T. Georgiano’s first opened with a strict vision dedicated to an upscale shoe salon, but as the business grew, owner Tatyana Sharoubim realized that the once-quaint store had morphed into a full-blown lifestyle boutique. SRQ sat down with Sharoubim to talk success, upcoming trends and the fashion of the future.

SRQ: How do you pick the shoes you carry in T. Georgiano’s? Sharoubim: Each season I visit with different designers that I’ve been working with for over 10 years, then I select and look at the forecast for what’s trending based on the collections and heel heights. I also get to work closely with a few of the designers to pick from a variety of leathers and prints so I can customize them for the store. A lot of times, I do exclusives that you can’t find anywhere else and I try to work on providing customers with the most up-to-date fashion styles that are good quality but at a competitive price point.

Who is your customer?  Our demographic is the effortless and ageless woman who is playful, confident and always on the go. It doesn’t matter what age she is—we have women that are 20 and women that are 90.

What’s the hot shoe trend this season? Platforms are back big time. Everyone loves them and they are really comfortable and practical—it is a really nice, convenient style to come back to. Another trend would be details on heels whether they are shaped like a comma, or have any sort of design that takes a basic and makes them a little bit funkier. Also peep-toed booties are huge.

What piece of advice would you give to someone who wants to start a successful boutique? The best piece of advice I can give someone is travel, do your research, go to stores that you think you want to almost replicate, take advice from your friends but don’t write it in stone. Once you take that big step of opening up your own business the clientele you build is organic.

How do you balance risk of owning a small business? I absolutely head-over-heels love what I do—you have to in order to endure the worst. You risk it all every year when you unveil collections and you set a budget and spend it. That’s the scary part because you don’t know how it’s going to be received.

How do you see fashion evolving in Sarasota? For the most part, ladies here are very active and involved in the community philanthropically, so they have a lot of events to go to. I feel like people want to buy basics that fit, look great, are breathable, easy to accessorize and layerable to a point where if they don’t have time to change, these transitional pieces can take them from day to evening.