May the Children look as good as their Mothers!

Given the popularity and busy sidewalks of Melrose Avenue in Hollywood, it’s a fairly quiet afternoon for the month of June. The streets are calm. People are slowly arriving to take selfies in front of the famous landmarks and all seems mellow and serene. That’s until you enter Spoiled!, a high-end children’s consignment shop located on the 8100 block of Melrose Avenue.

The upscale children’s boutique is energizing. The dance music is bumping loud. A vintage Mercedes Benz toy car hangs over an array of charming, high-end kids’ threads. The invigorating atmosphere places you in a shopping mindset and on a nearby rack, a Jean Paul Gaultier girl’s dress is being placed next to a pint-sized Armani dress by a cheerful and charismatic woman named Cece Hendriks. She’s the store owner.

“I started online for three years,” says Hendriks. “I had a showroom on Wilshire and then I told my husband, ‘honey, what do you think about getting us a store!?’”

For Hendriks luxury fashion is part of her DNA. She’s been fashion-minded ever since she can remember.

“My mom would always say— If I’m looking good, I represent this household, so you better walk out here looking just as good as I am,” recalls Hendriks.

Based on that idea and her own personal love of couture, Hendriks, who was once a stay-at-home mom, always looks impeccable and she makes sure her son Jordan does too.

A few years ago, she found herself giving away her son’s designer outfits because the young boy was constantly outgrowing them. Then Hendriks got an idea. She noticed that no other place in Los Angeles had an exclusive resale children’s clothing store. She believed reselling her son’s clothes would prove to be a fruitful enterprise and she was eager to undertake a new project.

“I started thinking, ‘I gotta’ do something, I just gotta’ do something! Then the idea came to me. I really felt confident (the store) would do well because there was nothing like this before.”

Hendriks was living a comfortable life with her husband and son, traveling the world, exchanging hugs with Taylor Swift backstage at awards shows, getting compliments from Snoop Dogg on her fashion sense at social events and engaging in numerous other philanthropic causes, for which she’s gained notable recognition.

But her industrious, entrepreneurial spirit wouldn’t let her rest. She wanted to venture into business ownership and started thinking of a unique business model, an attractive marketing plan and an ideal location to sell exclusive previously owned children’s clothes. In March 2015, Spoiled! on Melrose Avenue had its star-studded grand opening.

Two years later, the shop is thriving. Hendriks has an organized price tagging system where customers can drop off their own gently used children’s clothing and split the profits. She’s extremely particular about the clothing items she accepts though. Everything that makes it to the sales floor, which is generally priced far below the original retail tag, is free of tears, stains or marks. And customers appreciate that. Charlize Theron, for example, recently visited the shop and went home with plenty of clothes for her little ones.

The shop’s name and slogan reads: “Spoiled! Because They Can Be!” and Hendriks has certainly delivered on those words. Yes, they can be. There is no other place in Hollywood where you can actually spoil your kids with a designer outfit for a fraction of the price and walk out smiling because the store owner’s good energy was so contagious.

“My husband didn’t really want me to work,” says Hendriks. “But I told him this would be a gold mine!”

Spoiled | 8178 Melrose Ave. | Los Angeles, CA