If it weren’t for a slim white sign and a narrow flight of stairs leading to this below-ground boutique, no one would know it was there — and many still don’t.

Red Hue Boutique, a funky Route 1 clothing shop that opened in May, features alternative women’s apparel, vintage jewelry and other homemade items from various independent labels, including Red Hue — 23-year-old owner Silvia Huezo’s own line — and has been in the making since Huezo fell in love with fashion design in high school.

Because summer arrived right after Huezo and her moving boxes did, she said business wasn’t exactly booming at first. And because of its less-than-ideal location — nestled between R.J. Bentley’s and Alina’s Hair Salon — the shop is easily overlooked.

But some students said the boutique fills a void in College Park’s fashion options — a sentiment Huezo said she hopes to capitalize on.

“I think it’ll do well,” said junior Spanish major J’Nae White, who plans to visit the shop soon for the first time. “They have Rugged Warehouse, but it’s not stylish. … Even PG Plaza, the options aren’t really my style. They don’t have well-made, quality clothes.”

Since the semester began, Huezo said she’s seen a definite spike in sales.

“My clothes are young, fun, and I felt like [College Park] was a good place because there’s a lot of foot traffic,” she said. “Also, there’s nothing else here. There’s no other independent clothing boutique in this area. We’re bringing something new and different.”

The boutique’s racks are filled with structured-neckline dresses, patterned rompers and long cardigans from independent brands including Tulle and Dainty June. Sky-high heels, casual boots and every-day flats from designers such as Dolce Vita and Enigma are displayed along one wall.

The Red Hue brand, with its emphasis on feminine details, is distinctive and daring, much like the designer herself.

“That’s the thing about these clothes, they’re very feminine and very tailored to accentuating the body,” she said. “We’ve had this horrible trend that is low-rise everything, and if you go back and look at photographs of women in the ‘40s, ‘50s, they had these tiny little waists and these great hips, but it’s the clothes they were wearing.”

Huezo partners with a small atelier-style workshop in El Salvador — her home country — that manufactures her clothes. She travels there a few times to year to buy fabrics, meet with seamstresses and personally ensure the working conditions meet her standards.

“I really wanted to do a workshop back home where I could provide jobs for people and at the same time guarantee my customer that the clothes were sweatshop-free, that people were treated justly, paid justly,” she said, adding she’s willing to pay the much higher prices for that peace of mind.

Prices at Red Hue Boutique typically range from $20 to more than $120.

Huezo said her style has been continually evolving since her “rebellious mode” as a high schooler, when she would leave the house wearing bright layered stockings and “ridiculous” rain boots.

“I was like, ‘I’m gonna dress differently,'” she said. “I started buying the oddest clothes you can imagine. I was a little thrift store junkie, and then I got the idea of making my own clothes, because then they would really be different.”

Before she even graduated from Montgomery Blair High School in Silver Spring, Huezo enrolled in an entrepreneurship class where she and her classmates created business plans and sold their wares in a student-run store. She designed and sewed pajamas, tutus and whatever else struck her fancy.

“I think that really did it for me,” she said. “That was what put that in my mind that I wanted to do business.”

Huezo also helped her parents, who immigrated to the United States when she was 6, open two Salvadorian-cuisine restaurants.

Armed with hands-on knowledge and a “dream big” attitude she said she inherited from her father, Huezo chose the fashion design program at Marymount University and graduated in May of last year.

Fresh out of college and hungry for real world design experience, Huezo settled on College Park as the perfect spot for her to settle her dream shop. She’s even crafted special offers to appeal to the largely student consumer base: 10 percent off with a university ID, plus 30 percent off if it’s raining.

“Here, the customers are always walking, but on rainy days not everyone is walking so we figured … let’s give these people something to do on rainy days,” she said.

But although its been up and running for months, the boutique still falls largely under many students’ radars. Huezo said she’ll decide in February whether to renew her lease in the same space she’s renting now.

“It’s really hard to get people down here,” she said. “I would love to stay in College Park, but perhaps it’s just a matter of being on street level.”

gulin at umdbk dot com