Mirror, Mirror: Joan Shepp pops up at the Shops

Nestled between the Body Shop and Bath & Body Works in the Shops at Liberty Place is the new Joan Shepp.

Outside the specialty store that opened its temporary, 2,338-square-foot digs Saturday, velvet ropes lined the entrance; sushi and champagne marked the fashionable, first-day festivities. And models - live and fake - were dressed in Shepp's curated fall 2013 collections: Dries Van Noten's tailored stripes, Thomas Wylde's modo jackets, and the black and white cracked-leather pieces Alexander Wang designed in his first season at Balenciaga.

If negotiations are successful, owners Joan and Ellen Shepp will, early next year, take over a nearly 11,000-square-foot space on the second level of the Shops, accessible by a street-level escalator with giant windows overlooking 17th and Chestnut Streets - a relief to shoppers who already miss the boutique's Walnut Street displays.

With Joan Shepp an anchor store at the urban shopping center, the retail cachet of Chestnut Street would continue to rise. Just Tuesday, Nordstrom Rack finally confirmed that it is moving into the former Daffy's building at 17th and Chestnut Streets.

"I'm only getting bigger and better," Joan Shepp said early last week, hours after signing the temporary lease with the Shops. The next day, she left on a 12-day trip to Paris to scout the right mix of sheer florals and warm-weather leather to sell in the new space.

With mom overseas and a lease ending by the end of the week, Ellen Shepp orchestrated the move. From Tuesday through Friday, staff packed trucks during the day, then unpacked from 6 to 10 p.m. at the Shops - even during last week's Phashion Phest.

When the crew opened on time Saturday morning, they launched a hopeful new beginning, after one of the most high-profile fashion sagas the city has seen in a long time.

After 13 years at 1616 Walnut St., the Shepps were forced to move after being told their rent would nearly triple. The pair spent the better part of a year looking for a new Center City home.

The long search left many observers - both fashionistas and non- - shaking their heads. How could an iconic boutique be left in the lurch? The buzz reached as far as New York Fashion Week, as insiders asked me, "Where is Shepp going?"

Although many people think of the Shops as a place for basic chain stores, Shepp's Vogue-worthy reputation will likely lure customers who once had tunnel vision only for J. Crew cardigans. For sure, Shepp is the mall's chicest coup, as it expands a growing group of temporary-turned-permanent tenants.

"We've taken the pop-up-shop concept a little further," explained Jill Scarlett, retail-shops manager at the Shops. "It works well" because it gives specialty-store owners "the opportunity to try things on, see how their stores fit here."

Bella Turka, the exotic jewelry and trinket boutique, turned a temporary holiday location into a three-year lease, Scarlett said.

In February, Kiehl's moved its skin-care apothecary from the corner of 18th and Walnut - where it was replaced by an expansion of a.kitchen - to a 637-square-foot space at the Chestnut Street entrance of the Shops. It is in negotiations for a long-term deal, Scarlett said.

Children's boutique Lolli Lolli is taking some items from its store at Seventh and Walnut Streets and setting up a pop-up that will open in mid-October in advance of the holiday season.

Huntingdon Valley-bred designer Liz Hess is opening ElleLauri in early October. The designer's feminine separates have been featured on the Oprah Winfrey Network and E! News, as well as on celebrities from Stacey Keibler to Jessica Alba.

Ironically, Walnut Street - with its recent influx of Intermix, Madewell, and Theory - is looking more like a mall, and the mall is looking more like Walnut Street.

It's about 1:30 p.m. Saturday, and Ellen Shepp - dressed in her requisite layers of black - finally sits down, a few feet from her store's entrance to watch the models.

Nope, she never expected to be in a mall, but she likes it. Her iPhone rings so much that she hands it over to Dana Bank, a friend and owner of Town Home, her former neighbor on Walnut Street. At almost 2 p.m., flowers arrive with a card: "I'm proud of you. Mom." Ellen tears up. It has been . . . a lot.

All that's left to do now is hang the sign - and wait for the people to come.

215-854-2704 @ewellingtonphl