GLEN ULLIN, N.D. — Ann Duppong was bored.
The Bismarck salon where she worked as a cosmetologist had temporarily closed down, courtesy of COVID. Now she found herself puttering around the Willow Creek Ranch — the Glen Ullin-area farm/angus beef ranch run by her husband, Ty, his parents, Patty and Terry Duppong, and Ty’s brother, Casey — without a job. Large Earrings Wholesale
So when Ann came across some scraps of cowhide, her artist’s eye started envisioning ways she could use it. She decided to make earrings by cutting the hide into teardrop and football shapes or fringe, then adding turquoise gems and charms.
The jewelry carried a western flair that appealed to Ann’s own aesthetic and fashion sense. “That’s kind of my personal style. Being on a ranch, I love the western style, ” says the 30-year-old entrepreneur, appropriately dressed in jeans, a fringed suede jacket and tooled leather "Hey Dudes" during a recent interview from the Rancher's Rest coffee shop in Glen Ullin. “And I kind of timed it just right because I feel right around that time, western fashion just blew up.”
When a rodeo came to a nearby community in the summer of 2020, Ann figured she could at least try to sell a few of the nearly 50 earring sets she'd made. With no expectations at all, she set up a table and a frame to display her jewelry.
Within a matter of hours, “I almost sold out,” the Beulah, N.D., native says, laughing. “I couldn’t believe it. It just kind of took off from there.”
Obviously, she was onto something. And with COVID still hovering, she couldn’t return to cutting hair anytime soon. Instead, she started making and selling jewelry under the name “Turquoise and Hide.”
As her product line grew beyond jewelry, however, Ann felt her business needed a less specific name. She considered a number of different potential handles before realizing the best option was right there in front of her. The Duppongs’ “Willow Creek” — named after the creek that ran through their spread — had a lyrical-sounding quality but also captured the western flavor of her brand. She asked her in-laws if they’d mind her naming her business in honor of their farm.
They didn’t; in fact, they loved the idea.
And so Willow Creek Boutique was born.
The boutique popped up at the perfect time. It tapped into the “Westerncore" or "cowboycore" trend triggered by shows like “Yellowstone,” which have popularized whipstitching, fringed outerwear, western belts and boots — even among fashionistas whose only brush with rodeos have been Rodeo Drive.
In addition to her handmade items, Ann bought western-inspired clothing lines, handbags, belts, hats, pet accessories and home decor wholesale and sold them under her Willow Creek umbrella. All carried the Willow Creek tag, which she drew and designed herself.
She’s sold nearly 12,000 pieces this way on Etsy. She also used Instagram, Facebook and TikTok to full advantage, modeling some of the fashions herself and photographing Willow Creek products against the rugged fence posts and butte-lined vistas of western North Dakota. All helped drive potential customers to her Etsy and shopping website ( willowcreekboutiquend.com ).
She’s also sold her products at vendor shows and events like the Bucking Horse Sale in Miles City, Montana, the North Dakota Country Fest in New Salem, the PRCA Rodeo in Bismarck and the JunkFest in Carrington, North Dakota. During these shows, she will sometimes provide an attention-catching personalization service by using miniature brands to burn initials and slogans into wallets, phone cases, hats and other leather goods.
After a while, though, Ann started feeling like her wholesale business had overtaken everything else. “It was overwhelming and too much work,” she says. “With all the wholesale, you get way more in than you actually need.”
Although Ann tried to find the most unique clothing possible, she found it increasingly more difficult to discover styles that other vendors or boutiques didn’t already offer.
Carrying other company’s products also distracted from what Ann does best: envisioning and designing her own products. She grew up crafting and drawing, so has loved being able to incorporate those skills into her leather goods. Even when she concentrated more on her wholesale products, she continued creating uniquely Willow Creek items like Hey Dude leather toppers, wallets and handbags on the side.
Now, Ann says, “I’m focusing more, back almost where I started”—selling accessories, jewelry and her personally designed leather goods.
As the business owner scaled back on the wholesale end of things, she’s had more time to build on her personally designed line of products.
She is especially proud of her smartphone cases, which bear western-style decoration and faux accent stitching in white and turquoise.
The cases are “so unique. It’s something you really don’t see — and they look great on the phone,” she says.
She also designs hat bands, which personalize cowboy or rancher hats with western curlicues, clusters of flowers and delicate feathers. “They fit universally on almost all cowboy hats or even flat-brimmed hats, and they just slip right on and adjust with these conchos,” she says. “They’re so fun.”
Hats and hat bands were some of the first items she made. She thought interest in them would fade, but avowed hat wearers like country music singer/"Yellowstone" star Lainey Wilson have kept them in the limelight.
So where does she find inspiration? “I just honestly see a lot of patterns I really like and then you just kind of put it together and make it your own,” she says. For instance, she loves the idea of creating colorless sunflowers, with stems intertwined and framed by a dark background. Her designs often incorporate feathers in ombre-washed pastels and pops of her favorite turquoise blue color.
She then sends her designs to a family of leather-tooling experts, who execute what she draws.
“Everything is handmade,” she says. “When people see the quality, it’s worth it.”
Ann also will fill custom orders, such as phone cases or boots, for gifts or wedding parties.
Now she’s expanding her product line with larger, more ambitious items, like handbags and cowboy boots. Some of the items incorporate authentic speckled, hair-on-hide longhorn leather. “So any product I carry that’s cow hide — I don’t do a fake print — it’s genuine leather and hide,” she says.
She tries to price her items to reflect the authentic materials and craftsmanship, while still keeping them affordable. Her leather smartphone cases started at $35 to $45, but rising material costs forced her to bump up prices to the $45-$58 range. Her leather hat bands typically sell for about $45. She’s still deciding on a price point for her personally designed boots, but thinks they will start at around $250, while the handbags she designs will start at $150.
With so much success in three short years, has she considered turning Willow Creek Boutique into an actual brick-and-mortar?
Duppong says she got a taste of that experience after opening a pop-up store in Bismarck's Kirkwood Mall last holiday season for one month.
“It was a lot of fun, but to sit in a store every day — that’s not for me,” she says.
It seems Willow Creek Boutique, like Ann Duppong herself, is most at home on the range.
Wholesale Handmade Jewelry Find her store on Facebook under " Willow Creek Boutique ND ."