BUSINESS SPOTLIGHT:Grazing the racks

It’s hard to believe that Costa Mesa, now a world-class shopping mecca, was once rural, with sprawling fields of agriculture.

In fact, “Costa Mesa” is Spanish for coastal tableland, and the area was teeming with strawberries, sweet potatoes, and the like. But before the city incorporated in 1953, the “table on the coast” was called Goat Hill — another hint at its agricultural past.

That fact of history came as a coincidence to Christina Smith, owner of the Goat Boutique on East 16th Street and Old Newport Boulevard.

Smith opened her designer boutique in November and it has been keeping her busy. Her boutique is evidence of what Costa Mesa is evolving into — a hip spot for the fashion forward.

Thus, the real attraction for the store isn’t the goat statues she purchased from a department store after a cashmere promotion, or that its name alludes to the city’s past. Here it’s all about the clothes, and in particular, the dresses.

The dress is the new hot look for spring, Smith said, and she’s got plenty of them.

Smith is no stranger to the fashion world. She previously worked for Irvine-based Split clothing where she had her hands in design, marketing and sales. She traveled the world in search of the next new fashion, something she fell in love with.

That love for what was happening in other places is what catapulted her into her own shop — she felt Newport-Mesa residents were ready.

“I’d always find the best stuff away from home, and I wanted to bring it here,” Smith said.

But it wasn’t always her dream to own a shop, nor did she ever think it would necessarily happen.

But when she saw the building Goat now occupies, she was hooked. The freestanding, off-the-beaten path location was perfect for what she decided she wanted to do with it.

“I didn’t want to get as much traffic as some shops,” she said. “I didn’t want it to be the place everyone shops. I didn’t want this to just be a shop, I wanted it to be an experience and for it to spread through word of mouth. I think it’s just more special that way.”

Smith assumed when she opened she’d see young hipsters like her perusing the store’s racks, which are minimal. But her clientele has surprised her. Instead, her clients ages span generations.

“They’ll be teenager, grandma and mom, all looking for things to buy,” she said.

Hard-to-find and up-and-coming designers are who Smith goes for, and she orders very few of each piece so that clients get something that not everyone has. She also wants to promote local designers and on Thursday will host a trunk show for jewelry designer Chelsea Burggren, of Costa Mesa.

Manager Matthew Thomas said at Goat he’s given creative freedom and working at the store has helped him learn about the fashion industry.

“It’s opened a whole new world for me,” he said. “I’ve met people I never would’ve met — designers and other entrepreneurial spirits.”

Smith is right on target with her sales goals and is excited for her first full year in business.