Passion for fashion now pays the bills

Debbie Karam still does a lot of shopping, though much of it is now for her chic boutique, DKM Accessories.

PALMA CEIA - Debbie Karam lived and vacationed in some of the premier fashion markets: London, Paris, Boca Raton.

Then, in 1991, she moved to Tampa - and quickly discovered she was a long way from Palm Beach's Worth Avenue.

"They didn't even have Dooney and Burke here," Karam recalled about the exclusive handbag store. "And Dooney and Burke was over!"

Thirteen years later, Karam is helping to fill the fashion void with DKM Accessories. The trendy South Tampa boutique draws teens, mothers and even a few grandmothers.

In finding success, Karam also is learning a thing or two about herself.

When she started selling a small collection of handbags in 1999, she was Debbie Karam Monroe (hence the name DKM), a married, stay-at-home mother of two.

Today, she is divorced and dating again, juggling two school-age children and a busy retail schedule.

"The business has helped me to know my value," said Karam, 42. "I've gone through divorce and all this stuff, but I have been able to support myself. It's empowering to know I can do it."

Karam opened DKM on Palmira Avenue in Palma Ceia three years ago and a second location in WestShore Plaza in October. This week, she forges ahead with a new project - selling a line of shirts by high-end shoe designer Mark Schwartz, who left New York City after the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks and settled in Tampa with his family.

The shirts feature hand-printed sketches of shoes in Schwartz's line. Schwartz signed each one.

His shoes - coveted by Demi Moore, Oprah Winfrey and Katie Couric - cost $295 to $375 a pair. The shirts will sell at DKM for $48 to $52, Karam said.

Karam is hosting a launch party today and Saturday at the store, 3104 Palmira Ave. Schwartz will be there from 1 to 5 p.m. today.

"Debbie is just great at what she does," said Schwartz, 45, whose wife shops at DKM. "When I decided to sell these, I knew that if anyone could sell them here in Tampa, and I mean really sell them, it's her."

DKM draws fashion-forward women of varying incomes. Customers come for the $260 Swarovski-encrusted Dr. Scholls sandals and the $28 T-shirts with flirty messages, such as "Slightly Single" and "Dirty Blonde."

Jewelry runs from delicate $100 necklaces to flashy $12 costume rings.

Buccaneer Ronde Barber's wife shops there, as do twentysomething shopaholics looking for the monogrammed leather clutch purse they saw in Lucky magazine.

"I came here once, and it became like my second home," said South Tampa resident Robin Notestein, who moved here from Dallas more than two years ago. When female relatives come to town, she brings them to DKM. "Debbie knows the trends, and it's not too expensive."

About 20 percent of her business comes from her Internet store (www.dkmaccessories.com) People from as far away as Japan and Switzerland have placed orders.

Not bad for a former advertising executive who swore she'd never go into retail, no matter how much she loved clothes and jewelry.

From early on, Karam seesawed between the whims of fashion and the hard-nosed principles of business.

At age 6, she sat behind the cash register of her family's department store in her native Jamaica, counting change with her grandmother.

By 12, she was a London boarding school student who spent her free time in high-fashion boutiques, such as Biba.

"I remember going in there and just coveting these yellow patent-leather platform mules," Karam recalled. "They were so great."

Visits to Paris with her aunt included tours of art museums and, of course, clothing stores. After her father tried to curb her spending with a clothing allowance, she got a part-time job.

After all, her greatest fear was "walking into a party and meeting my outfit across the room."

Karam comes from a family of shoppers.

Her grandmother often bought Karam six dresses at a time when she was a little girl. Her aunts buy three outfits for every wedding and special occasion just in case they change their mind.

After Karam graduated from Florida Atlantic University in Boca Raton, she remained on the buying side of fashion.

She worked briefly as an account executive at an advertising agency in West Palm Beach, just a short drive from the tony shops of Palm Beach, and later sold ads for radio stations in the West Palm area.

She moved to Tampa in 1991 when her then-husband got a job with 98 Rock. She stayed home for the next eight years to raise son, Joshua, now a 10th-grader at Jesuit High, and daughter, Mary Hannah, a second-grader at St. Mary's Episcopal Day School.

Then she started getting restless.

"I knew I wanted to do something, but I didn't want to work for anybody," she said. "I don't like anybody telling me what to do. I am independent, sometimes to a fault."

So in 1999, she started selling handbags in a 300-square-foot space she shared with Sydney Buchanan Silver. Word spread, and by 2001 Karam was confident enough to open the Palmira store.

Karam works more than 60 hours a week and travels every six weeks buying merchandise. She has eight employees and says she's finally doing well enough to pay herself.

She tries to keep her inventory edgy and sophisticated. Some is made by local artists. Other items come from Karam's coast-to-coast trips.

"I'm a single mom, and I'm not wealthy," she said. "But I still like to go to a party and look good. My customers want the same thing."

- Shannon Colavecchio-Van Sickler can be reached at 226-3373 or svansickler@sptimes.com

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