Shopping in Oswego

Fey & Co. has been adorning body parts for more than 60 years, providing exquisite options and gifts for every occasion. The company prides itself on the quality of its goods and its exceptional customer service, taking the jewelry-selection process very seriously to ensure lasting satisfaction. Your pair of quarter-carat diamond studs will come set in 18-karat white gold, adding a brilliant sparkle to your aura and an optimistic tone to all future trips to the karaoke bar. Use this Groupon to treat yourself to a pair of luxurious ear ornaments, or sneak the sparklies into a short stack of flapjacks for a sweet surprise on Mother's Day. If you choose, you can use your Groupon for a $199 discount for jewelry upgrades listed in the above link.

Back when Jill Card and her husband were going on their first date, he told her to wear “jeans and a cute top.” More than two decades later, the couple decided that would be the perfect name for Jill’s clothing boutique, where women of all ages and sizes can now find their own jeans and blouse or sweater for a first date, a night on the town with the fellow jury members, or a day spent hanging around the house. Her shop’s apparel quickly earned awards and media attention and enjoyed enough success to launch a second shop just 14 months later and a third boutique three-and-a-half years later. The laudations still pour in; the shop was named the Best Place to Buy Women’s Jeans by West Suburban Living magazine in 2012.

To earn this praise, Jill selects a wide range of jeans from brands such as Silver, Mek Denim, Miracle Body, Jag, Miss Me, Liverpool, and Kut from the Kloth, enabling denim-seekers from multiple generations to find styles they like. Her friendly staff is likewise well versed on the fit and style of every jean in the shop. She also offers free basic hem alterations. To pair with the jeans, Jill's stores overflow with cute tops, sweaters, blouses, and jackets from labels including Dusak, Insight, BB Dakota, Kensie, and Tulle. Jill and her staff also adorn shoppers in necklaces, scarves, and accessories.

Founded by Dena Ferrell Nance, whats-in-store has been slinging fashion-forward jewelry and accessories since 2001. The signature Etched Collection is designed in-house and lasered out of recycled sheet metals. Hundreds of jewelry items, such as earrings, bracelets, rings, and brooches, are available to spice up wardrobes and earlobes of both men and women. Headbands ($35) keep hair hats trim and proper, and scarves (starting at $10) add a dash of neck flair without resorting to cumbersome sandstone-sundial necklaces. Handbags (starting at $40) can conveniently tote bricks to use to pin down gas pedals when faking deaths via cliff-diving runaway cars.

When placed on racks in front of the store's exposed brick walls, the clothing selection at Anew seems eclectic. Stylish dresses and lace-trimmed cloche hats mingle freely with in-season designer clothes and Coach purses, forming a curated selection that allows clients to build their own, one-of-a-kind wardrobe. All of the items in the store are selected for their quality, style, and seasonality, ensuring clients don’t have to sort through racks of stained or passé clothing to find something they’d like to see in their closet. The shop specializes in boutique and designer clothing, collecting jeans from brands such as 7 For All Mankind and Miss Me and purses from Coach and Louis Vuitton. Alongside these designer goods hang accessories made by local artisans, including CooperSong, who makes bags that reuse inner tubes, recycled baseballs, and old material to create unique items. Through both their consignment clothing and recycled wares, the staff hopes to promote an environmentally friendly culture of keeping items out of the landfill and in the closets of loving new owners.

Helping customers improve their vision is the main concern of the optometrists and eye-care professionals at Eye Boutique, who provide preventive screenings and help choosing from their more than 1,800 frames at each location. In each shop, licensed doctors of optometry scan eyes with comprehensive exams before diagnosing issues or prescribing high-definition Zeiss lenses and contact lenses from Optix and Acuvue. Designer frames from Guess, Nike, and Kenneth Cole house lenses fashionably, and Teflon protective layers help guard lenses from scratches and reduce glare. Sunglasses from brands such as Ray-Ban and Coach also protect eyes from harmful UV rays, creating an accessory that is both stylish and useful, like a diamond with a job.

Husband-and-wife duo Mike and Heather drift among the electric-pink tables of It's a Bling Thing, dispensing knowledge about the necklaces, bracelets, rings, and accessories that shimmer in long rows. Beyond a rose-hued awning, walls lined with colorful clutches, rings, and wrist cuffs encircle the gleefully crowded shop and engross eyes like a staring contest with a ping-pong ball. Spotlights and a serpentine chandelier pour cascades of blue, pink, and white incandescence and lure shimmering highlights across gems and rainbow beads. The owners, a retired police officer and a schoolteacher, host after-hours shindigs that benefit charitable causes. Partygoers prance across the hardwood floors noshing on refreshments, uninterrupted by crowds of customers or arias announcing the number of hours until closing.