newly out of incarceration, women who have recently aged out of foster care and women at risk of being homeless.  

This is why Addie and her team gave over $43,263 worth of clothes in 2024. They gave those clothes to Choices Pregnancy Services, Diva and Dude, Hub of Hope, Ladies of Grace and Tangible Truth Ministries in the Northwest Arkansas area and internationally donated to Global Outfitters, Go Near, International Justice Mission and James127 Foundation.They aren’t just an ordinary boutique they give back to the Northwest Arkansas community in clothes and donations. They are constantly trying to find new places to help women and currently help six charities locally and four charities internationally.   

In the conference room where I spoke with Addie, I carefully eye a Ralph Lauren maroon quarter zip on a white hanger specifically chosen for the weekly drop hitting the racks on Monday. That top would cost on the shelf $228 at Ralph Lauren locations or on their website, but at Beautiful Lives that would cost $30. Two other young-looking managers introduced themselves to me, with excitement, and moved to the organizing room to go through donated clothes and discuss the Spring Flip drop that is coming up. Finalizing new ideas and stands with clothes, hats, purses and jewelry.  

A lot of trendy name brands like Free People, Zara, Aritzia etc. are what Addie would want to see at Beautiful Lives and sort of how she decides how to price an item. Items are priced lower than a Plato’s Closet or Style Encore chain because she wants items to be more affordable for the entire shopping demographic of women, not very worried about store profit.  

“We could sell it for $40, and people would buy it,” Addie explains, “but we don’t because we want it to be more affordable”. Walking through the store with Addie, there are rooms upon rooms clearly marked with what is inside. An entire room of shoes is where she took me first. Heels, ballet flats, sneakers, sandals, flip flops, boots carefully organized by color and size.  

A room for tops which happened to be 50% off, a wall of pants specifically jeans with some Adidas athletic shorts hanging on the end of the long shelf in a dark earthy green color with the famous three stripes running down either side.  Addie and I decided that we think Supermodel Bella Hadid would wear them on her days off. 

Addie is trendy, she clearly knows a lot about apparel and while going through shelves with her she knows what is and isn’t up to her boutique quality and is willing to go through thousands of donations to find what is best for her shoppers.  One item on the shelf was a long sleeve Lululemon athletic top which would cost off the shelf $68 at Lululemon but at Beautiful Lives would again cost you $30. 

There is a small group of older women who have come into the store every single Monday for the past seven years, to volunteer and help around with whatever they need. They do this because they align with the mission, they love the community and want to give back and think that it is just fun. Addie explains this is the point of the store and that is exactly what she wants to foster as Director of Operations. 

This community of women paid and unpaid is the environment Addie works so hard every day at the store to foster. By the way Rachel Schneider talks about her as someone who works under her and how much the other women in the office respect her around the store, Addie just wants to see women succeed. 

“There are a lot of emotions in the team with employees, volunteers and the amount of donation they get to sort out,” Addie says. Getting to counsel women who work with her, work for her and counsel the people who specifically get to benefit from all her hard work by receiving the clothes is rewarding for Addie. 

Addie wants young women to feel empowered and confident in all walks of life. Every month she spends time researching to find women in the Northwest Arkansas community to help. “I want to restore dignity,” she says. She spends her time calling places to help and counseling her colleagues but one of her favorite parts of the job is when she gets to go on trips for work. 

Every quarter of the year, Addie takes two days when her coworkers and her, go for a two-day trip. This is a highlight for Addie because she loves to get to know her colleagues better and working “on the business not for the business”. To her, it doesn’t even feel like work, it is a fun girls trip. 

Not long ago, they traveled south to Hot Springs Arkansas, where they got to stay in a nice hotel with a pool and Addie had the best time getting to take a break and hang out with like-minded strong women for a little weekend getaway. These trips make her grateful for a job that doesn’t even feel like work because she enjoys it so much. Addie loves the common mindset among all of them that community is essential. 

Photo sent from Addie Ashmead

Every Monday morning women line up outside Beautiful Lives waiting for the weekly shelf drop. Addie spends hours making sure the shelves are vibrant and cleanly decorated. They are currently working on their Spring Flip. She tries to be inclusive in her choices by adding plus sized options which is rare for a boutique.

Spring Flip and Fall Flip are the biggest fundraisers for the store, and they have already started preparing racks of clothes and floral displays for this spring. “It literally feels like a house party. It is so much fun,” she says. In Addies house full of boys this is a place where she can really be girly. 

Addie says a lot of donations to make these events possible come from sorority girls in Fayetteville because they do a lot of collaborations with sororities to get more donations. She speaks at chapter meetings and hosts sorority donating competitions to get even more community involved.

Sorting is mainly done by volunteers like Macie Marshall. Macie Marshall is an Apparel Merchandising and Product Development major at the University of Arkansas, and she started volunteering a year ago

 “One of my favorite things about volunteering at Beautiful Lives is the people,” says Marshall. “Every time I go I get to hear about everyone’s life experience and how the kindness of the employees changes the lives of the community,” said Macie. Macie also loves to observe the racks for outfits for her classes and events at her sorority, Alpha Omicron Pi. 

The community operations that Addie creates while getting everyone involved. Addie says they are usually hiring but love volunteers, shoppers and everyone who she gets to talk to at work. 

Addie’s work at Beautiful Lives is not done. She continues her community efforts and hopes to only see her work grow. She hopes to help more women in the Northwest Arkansas community and reduce her apparel waste. She can’t wait to continue to counsel and foster a space for women in all walks of life and meet as many people as she can during her work, but for now she attends to her stands for the spring flip she has been working so hard on for months, 

She steams the floppy straw hats, sets jewelry on gold stands and watches as shoppers sneak a peak at the stunning maxi, mini and midi floral dresses. As she watches another spring flip come and go she sees women at her work blossom and grow just like the flowers on the spring dresses. 

Photo of in-store by Mackenzie Branstad