Boutique Brings Trendy Styles

By Misty Cryer

Viany Arias is the visionary behind La Vera Boutique. She opened the online version of the boutique in August of 2024, adding the local clothing store a couple of months ago, with a desire to share her styles with the community.

Growing up in Carlsbad, Viany’s interest in fashion and desire to be self-employed developed at a young age. “I think I’ve always had it,” she said, adding that her parents inspired her by always telling her to do what she loves.

“My parents were both business owners, and they’re both self-employed; work isn’t really work for them,” said Viany, explaining they love what they do. She said her mom is in the restaurant industry, and her dad is in commercial agriculture.

“He’s literally living his dream, because it doesn’t feel like work, same for my mom, she’s more of a kitchen girl; she loves to cook,” she said.

“I used to model a lot,” said Viany. “I really enjoyed it. I like to take pictures, and I love fashion.” She said she worked with photographers from Carlsbad, Artesia, and Las Cruces.

Having a lot of sisters, Viany said she was able to create different outfits for scenes and photo shoots—such as western photo shoots, wet hair photo shoots, and various shoots with smoke bombs, for instance. “It was a blast,” she said.

As an adult, Viany said that once she started working, she realized she wanted to have something she could work on that didn’t feel like work. “For me, it was the boutique,” she said.

As part of the boutique, Viany said she models clothes while representing her style. “I love it. I feel like it’s very trendy right now, and especially in our city here in Carlsbad. It’s something that you don’t really find,” she said.

Bringing the boutique to this town is something good for everybody, said Viany. “There are so many other boutiques in town, we all have different styles,” she said, adding that bringing unique styles creates a variety to choose from.

While Viany likes a variety of different styles, she said she tries to stick with on-trend styles to be featured in La Vera Boutique. She said that TikTok and Instagram influencers promote a lot of ideas that are going around. “I think a lot of the style comes from different years; a lot of things are coming back. More contemporary styles are really trendy right now,” she said.

“If the boutique has the potential to grow in this town and this town has the means of trying to support it, I can see something beautiful for the community,” said Viany.

Discussing worldwide competition in the clothing and apparel industry, Viany said she sees potential for growth. While she would like to keep the boutique in town for the locals to have the option, she said she also sells online.

La Vera Boutique currently employs two people. As the boutique grows, Viany said she would like to have a good team that loves fashion. She said one of her employees is in the beauty industry. “She is able to expose her business while working for me while talking to the customers and promoting herself, which I don’t mind at all, because even when my business prospers, her business will prosper as well.”

In choosing a name for the boutique, Viany said she wanted something related to faith—faith in oneself or belief in oneself — but she wanted it to start with a V. The name La Vera is actually made up of initials, she said—V for Viany, E for Esparza (her mother’s name), R for Ramos (her husband’s name), and A for Arias (her father’s name).

La Vera Boutique is located at 307 W. Mermod St., Suite 315. The boutique is featured online at https://www.laveraboutique.shop/ and is promoted through social media on Instagram, Facebook, and TikTok.