Chick opened Downtown in May 2007 as a small women's boutique with a Web site.

A year after its debut, it has become chickdowntown.com, primarily an Internet fashion retailer in which less than 5 percent of its sales are generated from people walking into its Liberty Avenue store.

Online sales fueled by a national multimedia campaign caused the store, based in the Clark Building, to "smash" its revenue goals for the first year, said owner Amy Reed.

It remains to be seen whether other independent fashion-retail newcomers to Downtown will enjoy the same prosperity. The dwindling number of independents that have operated Downtown for a number of years have had to find innovative ways to keep their doors open, but not without struggles.

That makes the arrival of new independent fashion retailers such as chickdowntown all the more interesting.

Ms. Reed and her husband, real estate developer Ira Gorman, opened their business to provide style-conscious women the same young, trendy fashions that she likes to wear. Adding to the challenge of managing a new business that first year was the birth of their son in November.

They didn't expect business to grow so fast. Ms. Reed declined to provide specific revenue details, but said: "We did more volume in April than all of 2007, and each month since April we have increased exponentially."

Chickdowntown.com gets more than 1 million hits a month and expects to triple that in 12 to 18 months, she added.

The physical store has become "insignificant to our sales. We've become a Web-based company. I'm glad I can share my love of fashion with women all over the world."

The store anticipates reaching its goal of offering more than 200 designer brands online within the next few months. Retailers with that number of lines might ordinarily have eight to 12 buyers, but Ms. Reed buys everything personally.

She's also phasing in children's clothing by brands such as Calypso, Cacharel and Alice + Olivia and has begun working with designers such as Jay Godfrey to customize looks for sale only at Chickdowntown.com.

"It's been hard, but it's been great, something I've wanted to do my whole life," Ms. Reed said. "I'm really, really excited about the interest in the Web site and how the fashion industry has embraced it."

Fashion retail Downtown would get a needed boost if the city implemented the sort of redevelopment strategies that have revitalized the downtowns of cities such as Philadelphia, Chicago and Seattle.

A lot of restaurants with outdoor seating, clean streets and sidewalks and beautiful trees are among the amenities that bring people Downtown, Ms. Reed said. "People want to be there. It needs to be pedestrian-friendly. You can walk through the city. You can't have an overabundance of buses and people loitering.

"There's no reason they can't do the same thing in Downtown Pittsburgh," she said. "Pittsburgh is a beautiful city and has a lot of potential, and the time is now."

Owners of at least two other fledgling fashion retail stores are gambling on Downtown for similar reasons.

Debbie Kass-Gerji and Susan Jergel opened Pittsburgh Elegance in December 2006, three months after meeting at a party and finding that they shared a common dream.

They chanced upon the street-level space in the 300 Sixth Ave. building at Sixth and Wood Street. Although their store is small -- truly boutique-ish at about 283 square feet -- two display windows looking onto Wood offer room to show off some of the store's sportswear and accessories.

The business partners decided to come Downtown even before becoming aware of planned improvements to attract residents and shoppers there. They knew that Piatt Place, which now features high-priced residences and fine dining, was under construction in the next block and that "we were close to the Cultural District," said Ms. Kass-Gerji, 49.

"That just made it that much easier for us."

With labels such as Joseph Ribkoff, Frank Lyman and Amanda Adams Couture, they're targeting women in their 20s and older. Purses range in price from $27 to $300. There is also a wide price range in apparel in sizes 4 to 20.

Colorful and vibrant looks reflect the styles of Mrs. Jergel, a 39-year-old South Hills native and former architectural and interior designer; and Ms. Kass-Gerji, a Philadelphia native and former owner of an Army-Navy store in the South Hills.

"Business needs to pick up. It's paying the bills, but we're not getting rich," said Ms. Kass-Gerji.

Although parking is an issue in terms of availability and cost, she said, "People who have come in here keep coming back. It seems like once they come in, we see them at least once every other week."

Meanwhile, the accessories store Serendipity is moving across Downtown from inside One Oxford Centre on Smithfield to Market Square to take advantage of a street-level location and development in the area. The new store opens today.

When owners Kimberly and Pete Coppola found out about the availability of 1,180 square feet of light-filled and airy street-level space inside Two PPG Place, they couldn't resist.

"It was very difficult marketing outside the building" at Oxford Centre, said Mrs. Coppola, 37. "This gives us more street-level exposure. We love urban settings, the Downtown area, and wanted to stay."

Fashion-forward handbags in a range of prices from under $30 to $1,000 are the store's forte, with a selection of fashion jewelry, umbrellas and other accoutrements. Lip Fuel -- a private line of lip-plumping glosses with diamond dust conceived by the Coppolas -- will launch next month.

"You don't have to have money to have fashion," said Mrs. Coppola, a former store director with Victoria's Secret Beauty. "We handpick everything and like to have exclusive pieces."

The store began in 2004 as a boutique inside Izzazu hair salon, Downtown, and moved to a second-level store in One Oxford Centre in 2006. Along the way, it attracted customers from teens to women in their 80s.

A growing share of the store's sales also are through its Web site, serendipity-accessories.com, which features a monthly blog by Mrs. Coppola. "As a retailer, you have to be connected somehow to the Internet," she said. "Even if you can't sell your merchandise online, you still have to have a Web site."

Pittsburgh Elegance is open 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. Mondays through Fridays and by appointment Saturdays and evenings; the store number is 412-281-2288. Serendipity is open 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. Mondays through Fridays and 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. Saturdays; the store number is 412-325-1122. Chick is open 11 a.m to 7 p.m. Monday through Saturday, and noon to 6 p.m. on Sunday; the store number is 412-434-0100.