BUSINESS: Funky Monkey

August is the time to get into some cool and fashion forward styles at Funky Monkey, located just west of Quail Springs Mall. This fashionista boutique carries unique and hard-to-find clothing brands as well as accessories, shoes and jewelry for women, tweens, toddler and baby.

Funky Monkey has had a great year so far being voted Top 5 for women’s specialty boutique and winning #1 children’s store in the Best of Oklahoma Choice Awards 2012.

Jennifer Najera opened Funky Monkey in March 2008. “I moved to Oklahoma City and found many of the brand names I used to find in Texas just weren’t available here,” she said. “There’s not a lot out there that is different and fun, mostly for middle school and high school girls. We are really excited about the new brands we will be carrying this fall for back-to-school. I wanted to have a wide range of clothing and accessories for babies, girls, tweens
and women.”

This year Funky Monkey has paid extra attention to their pre-teen customers. “We had several moms mention the lack of choices for the 8-14 age group. So we found some great, unique and age appropriate lines that trendy tweens love.

August is one of their busiest months as they are expecting new brand-name clothing and accessories for tweens, including Dollcake (out of Australia), Mayoral (out of Spain) and Little Joules from England, just to name a few. Najera explains that Mayoral has a classic look like Ralph Lauren. August is also the month they expect to get an abundance of back to school merchandise and OU and OSU apparel and accessories.

Sondra Wilson, a UCO fashion marketing graduate, has managed the shop for Jennifer for the past three years. She oversees not only everyday operations but also in-store events like wine tasting parties, food drives for local charities, and hosts other events such as the Princess Run, the Ellie Kate fundraiser and more.

Najera started their new online store a year ago, funkymonkeyclothes.com, for fashions not kept in-store because of limited floor space. The online store operates out of Dallas.

“We try to find brands that really are not here in Oklahoma – brands like Rich and Skinny Denim, Young Fabulous and Broke, Wild Fox and Chaser which are a little bit more edgy and popular on the west coast. We also carry Parker, Bailey44, Splendid and Ella Moss which are more classic.” said Wilson.

Funky Monkey is located at 14101 N. May Ave., Ste 113, just north of Memorial and open Monday through Saturday, 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. Find them on Facebook to see new fashions as they arrive and keep apprised of upcoming special events.