Dry cleaner at 37th and Spruce to sell women's clothing

Bonded Cleaners at 3724 Spruce St. has undergone a facelift.

After four days of construction, Bonded reopened on Oct. 1 as Bonded BoutiqueCleaner, a combined dry cleaning and women’s clothing shop. Yoon Kim, who still manages the dry cleaning, partnered with her daughter, HanNa Jung — the woman behind the dual concept.

Since high school, it has been Jung’s dream to start her own brand. Though her brand is still in the works, she hopes it will debut under her own name in the 37th and Spruce Street store next year. In the meantime, Jung has dedicated her energy to revamping her mom’s old shop and selling brands she considers “affordable couture” to appeal to Penn students and local residents.

College sophomore Cordelia Meserow, who used Bonded’s dry cleaning services before the renovation, thought the joint venture was “a smart idea theoretically,” and was curious to “poke” around the shop the next time she needed some dry cleaning done.

Ashwin Khosa, a College sophomore, who had brought his dry cleaning to Bonded last year, did not recognize the space’s new look this year. The addition of the women’s clothing line would not deter him from using Bonded’s services, he added, though he doesn’t plan to start buying clothes there once Jung adds the men’s line next year.

Currently, Jung’s boutique sports a variety of dresses, tops, skirts and jeans from brands like Sneakpeak, Kanvas and Freshine as well as scarves and jewelry in the spirit of Anthropologie’s offerings. It was important to Jung to “keep a reasonable price point” — she pointed to a dress she is selling for $89 she claimed would sell for over $100 in other locations as an example.

Jung majored in fashion design and minored in jewelry at Moore College of Art and Design, and soon after proceeded to jobs at Jill Stuart and the Alexander Doll Company. Her connections in the field have helped her to bring certain brands to her store, she explained.

Loyal to her “one-of-a-kind concept,” Jung stressed that she didn’t want Bonded to “lose the identity” of a dry cleaners. Though this project had been in the works for the last eight months, Jung took advantage of the economic conditions to convince her mom that it was time to renovate “the dead space” in the front of the old store.

Jung described the “resourcefulness” required to be a small business owner, explaining that she is her own interior decorator, as she constructed the furniture, sewed the curtains and made the price tags all on her own.

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