Our History

A Family Tradition of Finding

Clever Girl’s roots reach back to 1890, when John and Annie Noble left Inverness, Scotland, for Oak Park, Illinois, where they opened a dry-goods store known for quality merchandise and personal service.

In the early 1970s, their granddaughter Virginia “Jinny” opened Country Cousin Antiques in Hinsdale. When a shipment of handwoven Irish wool capes arrived, it helped set the family business on a new course: antiques alongside remarkable handmade goods, clothing, jewelry, and gifts. Country Cousin evolved into Abigail Rose, followed by its imaginative sister shops, Finnie McClure and French Toast.

In 2007, the three shops came together under one roof in Western Springs as Clever Girl. The name came from a British documentary about sheepdog trials, in which a handler quietly encouraged his extraordinary dog with the same two words whenever she did something well: “Clever girl.” It was warm, memorable, and wonderfully open-ended—the right name for a shop that could never be defined by a single category.

Today, their great-great-granddaughter, Katie carries that family tradition forward at Clever Girl. We continue to search for beautiful, useful, and unexpected things, share what we discover, and welcome customers into a shop where there is always something new to find.