That glow within downtown Overland Park isn’t just coming from the freshly stocked shelves at the new Annie Austen storefront; it’s yet another product of the pandemic-pivot entrepreneur’s contagious positivity — lightening the mood just steps away from a massive farmers market overhaul.
Annie Austen in her new Annie Austen store in downtown Overland Park at 7941 Santa Fe Drive; photo courtesy of Annie Austen
“There really aren’t any safe options in life. Sometimes the rug gets ripped out beneath,” said Annie Austen, founder and namesake of the lifestyle brand-turned-retailer Annie Austen. “I’ve just followed my own path on what I felt was right. I know it sounds silly, but there’s something to be said for a gut feeling.”
Austen had been married for more than a decade; her divorce was finalized the eve of the Overland Park jewelry and accessory store’s debut. But as employees and friends helped set up the space for its Sept. 13 opening, she kept the vibes as bright and sunny as the products she crafts.
Having a supportive partner — one who encouraged her “wild ideas” — always felt like a safety net, Austen acknowledged. So when they broke up a year ago, even she wondered if she would lose her carefree style — a risk-embracing approach that helped her grow the business from one product with two employees to 15 employees, hundreds of products, online sales and two shops.
The past few months have shown, however, she can still bet on her gut and pay the bills, she said, noting she leans on not only the support of friends and family, but a sense of “community and connection” with her customers that comes with opening brick-and-mortar stores.
“There’s a big appetite for small businesses and in-person experience,” said Austen, who first made a name for Annie Austen on the popup maker scene. “We’re not just a brand, a random corporation, but an actual human being.”
Annie Austen’s new store in downtown Overland Park at 7941 Santa Fe Drive; photo by Joyce Smith
Handmade opportunity
Five years ago, Austen launched the venture with scant retail experience; no business degree or classes under her belt. She’d never made a piece of jewelry even as a hobby. She didn’t perform market research or hire consultants.
Instead she trusted her intuition — celebrating the early wins with perspective as her brand caught on with Kansas Citians and beyond.
“I knew I made it when I could give my employees health insurance. That was the biggest thing, ‘Oh my gosh, we are actually doing this,’” said Austen. “We have really just built a business from the ground up as much as you can.”
She grew up in Carrollton, Missouri, earning degrees in psychology and sociology from the University of Central Missouri in 2013. She then worked at Cerner as a consultant and as a software engineer recruiter.
Meanwhile, she started a social media marketing company, Annie Austen LLC, to help small businesses in the metro with their social media content.
“The last thing on my radar was creating a product-based business,” she said.
But when she lost her job at Cerner during a round of layoffs in 2019, she turned her energies to her five social media accounts, expanded into product photography, and beefed up her own influencer sites — getting paid to create content for local and national brands.
Annie Austen and her brother, Matthew Callicotte; photo courtesy of Annie Austen
Then the pandemic hit, and a challenge exposed a retail opportunity.
“It was hard to get masks. You would lay masks down and they could be lost,” said Austen, whose mother, Marylu Callicotte, was a speech pathologist for two rural school districts, an on-the-go position where she had to always keep track of masks. “We were all just so worried about mom. How can we make something a little bit easier?”
So Austen and her brother, Matthew Callicotte, created acrylic and metal neck chains that attached to masks so the wearer could take them off but still keep them handy, much like eyeglass chains.
Austen sketched out the design, then the siblings had to figure out basic jewelry making.
“Stringing beads, attaching clasps. What length? Are they comfortable? Not too heavy? How do they clip on?” she said. “All those little nuances. We were focused on practicality. But my brother and I also realized we really liked making things with our hands.”
Stringing together their talents
Once their mother and others started wearing the mask chains, word spread and orders stacked up. They could soon be found on Etsy, at several local specialty shops, and at The Strawberry Swing, a local indie craft fair and makers market.
Annie Austen with Katie Mabry van Dieren, founder of The Strawberry Swing and Shop Local KC, in 2020 at a popup event; photo courtesy of Katie Mabry van Dieren
The sister-brother team worked out of their homes — Austen in Kansas City, Callicotte in Bentonville, Arkansas. Every couple of weeks they would meet in the middle, in the Walmart parking lot in Lamar, Missouri.
“Divide and conquer,” she said. “He liked doing the beaded mask chains. I was like, make this, or this would be really cute. I would sketch something out, make a prototype and then ask ‘Can you make 20 of these?’”
They were hopeful the pandemic would end soon, and she wanted to give her mask chain customers other things they could enjoy, she said.
“I just wanted to make pretty things,” Austen said.
She focused on hypo-allergenic, tarnish-resistant earrings and size-inclusive necklaces — very feminine, classic, appealing to a wide audience from little kids to grandmas.
“Jewlery that people could wear for a long time. But still keeping the cost down,” she said, introducing the line at the April 2021 Strawberry Swing event.
“They responded so positively and we were thrilled to death,” she said, noting the reaction came with a realization: “Now we have to make more.”
Annie Austen at a 2021 pop-up event; photo courtesy of Annie Austen
Planting her roots
Austen plowed earnings from her social media marketing accounts back into the business, keeping it self-financed. She rented a workspace in the West Bottoms but soon outgrew it.
rOOTS KC had been carrying some of the line at their plant stores and encouraged her to take an empty spot near their Zona Rosa shop.
With no debt, she again decided to again trust her gut, opening Annie Austen at 7116 N.W. 86th Terrace in July 2023.
“I had no clue if it would be a good idea or not; it just felt right. I just felt we were in the position to do something crazy and our customers kept asking where our store is,” she said. “It’s been amazing. It has been such an anchor, and Zona Rosa has been the reason we have had confidence to open a second location.”
Farmers market themed jewelry from Annie Austen; photo by Joyce Smith
That second location debuted earlier this month in downtown Overland Park, 7941 Santa Fe Drive, in time for the Overland Park Farmers Market. She even has new farmers’ market themed necklaces — peach, apple, cherries, and bowtie pasta.
Austen still makes many items in-house to keep costs down, as well as for quality control and consistency. It also means the stores can make repairs, which they do for free. Some stainless steel components are sourced globally, but her pieces retail for under $25.
She vows to always be ready to pivot.
Austen recently purchased an embroidery machine to localize merchandise — such as her Overland Park, Midwest Darling, and Kansas City hats — as well as totes and sweatshirts. She also plans to take small and large custom orders.
Just start somewhere
Opening brick-and-mortar stores almost seems easier than pop-ups, Austen said, what with worrying about the weather, how the booth should look, and “trying to cart your full store with you.”
Still, expanding deeper into fixed retain amid a busy shopping season has stretched her bandwidth, Austen admitted.
She has holiday events to prepare for — the Holiday Boutique at the Overland Park Convention Center on Nov. 20 to 23; the Hallmark Christmas Experience weekends Nov. 28 through Dec. 21 at Crown Center; and she’s putting together a new Zona Rosa holiday event, Indoorsy, with local small businesses and makers in a 17,000-square-foot space. The first event, on Oct. 11, will be a KC Swiftie Pop-Up Party with merchandise inspired by Taylor Swift.
Family and friends serve as links in the chain that holds it all together, Austen said.
Her sister, Lucie Callicotte, filled in while studying for the bar and after becoming a lawyer. She joined Annie Austen full-time as chief operations officer in April 2024. Matthew Callicotte, a former pipeliner, is now a stay-at-home dad of a one-year-old but was able to take maternity leave while still working for Annie Austen.
In hindsight, Austen said she could have spent more time on research on the front end, she said.
“But no matter how much information you have, you are still going to learn things two years, four years down the road,” Austen said. “It is important to just do it and start somewhere, just getting in and starting to learn from doing. Every rough spot we have been through we have learned something huge, and grew at a pace that felt sustainable.”
Startland News contributor Joyce Smith covered local restaurants and retail for nearly 40 years with The Kansas City Star. Click here to follow her on Bluesky, here for X (formerly Twitter), here for Facebook, here for Instagram, and by following #joyceinkc on Threads.
