Lebanon—There was the woman from Anchorage, Alaska, who came in and bought a “sizable amount” of clothes on her last day in the Upper Valley — then called two weeks later to have three more pieces shipped out.

Another purchased a semi-formal for a Christmas event that “she couldn’t possibly fit into” as motivation “get serious” about her goal to lose weight. A custom hat was purchased to wear while traveling on the Orient Express. Two pieces from the store were worn at presidential inaugurations.

They were all customers of Nouveaute Boutique, a storefront consignment shop that sold “pre-loved designer clothing” for 16 years in Lebanon.

Brenda Doolan, the store’s owner, has closed Nouveaute, which carried such upscale labels as Eileen Fisher, Talbot’s, Ann Taylor, Ferragamo, Cole Hahn and J. Jill. The store was located next to the Upper Valley Music Center and in the same building as longtime clothier and uniform supplier Hirsch’s of Lebanon on Hanover Street.

Ed Hirsch, owner of the building, said Doolan closed her shop because she did not want to deal with the uncertainty and likely increase in rent that would come with a new landlord.

The Hirsch family put the building, which has six apartment units on the second floor, on the market earlier this year for estate planning purposes.

“It was all amicable. I’m sorry to see her go,” Hirsch said.

Doolan said she also did not want to undergo “another disruption in business” like the one she faced nine years ago when the renovation of the Commerce Building on the mall in downtown Lebanon, where Nouveaute was previously located, led her to relocate the store to Hirsch’s building. New building owners frequently want to renovate the property, she noted.

Nouveaute’s closing occurs against the backdrop of wrenching retrenchment among storefront retail businesses as people shift their buying habits online. The consignment and “vintage” clothing sector is also being challenged by Internet-based platforms such as Esty and eBay that cater to boutique retailers, foregoing their need for costly overhead while greatly expanding the seller’s reach.

Doolan, who earlier in her career worked as an executive assistant and office manager at White Mountain Insurance Group in Hanover, purchased Nouveaute — which is French for “novelty” — in 2000 from Sandra “CC” O’Connor, the former chief administrator of Lebanon District Court who ran the shop as a side business. Doolan subsequently also acquired the consignment store Encore Coture and moved its inventory into her shop, which was then located under the Lebanon Diner at the parking lot level of the Commerce Building.

Doolan, in an email, called closing Nouveaute “bittersweet” and marked the end of something that she “fully intended to have in my life until I was ready to retire … years from now.” Doolan noted the store had been in business for 25 years, “a long lifespan in the industry.”

One aspect of the business that Doolan said she found especially gratifying was expanding into “wardrobe consulting … helping women weed out what no longer worked for their lifestyles, creating different ensembles from pieces they already had in their closets … helping women in a state of panic over an upcoming interview, the mother of a bride, or women going to an event that may have taken them out of their comfort zone.”

Doolan said she isn’t sure what her next step will be, although she may “morph” Nouveaute into an “in-home wardrobe consulting” and fashion advising business.

“The demographics of the Upper Valley would seem as though there would be enough of a client base to support such a service,” she said.

“The loyalty of both Nouveaute’s consignors and shoppers was quite amazing to me. People would move away, return to the area and tell me they were so glad I was still around because I had somehow helped them,” Doolan said in her email.

Nouveaute’s closing did not mean the store’s clothing did not find new owners, however. Doolan donated the store’s stock to the Upper Valley Community Clothing Swap, which was held on May 14 and 15 at the Bugbee Senior Center in White River Junction. Swap organizers on their Facebook page noted nothing from Doolan’s donation “went in the trash,” including the coat hangers, which they used to upgrade from the wire hangers on the Senior Center’s coat rack, with the old wire hangers in turn donated to a local clothing alteration service.

John Lippman can be reached at jlippman@vnews.com or 603-727-3219.

John Lippman is a staff reporter at the Valley News. He can be reached at 603-727-3219 or email at jlippman@vnews.com.