Fancy That - About Us
In the news...
- April 21, 1998: Owner Fancies Her Fourth Outlet
- April 26, 1999: Fundraising with Flair
- June 10, 2000: Fashion Proprietor Slows Down
- December 23, 2000: Holiday Sales Make Retailers Smile
- April 30, 2001: Annual Forget-Me-Not Luncheon
- May 6, 2003: Boys and Girls Club Needs Help
- October 21, 2004: Fancy That, An Honoured Entrepreneur
- April 12, 2006: Fashion Show Helps African Children
- October 25, 2006: Designing Women
Fancy That, an honoured entrepreneur: Owner of fashion stores wins annual Whig tribute
Frank Armstrong
The Kingston Whig-Standard
from October 21, 2004
Thirty-one years ago, Inger Sparring-Barraclough moved her family to Canada to win some privacy from fans of her husband, a famous Swedish opera and gospel singer.
Yesterday, she gained some of her own fame when she received The Whig-Standard front cover profile award at the annual Women in Business luncheon.
"I can't believe I'm here," Sparring-Barraclough said upon springing up to the stage at Memorial Hall in City Hall.
Sparring is president of the Fancy That Group, which owns Kingston's Fancy That and the Roundstone and Brockville's Limestone and Ivy clothing stores, which all sell European fashions.
A panel of past profile winners chose her from among a list of women nominated by members of the community.
She received a $1,500 gift certificate from Sears, which co-sponsors the event, and will be profiled on the front page of The Whig's 64-page Women in Business supplement, which will be delivered in newspapers Nov. 6.
The other finalists were Marijke Wilkins, branch manager of Kelly Services, and Queen's University associate professor of marketing Peggy Cunningham. Cunningham is also director of the Queen's accelerated MBA program for business graduates. They, too, will be profiled in the Nov. 6 supplement.
Sparring, her former husband Jan Sparring and her three children moved to Brockville in 1979, where she opened her first store, Limestone and Ivy.
Her then husband loved small-town Canada. He could walk the streets and eat out without being hounded by autograph seekers or ogled by fans watching to see what kind of vegetables he was buying at the grocery store.
He ended up moving back to Sweden, leaving Sparring to take care of the three children and dog. A few years later, Sparring met her current husband, Bill Barraclough.
She opened several more stores and in 1979 opened a Fancy That and the Roundstone store in the Frontenac Mall. In 1990, she opened a Fancy That and the Roundstone on lower Princess Street.
Today, only the stores on Princess Street and the store in Brockville remain. But, at one time, she ran 15 stores across Ontario and employed more than 50 people.
The first female member of the Retail Council of Canada, Sparring represented the interests of the country's smaller retailers in the mid-1990s.
From the stage yesterday, she told the crowd of more than 170 businesswomen that she couldn't have been successful without her family.
Her daughter, Maria Cronk, runs the Kingston stores and her son, Dan Sparring, runs the Brockville business. In the past, she has called her husband her "cheapest employee."
Her message was similar to that of the keynote speaker, Trish Magwood, host of the Food Network Canada show party dish and the owner of dish cooking studio, a successful Toronto cooking school that offers catering and has a retail store and cafe.
Magwood said friends and family have been key to her success.
At the age of 33, Magwood, a 1993 Queen's communications graduate, runs the cooking business, stars on the weekly show and mothers her young child.
She works only four days a week, with weekends and evenings off, which she spends with her husband and little boy.
In her show, she takes on a client with a party plan, brainstorms the party, then scours downtown Toronto for the best ingredients and special touches. Before finishing the food at the party, she cooks it at the dish studio, which she said has the world's largest kitchen counter.
This year's Women in Business luncheon was the largest ever.
Deborah Tindal, nomination committee chairwoman and The Whig's supervisor of retail sales special features, said she thinks the event has grown in popularity because of the opportunity it provides women to network and catch up with friends and colleagues, and to enjoy a meal outside the office.
"It's also a wonderful opportunity once a year to recognize and celebrate our local Kingston area women in business," Tindal said.
The luncheon is normally held in the Howard Johnson hotel, but Steel Magnolias, a play taking place there that stars former deputy prime minister Sheila Copps, forced the event to move to City Hall.
"It's because of Sheila Copps that we're here this afternoon," Whig publisher Fred Laflamme told the audience. "With the dinner theatre taking place there, the seating didn't quite work."