Hot on the heels of the opening of St. Pete Bakery, the 600 block of 1st Avenue North continues to diversify with the arrival of The Campus Colors Boutique, a women’s fashion shop owned by Karen Sleszynski.

Located at 600 1st Avenue North, Suite 100, The Campus Colors Boutique offers a wide variety of dresses, tops, sweaters, pants, rompers, skirts, shorts, jackets, and accessories such as hats and sunglasses. Sleszynski, who taught herself to sew and make clothes when she was just 11 years old, said her goal is to offer simple, competitively priced clothing for women of all ages.

Despite the name of the store, customers will be able to find clothing with subdued floral patterns, but most items are bright and colorful.

“When I do my buying, everything’s about color,” Sleszynski said, citing occasions, such as weddings, funerals, and baby showers, that call for specific colors of clothing to be worn. “I think in color. Everything you think of is in color, and you don’t even realize it most of the time.”

In addition to being colorful, she describes The Campus Colors Boutique aesthetic as “everyday fashion you can wear to any event. It’s just trendy everyday wear. I buy what I think women are going to like, but there are so many different types of styles.”

“Our prices are reasonable. Most of the things in here are under $60,” Sleszynski said in an interview with St. Pete Rising. “I'm just trying to make a living — I'm not trying to kill anybody with prices. I want people to feel like it's their neighborhood store.”

Sleszynski has lived in St. Petersburg for nearly 30 years and used to own a store that sold Florida Gators and Florida State Seminoles branded clothing and accessories.

“It was like selling real estate,” she said. “You're super busy from June through the National Championship. And then it's dead, dead, dead.”

With The Campus Colors Boutique, Sleszynski aspires to break that cycle by selling clothing in Gator blue and orange and Seminole garnet and gold but without the logos.

“This is a much more year-round thing,” she said. “You can buy an orange dress just because you like orange, and you don’t have to wear it to a game.” 

According to Sleszynski, fewer female college students are wearing clothing with logos when they attend sporting events on campus.

“Once in a while you’ll see somebody take a T-shirt and cut it up and make a halter top out of it, something cute and unique,” she said. “But they’re not wearing logos anymore. It’s like where the NBA is — NBA games are like fashion shows now.”

The Campus Colors is now open at 600 1st Avenue North, Suite 100 in downtown St. Pete. Their hours are 11 a.m. to 6 p.m. Monday through Saturday and closed on Sundays.

For more information and updates, follow The Campus Colors Boutique on Instagram.