House Account

Modeled after old-fashioned Southern department stores, where service was impeccable and customers were all known by name, Capitol, a beautifully designed 6,0000-square-foot fashion emporium in Charlotte, North Carolina, is a place best experienced in person. But for those who can’t make the trip, there is House Account, a new app, launched by Capitol’s owner Laura Vinroot Poole, that offers folks a personal shopping experience by directly connecting them to hundreds of the country’s higher-end boutiques—including Capitol. Customers curate a list of those they want to follow (our feed also includes FortyFiveTen in Dallas, A’maree’s in Newport Beach, and ByGeorge in Austin), and the shops’ staffers post photos and information about new merchandise and special events. Poole has taken it one step further by posting pictures from her buying trips to Europe, effectively giving customers the power to place personal orders. “Last season we posted images from Paris of a pretty forward and very expensive leather and mink Bouchra Jarrar vest—and got tons of private messages from clients wanting to reserve it,” she recalls. “I normally would have ordered one, but we ended up ordering four.”