About Us

What is 'Kembrel'?

"The better boutique.""

What does that mean? It’s how we shop. Or, rather, how we wanted to shop, when we realized there really wasn’t a way to do it yet. We loved the unique, independent, and local designers we met in our first year of operation, and we wanted to rep them from the rooftops. We loved the neat details we could tell about them, and the attention we could bring by showcasing them next to established and classic names. It’s a shop-around-the-corner mentality, an old-timey care for what we buy and how we sell it, but with the lifestyle of today: easy, always new, affordable, and accessible online and off. It’s who we are as consumers: local devotees always plugged into our global networks, and it’s how we wanted to change shopping everywhere. Each week, both online and in our physical popup locations, we showcase new apparel and accessories from upstart and early-career creators we think you’ll love, right next to classic brands with a unique feel. Discover their stories, save on their collections, and get personal style advice from our team.

Our Story

In 2010, three students wanted a lot of things. They wanted to make shopping easier for their college peers. They wanted hip, unique clothes and gadgets every day of the week. And they wanted it on a Ramen-sized budget.

They founded Kembrel, named after their favorite dean of happiness at Wharton. Dr. Kembrel (Jones) was all about the local community experience, and Kembrel (dot com) wanted to bring that same excitement and energy to fashion-conscious college students. We showcased unique merchandise to students nationwide, both through daily finds and traveling pop-up campus shops.

We graduated university, and while we still had fond memories and unflattering Facebook pictures, we were then part of a bigger community: one encompassed not by .edu email addresses, but by a care for unique finds, independent labels, and quality without wallet pain. We took our favorite products, our buyers’ keen eyes, and our connections with local designers, revamped our website and opened two pop-up boutiques filled to the brim with new and exciting finds. Today, Kembrel is a fully-integrated boutique - one that takes all the things we love about independent, local shopping, and brings them to the otherwise overwhelming land of e-commerce.