Elly Bethune
Elly Bethune, has been in the fashion world for 17 years in both her hometown of Missouri and then in both Southern and Northern California. Her passion for fashion landed her work in retail for those 17 years. She opened and ran a number one clothing boutique, Elly’s Couture, voted by her city, in her hometown of Columbia, Mo., for those ten years, from 2006-2016. In 2013, Elly and her husband Clay created a curated website named 9thandElm.com, where they sold handpicked items by Elly made by Independent designers across the globe. To date, Elly is pursuing a new passion in helping other entrepreneurs begin their journey in opening up their own personal fashion sanctuary.
- 17 years’ experience in the retail industry.
- Graduated Cum Laude from San Francisco State University in 2001 in Magazine Journalism with an emphasis in fashion.
- Freelance Fashion Writer for San Francisco’s 7X7 Magazine and [X]Press Magazine, Missouri’s Missouri Living Magazine, Inside Columbia Magazine, Columbia Business Times and Columbia Home Magazine.
- Blog Content writer and model for Elly’s Couture and 9th & Elm. Many articles were published by mainstream outlets, such as Huffington Post, Cosmopolitan and Lucky Magazine.
- Elly’s Couture voted Best Boutique for 8 consecutive years.
- Purchased and sold over $15 million over the course of her retail world experience.
- Experienced power buyer in fast-fashion, handmade designers and designer brands.
- Developed an email list of over 80,000 subscribers.
- Hand-picked to be a featured brand at New York’s Tech Week in 2014.
- Modeled in San Francisco, New York and Missouri
- Large collection list of curated designers with both main stream and Independent designers.
- Educated in all facets related to opening and operating a fashion boutique.
Clay Bethune
Clay Bethune is a devoted entrepreneur having created and sold 3 businesses all in different industries. Clay has a passion for helping other entrepreneurs and has been advising and counseling others for over 15 years. He has worked alongside his wife and business partner, Elly, for 10 years assisting with her boutique and fashion endeavors. Clay has vast experience in developing ideas and building processes to accomplish specific objectives and goals.
- 20 Under 40 Award Winner
- Developed a partnership with a Fortune 500 company
- Founded and sold 3 different companies
- Panelist at Techweek 2014 in NYC
Featured in:
Huffington Post
Columbia Business Times
Columbia Daily Tribune
Entrepreneur Magazine