BOUTIQUE

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A 'boutique', from the French word for "shop," is a small shopping outlet, especially one that specialises in elite and fashionable items such as clothing and jewellery.
It can also refer to a specialized firm such as a boutique investment bank or boutique law firm. The word is often used to describe a property in the independent section of the hotel market (such as The Rockwell in London) in order to distinguish themselves from larger chains (such as Hilton Hotels). In such cases the idea is that the operation is elite and highly specialized.
In the strictest sense of the word, boutiques would be one-of-a-kind but more generally speaking, some chains can be referred to as boutiques if they specialize in particularly stylish offerings. In the United States, Sharper Image might be described as a boutique chain or selling boutique items. In Japan, chains such as Three Minutes Happiness, MUGI, and ranKing ranQueen are well-known boutiques.

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Trivia

Trivia

★ Old Town, Chicago in the early 1960's helped to give rise to the trend towards urban storefront boutiques in the United States common today.