• The Wall Steet Journal, Monday, February 25, 2008 11:45 AM

In an effort to inject some hipness into its merchandise, Nordstrom bought a majority interest in Jeffrey Kalinsky's Jeffrey boutiques in 2005 and later hired the founder to liven up its fashions. The influence of Kalinsky's buying is just beginning to be felt at stores, with the recent addition in some locations of designer clothing by labels such as Gucci, Nina Ricci, and Junya Watanabe.

Kalinsky could let his imagination run wild when he was just buying for the boutiques. For Nordstrom, he must navigate the fine line between buying provocative fashion to generate excitement and commercial clothing that doesn't alienate current shoppers.

The key to forecasting what will sell, Kalinsky confides, is a simple axiom: He generally buys what he would like to see women wear--and not what they think they should wear. He often has Audrey Hepburn in mind, he says. "Sell the things you believe in, not the things you believe people want," Kalinsky recalls his father, Morris, telling him in the early years of his family's Charleston, S.C., Bob Ellis Shoes stores, which the family has owned for 58 years.

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