Mannequins, frozen in chic outfits, stand guard over the empty store. Only music sounds through the store, where there are no voices shouting from the dressing rooms to ask for the blue mini-skirt in a different size. Dresses, tops and skirts hang completely still on metal racks because there are no fingers to rifle through the fabric.

Trends in Ship, a clothing store at 14 W. King St. in Shippensburg, has been struggling, said the owner, Amanda Chan. Her store sells occasion dresses, prom dresses, tops, skirts, underwear, scarves, jewelry and a limited selection of men’s clothing.

Chan said that it usually takes a business two to three years to determine if it will be successful or not. Trends in Ship opened two years ago, so Chan said she is going to give it one more year.

It is scary, Chan said, to be in the “gray zone” and not know if her store will make it.

“For me, it’s worth it to hang in there a little longer…The community needs it,” Chan said.

When Chan first moved from New York City to Shippensburg in 2007, she said that she noticed that were few clothing store choices downtown and also a limited selection of clothing styles.

“I like 'in' trends and I like different. When I moved to Shippensburg, it seemed like everything was the same and that was a little disheartening for me,” Chan said.

Chan said she is surprised that her store does not attract more college students. Shippensburg University has people coming from different places and Trends in Ship offers a variety of options for those many different tastes.

“I think [Trends in Ship] is needed,” Chan said. “I hope it pulls out.”

One of the things Chan is doing to help her business is maintaining her new website, www.trendsinship.com, which she hopes will help to draw more people to her store, she said. The website allows people to look at different colors and sizes of clothing that she has in store so that she can order the item with the right color or size, Chan said. There is no shipping charge and the item usually arrives within two days.

SU senior Rachel Whitesell started working for Trends in Ship several months after it opened and currently helps to cover a shift periodically.

Trends in Ship has a small-business feel, Whitesell said. There is always someone who greets people who walk in the door and then helps them shop. Whitesell described Trends in Ship’s inventory as a “mish-mash” with a little bit of everything.

“I just think that the clothes are not something that you would find in a department store … The clothes have very vibrant colors and patterns and are very fun,” Whitesell said.

Whitesell said that Chan asks her employees, who are Shippensburg University students, to help pick out clothes for the store that match what people on campus are wearing.

“She targets the trends…She goes along with what that age group wears at the moment,” Whitesell said. “She’s constantly asking what everyone is wearing on campus.”

Whitesell said that Trends in Ship now has more occasion dresses than it did when she first started working there. Trends in Ship also sells prom dresses, which is an unexplored market in Shippensburg, Whitesell said.

“That would really be a market that works well for Shippensburg,” Whitesell said.

Right now Chan said that girls are looking for homecoming dresses at Trends in Ship, either online or in the store.

There is the perception that Shippensburg does not offer anything to do, Chan said, but she is trying to challenge that by showing people that her store provides another option.

“My real vision for [Trends in Ship] is trying to stay up on the latest styles,” Chan said. 

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