Monkee’s

Monkee’s is a contemporary women’s boutique in WaterSound Town Center offering a curated selection of apparel, accessories, and gifts for everyday wear and special occasions. The WaterSound location operates locally as Monkee’s of 30A, tucked into the ground floor at 19 Plaza Way along the walkable heart of the town center, where window displays of resort dresses, linen separates, and statement jewelry give beachgoers a reason to wander in between trips to the sand.

The Monkee’s story began three decades ago, in 1995, when DeeDee Shaw opened the very first store in a modest 986-square-foot space in Wilmington, North Carolina. Rather than standard retail fixtures, she filled the shop with antique furniture so it felt like browsing a well-dressed friend’s living room. She named the boutique after her mother’s nickname for her and her siblings, “a bunch of monkeys.” A loyal customer, Brenda Maready, later asked Shaw for help opening a sister location in Winston-Salem, and their partnership grew into a licensing arrangement and then, starting in 2010, a full franchise model. Three decades on, Monkee’s has expanded to more than 60 boutiques, most concentrated across the Southeast, with every store independently owned and operated by a local franchisee, exactly the case at WaterSound.

Monkee’s of 30A joined the WaterSound Town Center lineup in 2026, part of a wave of new shops filling out Origins Main Street and the surrounding plazas. Inside, shoppers find rotating seasonal groupings the store calls “Local’s Edit,” “All Things Linen,” and “Shades of Blue,” stocked alongside recognizable labels such as DREW, PAIGE, Frye boots, Eric Javits hats, SPANX shapewear, and Julie Vos jewelry. Beyond the clothing racks, the shelves fill out with home and gift finds, books, decorative objects, and party goods, giving real range to anyone hunting for a hostess gift or a beach-house keepsake rather than another outfit.

What has always set Monkee’s apart, in the founders’ own words, is the belief that every woman deserves clothing that makes her feel beautiful, so the buying spans sizes and price points instead of chasing one silhouette. That personal touch carries through at WaterSound, where the intimate boutique format means staff get to know regulars by name across a season of beach weekends. The shop opens at 10 a.m. Monday through Saturday and eases into a shorter noon-to-five window on Sundays, a schedule built around a slow 30A pace rather than a big-box clock, so there is always time to browse before dinner reservations or after a morning at the beach.

Because every Monkee’s is locally owned, the WaterSound store also functions as a small business in its own right rather than a corporate outpost, with buying decisions shaped by what the owner sees regulars respond to on Origins Main Street. That local flexibility means the racks can lean harder into swim cover-ups and sun hats during peak season and pivot toward layering pieces and gifts once the weather turns, keeping the inventory tuned to whatever visitors actually need that week. For anyone building a 30A wardrobe from scratch, or just looking for a last-minute gift before a dinner party, it is an easy, low-pressure stop that rewards a little lingering.