Midwest Y’allternative brings alt boutique to Broadway

When asked about the inspiration for her new boutique, Midwest Y’allternative, Kanaan Rhodes Steiner said it literally came to her in a dream.

“I was on a plane, fell asleep, and I had this dream where I opened up a boutique called Midwest Y’allternative. It was a joke. I thought it was hilarious. I actually texted my sister and was telling her about it, and all she said was … ‘do it,’” Steiner said.

As owner of the room. Hair Design Studio at 625 Broadway in Cape Girardeau, she was no stranger to running a business, but a boutique was something new for her.

“I first decided to open a boutique when I felt there wasn’t anything my style around here in Cape. A bunch of beautiful boutiques, love them, but I felt like when I walked into other boutiques, the only way I could find something that was more me — whatever was black, that was what I would go towards,” she said.

Steiner opened Midwest Y’allternative inside the room. with a soft launch Oct. 19. Its official opening occurred four weeks later Nov. 16. She sells a variety of clothes and accessories with an alternative style.

She said she based the items off her own style, combining rockabilly, pin-up, punk and emo attire with country aesthetics.

“I say we’re alternative with a splash of yee-haw, selling the cowboy boots and the bolo ties and things that are more of that western flair … which you see a lot in pin-up anyways, just combing the two,” she said.

Steiner wanted the shirts, pants, dresses, coats and accessories to be reputably sourced. She also stressed the importance of sizing, desiring every item to range from size extra small to 5XL.

Notably, while every item comes in all different sizes, there are very rarely more than one item per size in store so that every shopper can find something that fits. Steiner called this method “exclusively inclusive”.

“Once it’s gone, it’s gone. That way we can keep trading things out frequently. Once our inventory is smaller I hope to do monthly releases,” she said.

She plans to expand the store in the future and said that people can still shop at the boutique even if they might not think they have an alternative fashion sense. Many items can be styled in a less alternative way.

“Just because, yes, it does have that alternative flair, you don’t have to have that style to pull off our looks,” Steiner said.

Midwest Y’allternative is open during the same hours as the room.: 8:30 a.m. to 9 p.m. Monday to Friday, 8:30 a.m. to 1:30 p.m. Saturday and noon to 6 p.m. Sunday.

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