On a downtown alley corner, a clothing shop called Free Association makes its home. Floral walls and racks of colorful clothes greet you as you navigate the store. Owners and spouses Sarah Lockwood and Rebecca Burkholder opened Free Association as a site for plus-sized women to find versatile clothes in Columbia.

Lockwood, whose background is in hairdressing, said she dreamed of opening this shop since she was a teenager.

“There are not really boutiques for plus size women in the area,” Lockwood said. “I wanted to fill that space and provide that because it’s frustrating and difficult to find clothes, especially something more youthful and trendy, in a larger size.”

The store mainly sells plus-size clothing, but also jewelry, accessories and soaps.

“We run from sizes 14 to 30,” Lockwood said. “The goal is, in the next few years, to run from 10 or 12 up to 32. It’s just a matter of finding the right manufacturers.”

Sizes 16 to 18 are now the average for women in America, according to the International Journal of Fashion Design, Technology and Education. However, as stated by Edited Blog, just 0.1% of all premium apparel identifies as plus size.

“It’s really frustrating, even for me, going into a store and seeing cool things like a patterned skirt that isn’t in your size, but they have a black or brown one in your size,” Burkholder said. “It just makes you feel like there’s something wrong with you, but there isn’t. We are all different sizes and shapes and they just don’t carry the clothing in your size.”

This problem is exactly what Lockwood strives to solve with Free Association. She wants the shop to be a cozy and relaxing environment.

“The clothes are mostly based on something I would want to wear,” Lockwood said. “I’m trying to keep them professional but also something you can head out in on a weekend.”

Free Association is a new idea to the district, as there are not many plus size clothing stores in Columbia. The owners noted that clientele reactions have been their favorite part of running the store.

“I didn’t realize people would be so emotional about having clothing that actually fits them,” Burkholder said. “I like being a part of something that’s helping somebody else.”

Lockwood and Burkholder hope that women of larger sizes are able to feel comfortable shopping for clothing in Columbia.

“I just want women to feel welcome back downtown,” Lockwood said. “We want them to feel as confident as they want to be.”

The couple had been weighing the idea of a store for a while, but once they decided to go through with it, Lockwood said, they moved pretty fast. They had signed a lease before Christmas and opened in February of 2018.

“We just got some books and started ordering some clothing and just went for it,” Burkholder said. “We didn’t actually think we would be downtown because it was out of our price range. Then all of the sudden, this one popped up.”

The store is situated downtown in the middle of all the action, but getting traffic to the store is still difficult, Burkholder said.

“I want the store to succeed because it is what [Lockwood has] always wanted,” Burkholder said. “She really wants people to feel included and to feel pretty. I just want to be supportive.”

Lockwood handles the ordering and Burkholder handles the bookkeeping, however, the couple is constantly bouncing ideas off each other, Burkholder said.

“Becca is my logic,” Lockwood said. “She keeps me reigned in and does the accounting and books. She actually built the dressing rooms and made sure all the racks were up.”

Free Association is the product of the couple’s work and design; the store was painted by them and some family members. Lockwood and Burkholder are the only ones manning the store, with the exception of part-time help from Burkholder’s mother.

Lockwood is excited to begin the next ideas she has for the store, including some of her own work.

“In the next five years or so, I would love to start throwing out some of my own designs,” Lockwood said. “I’m hoping to have something with a lot of structure to it instead of being so loose and drapey and trying to hide everything in the billow.”

The couple is active in the Columbia community, and will be representing Free Association at events such as Roots N’ Blues Festival in the near future. Free Association is also participating in an upcoming fortune telling night.

“People can come down and have their runes read or palms looked at by one of the local groups the Friday before Halloween,” Lockwood said. “[The event] will be by donations and the proceeds will go right back to the people who are reading the cards. It would be a great night to come in and check out what we’ve got.”

From professional, to dressy, to a night out, a wide variety of clothing is available. The decor and clothing selections are carefully chosen by Lockwood and Burkholder to be able to create a particular atmosphere. Free Association is a place where, hopefully, women are able to feel at home, Lockwood said.

“Stop worrying about the rulebook,” Lockwood said. “For a lot of years there have been these stupid rules, like ‘don’t wear white shoes after labor day,’ or ‘horizontal stripes make you look fat.’ You are beautiful and I think that’s valid no matter what your size.”

Free Association is located at 910 Alley A in Columbia.

_Edited by Alexandra Sharp | asharp@themaneater.com_