I opened Loveys Boutique in 1996 inside the Mammoth Mall in Detroit. When that mall closed, I moved everything across the street to Seven Days at Grand River and Greenfield, and that's still where you'll find us today. Almost thirty years later, we're known for the same things we started with: custom dance shoes, plus-size lingerie, and the kind of one-on-one attention you just don't get at a mall chain. Here's how that happened, plus straight answers to the dance-shoe questions people ask us the most.
How Did Loveys Get Its Start?
Mammoth Mall was our first home, and it's where we figured out what kind of shop we actually wanted to be. Back then, most stores carrying dancewear or lingerie treated plus-size customers as an afterthought, if they carried those sizes at all. We built our racks around real bodies instead, and the customers who found us stuck around. Someone would come in for a pair of dance heels before a show and end up back a month later for a bridal shower gift. That kind of repeat customer is the reason a small mall shop survived long enough to become something bigger.
What Happened When Mammoth Mall Closed?
We didn't have the luxury of a slow transition. When the mall shut down, we relocated to Seven Days, directly across the street at Grand River and Greenfield, which is our address to this day: 15370 Grand River Ave, Detroit, MI 48227.
Losing a building doesn't have to mean losing a business, and for us, it didn't. We've always believed trust is earned, not given, and the customers who'd already earned our trust in one location followed us to the next. I told the fuller version of that move on our original hidden gem story, if you want the whole account.
Why Shop Somewhere Small Instead of a Big-Box Store?
A department store can sell you a dance shoe. What it usually can't do is help you figure out which one actually fits your foot or your night out. That's the gap we've filled for close to thirty years.
Our team spends time with each customer instead of pointing them toward a rack and moving on. We pick our own collections rather than reselling whatever a national chain is pushing that season, so you'll find pieces here that aren't sitting on a shelf at every mall in Michigan. We're also part of the neighborhood around Seven Days, not just a tenant inside it, and we lean on nearly three decades of watching trends come and go to tell customers honestly what's worth buying and what isn't.
None of that shows up on a spec sheet, but it's the difference between a store you visit once and one you keep coming back to for the next birthday, bachelorette party, or Valentine's Day gift.
What Can You Actually Shop For at Loveys?
The lineup has grown a lot since 1996, but it's still built around a few core categories:
-
Dancewear and exotic dancewear for performers, entertainers, and anyone who wants to move with confidence on stage or off.
-
Custom dance shoes, built to order in the color, height, and finish you actually want.
-
Plus-size lingerie is designed around real body types rather than a size chart tacked onto a mainstream line.
-
Bodystockings, including footless and plus-size styles.
-
Mini dresses, shorts, and swimwear for nights out or warm weather.
-
Bridal gifts, novelty items, gag gifts, party games, and a dedicated Valentine's Day collection every year.
Some of what keeps selling out: the Truth or Dare Bodysuit and Thigh Highs Set, the Tell Me You're Mine Bodystocking, and the Hooked on You Minidress. Dancers who want to practice between visits can also pick up a freestanding spinning pole for home use.
How Do Our Custom Dance Shoes Actually Work?
This is the part of the shop people ask about most. Instead of grabbing whatever's left on a rack, you tell us the heel height, color, and finish you want, and we build the shoe to that spec. Sizes run 5 to 11 as standard, and we take custom orders outside that range, too.
What’s It Actually Like to Shop Here In Person?
We're tucked inside Seven Days at Grand River and Greenfield, with parking right there and no maze of mall hallways to walk through to find us. Most weeks we're open daily from 11 a.m. to 5:30 p.m., with Sunday visits available by appointment if you can't make it in during the week.
Walk in and you won't get the “let me know if you need anything” brush-off. Someone will actually ask what you're shopping for, whether that's a heel for a show next weekend or a gift for a friend's bachelorette party, and help you narrow it down instead of leaving you to guess. Fashion fades, but style holds up, and that's the standard we try to hit with every customer who walks through the door.
Which Shoe Brands Do Dancers Actually Wear?
It really depends on what kind of dancing you mean. Studio, ballroom, and jazz dancers tend to reach for Capezio or Bloch, both built around flexible soles that hold up through footwork and turns. In pole and exotic dance, Pleaser is the name most people recognize first, with Ellie and Hella Heels as the usual alternatives.
Funny enough, even the Radio City Rockettes lean on the same idea we build our shop around. They wear custom Capezio and LaDuca shoes, most built around a roughly two-and-a-half-inch heel, and each pair is fitted to the individual dancer, sometimes even hand-painted to match her skin tone. Nobody's handing a Rockette a shoe off a shelf and hoping it fits. That's the whole premise behind our custom heel program too, just applied to a very different stage.
How Do You Actually Pick the Right Heel?
A few things matter more than the brand name on the box:
-
Start at a heel height you can control. Six inches is the common starting point for platform heels, though some dancers find a slightly taller platform steadier than a shorter one.
-
Look for a wider heel base over a thin stiletto if you'll be on your feet a while. It makes balance and landings easier.
-
Break the shoes in at home before wearing them out. Walking around your living room first tells you a lot about how a new pair moves.
-
Match the style to the occasion. Open-toe heels show off footwork but fit differently than closed-toe options, and boots give you more ankle support than a strap heel.
-
Get sized properly before anything else. Dance shoe sizing runs differently from everyday street shoes, which is exactly why we build to a custom size rather than a fixed run.
None of this is complicated, but skipping any one of these steps is usually how someone ends up with a beautiful pair of shoes they can't actually dance in.
Where Does Loveys Fit Into Detroit’s Nightlife?
Detroit's club and entertainment scene isn't centered on one single “most exclusive” spot. It's spread across a mix of downtown lounges and long-running venues throughout the city and Southeast Michigan, and which one counts as exclusive really comes down to who you ask. We sit alongside that scene rather than inside it: we're the shop that outfits the dancers and performers working those venues, which is a big part of why our custom shoe program exists in the first place.
Why Do People Order From a Small Detroit Shop From Overseas?
We ship well past Detroit. Customers have placed repeat orders from England and Australia, alongside regulars all over the U.S., and free shipping plus a selection they say they can't find elsewhere keeps them coming back. One customer in California has ordered from us more than once and has told us she doesn't plan on stopping anytime soon.
That kind of loyalty from across an ocean doesn't happen because a shop is convenient. It happens because the products are genuinely hard to find elsewhere, and the service gives people a reason to return. For a boutique this size, sitting alongside customers walking in off Grand River, that's not a small thing to have built.
What Should You Know Before Ordering?
Key Takeaways
-
We've run continuously since 1996, moving from Mammoth Mall to Seven Days at Grand River and Greenfield after the mall closed.
-
We're women-owned, and we built the business on the idea that trust has to be earned rather than assumed.
-
Our custom shoe program lets you pick heel height, color, and finish instead of settling for whatever's left in stock.
-
We carry dancewear, exotic dancewear, plus-size lingerie, bodystockings, dresses, swimwear, and gifts for bridal parties and other celebrations.
-
There's no single “best” dance shoe brand – it depends on the style of dance, whether that's studio jazz, a Broadway stage, or pole and exotic dance.
-
Orders come in from across the U.S. and overseas, largely because of our selection and free shipping.
Frequently Asked Questions
-
Which brand shoes are best for dancing?
Capezio and Bloch are the go-to names for studio and ballroom dance, Pleaser leads the pack for exotic and pole dance, and a shoe custom-built to your foot often beats any of them for fit. -
What is the most exclusive club in Detroit?
There's no single agreed-upon answer. Detroit's nightlife spans several distinct scenes, and “exclusive” tends to be a matter of taste rather than a fixed ranking. -
What dance shoes do the Rockettes wear?
Custom Capezio and LaDuca shoes, including tap, jazz, and heeled character styles, most built around a two-and-a-half-inch heel and fitted to each individual dancer. -
What are the best dancing shoes?
Whichever pair is properly sized and heeled for what you're actually doing. A stable heel base, a proper break-in period, and correct sizing matter more than any logo. -
What's Loveys Boutique Detroit's return policy?
Returns are accepted within 30 days of delivery if items are in original condition with tags attached, and exchanges for a different size or color are available by contacting us directly.
Lovey Robinson is the founder and owner of Loveys Boutique Detroit, a Detroit dancewear, lingerie, and gift boutique running since 1996. Reach the team through the Contact page, or follow along on Instagram and Facebook.
