Pageant News Bureau - Bonnie's Boutique

Caroline Medley, Miss Georgia USA

Emily Knight, Ms. Petite International.

They all come
to Bonnie's

Photos by
Joe Whiteko / PNB

If groceries had been just a little more glamorous, Bonnie Clark might not be a legend today.

But a legend she certainly is. She's the "Bonnie" of Bonnie's Boutique, the friendly shop in suburban Atlanta that attracts beauty contestants the way Niagara Falls attracts honeymooners.

"I've dressed so many winners," she says, obviously hoping she won't be asked to guess at a number. Girls are always coming back to thank her, and to show off their crowns.

Caitlin Andrews, Miss Teen Atlanta, and Bonnie Clark

Ashley White, Miss Columbus (Ga.) State University

Catherine Muldoon, Miss New York Teen USA, and Brooke Calhoun, Miss Georgia Teen USA

Christie George, Miss Pride of Fayette County

Bonnie never insists that customers learn her full name. "It's not really about me, anyway," she says. But she insists that the girls have the "right" look -- the right gown, the right swimsuit, the right shoes, everything. She sells it all.

If that makes Bonnie's Boutique a kind of general store of pageant apparel, it's no coincidence. Long before she dressed her first contestant, Bonnie was a success in the grocery business. "My husband and I owned grocery stores," she recalls. "We did it for years, and we did very well."

Meredith Boyd, Mrs. Georgia United States, and Kara Colquitt, Mrs. Georgia America,

Ashley Huff, Miss Nevada USA 2003, with Caroline Medley, Miss Georgia USA 2004

Running a big market was hard work, she says, harder than what she does now. But she never minded the work.

Something was missing, something that she couldn't find in the frozen food aisles or the hardware section.

Carissa Capobianco, Miss International Petite Teen

"I liked beautiful clothes," she says. "I was kind of a shopaholic, and I had my own ideas about fashion."

For a time, she satisfied this urge by "playing dress-up" with her young daughters, putting them in imaginative outfits for school. But the children were reluctant models. "Why can't I dress like the other kids?" one of them demanded. So Bonnie gave up her motherly designing.

A few years later, though, she waltzed back into the fashion business. She took up ballroom dancing and became interested in finding the right costumes. When she couldn't, she launched her small boutique as a hobby.

She never dreamed a hobby could go so far. This woman who once knew "zero" about pageants has become a major force in the world of beauty competitions.

Expanding its range of services, Bonnie's Boutique now offers classes for would-be pageant competitors.

Abby Vaillancourt, Miss Georgia Teen USA 2000, in front of her painting at Bonnie's Boutique

The boutique will celebrate its 20th anniversary in February 2005. As the namesake of this pageant phenomenon looks back on the years, she is as modest as ever. "My story?" she says, pondering the question. "It's my girls, my customers, my friends."

They all cometo Bonnie's

They all come
to Bonnie's