Dakota Mae

Have you ever experienced magic while shopping for clothes? If not, maybe that’s because you’ve never been to Dakota Mae, the charming boutique in Hamilton’s Westdale Village. The store is named after its owner, the equally charming and effervescent Dakota Mae, a clothes and accessories magician. When you come to her, you are on your way to being transformed.

“I can look at a woman and say, ‘You don’t even have to say anything. I know what’s going to work for you. I know what’s going to look good on you,” Dakota says with kindness. She will ask you about three things: what colours you want, what colours you don’t want and your budget. Then the magic happens as she gets the garments for you and you try them on. “Literally all they have to do is go into the change room and try it on and nine times out of 10, I’m pretty bang-on.”

Dakota says the best part, for her, is when she gets someone into an item of clothing where they might otherwise have said, “’I never thought that would look great, and I never would have tried it on, and I did, and it makes me feel so good.’”