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Las Olas Profiles

Legends of Las Olas

Zola Keller
legant, floor-length gowns and sparkly cocktail attire are temptingly displayed at
Zola Keller’s special occasion dress shop. Each customer receives personalized
Eservice as she chooses among the designs, many of which are Zola’s own, to
wear on one of the important days in her life.

Zola once dressed a Miss America, and has long provided gowns for Broward’s
society set. She specializes in mother-of-the-bride dresses and outfits for bar and bat
mitzvahs, and offers bridalwear on the shop’s second floor. 4FWFSBM years ago, she
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After 38 years, Zola’s is one of the oldest stores on Las Olas. Her beginnings in the
clothing business, however, were a far cry from designer gowns.
Zola Keller Zola was a single mother when she moved to Fort Lauderdale. To support herself, she
Owner
Zola Keller’s special occasion dress shop began crocheting bikinis and peddling them to shops on the beach. “I sold them for
$10, and my profit was $5. So I had to sell a lot of them,” she recalls.

One day, she took her swimwear into an upscale accessory shop. It was a lucky
decision. “The proprietor suggested I start to make coverups and shawls. I said, ‘I
can do that!’ even though I didn’t have any idea how.”
She hired women in her condominium to knit the coverups. But, she soon realized,
she didn’t know how to run a business. She turned to SCORE (Service Corps of
Retired Executives) for help. Counselors there told her she needed to buy her yarn
wholesale. Finding a yarn shop in the Yellow Pages, she went there to convince the
owner to supply what she needed.
Ave Keller was behind the counter, and he liked her work. He quickly became her
business partner and later, her husband.
Although she’d never designed anything but swimsuits, she decided to try her hand at
knit dresses. When Saks at the Galleria picked them up, she was thrilled.
Ave, however, was leaving nothing to chance. Unbeknownst to Zola, he sent
beautiful models to buy her knits and rave about them. “When Saks saw my dresses
had sold out, they put them in five or six other stores,” she chuckles.
But Zola wanted a shop of her own, so Ave found her a tiny space next to one of his
stores. Her dream, however, was to open on Las Olas. When she finally did, there
were five bridalwear stores on the street. “I wondered, ‘what are the mothers of the
brides wearing?’” she recalls. Her new specialty was born.
How have the Kellers continued their success? “We’ve always been open to change,”
Zola says. “We look for what’s new out there, and what will bring customers in.”

L A S O L A S B O U L E V A R D & I S L E S
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