Caroline Dengel steps into her tangerine-colored truck and adjusts a dress swaying on a rack. Two years ago, she never pictured herself owning a boutique, let alone one on wheels.

Dengel always loved the styling and merchandising aspect of fashion, but she was worried about getting customers to come to her. So, she decided to take her business on the road and go to them.

Now, she drives around Northeast Ohio in her traveling boutique, The Wandering Wardrobe.

“I knew what I didn’t want, but I didn’t know what I did want,” Dengel said. “One of my girlfriends sent me a link about traveling boutiques popping up on the West Coast, and there were probably 15 in Los Angeles alone. I didn’t even finish the article about the trucks, and I knew that this was exactly what I wanted to do.”

A month after reading the article, Dengel bought a truck in Parma, Ohio, and decided to put everything she had into making her boutique ready for summer 2014.

“It was crazy watching this whole thing come to life,” she said. “I ran my ideas by my parents, but they’re physicians and aren’t really into the creative thing. It was all me. Once I got the truck designed and I started working on it, it was overwhelming but in a good way.”

Dengel, a native of Avon, Ohio, went to school at The King’s College in New York City and returned to Cleveland. Before starting The Wandering Wardrobe, she worked for SmallBizSolutions, teaching business owners how to use social media platforms.

“I’ve applied everything I learned doing that to this,” she said. “I don’t think I’d be able to have a mobile business if it wasn’t for social media.”

The Wandering Wardrobe is headquartered in downtown Cleveland, but Dengel has taken her traveling boutique to Akron, Canton, Amherst and as far east as Willoughby and Painesville.

The boutique also stopped in Kent in the Rockwall Hall parking lot from 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. on Tuesday. Thirty percent of the proceeds helped fund the Pay it Flash Forward Scholarships.

And this summer, she is planning trips to Columbus and Chicago.

“The style of my clothes changes from where I am,” Dengel said. “One thing I like about being mobile is that I can tailor my inventory to where I’m going. I try to get to know my demographic before I go somewhere and carry items that I think they’ll like.”

When you step into The Wandering Wardrobe, it’s easy to forget that you’re in a truck. You feel like you’ve found a portal to a quaint, Bohemian boutique in the West Coast, complete with hardwood floors and a pink-curtained dressing room.

However, being mobile comes with its own set of challenges.

“I could be on my way to an event and just break down,” Dengel said. “The unpredictability of it is part of the exciting part I love, but it’s also the stressful part. I’ve been broken down on the side of 90 and the turnpike and pretty much every highway in Cleveland.”

In spite of the challenges of the first year and a truck with a mind of its own, Dengel said she would someday like to do a cross-country road trip.

“If you had asked me in college what I wanted to do in a few years, I wouldn’t have said this because I didn’t know it existed,” she said. “This last year, I’ve been able to accomplish my first goal, which was to have reliable employees. I’m finally at the point where I can step back for a week or two if I want to get away.”

When she’s not on the road, Dengel brings The Wandering Wardrobe to customer’s homes for private parties.

“It’s literally like I park in their driveway, and they invite eight to 16 of their closest friends. I open it up, and they get to shop at home,” she said. “I’ve had customers turn into friends from private parties because you get to know people really well. One of my closest friends from the area started as a customer last year, so it’s kind of fun.”

The Wandering Wardrobe also has a stationary sister in the warehouse district of Cleveland with The Small Box project, mini storefronts made of shipping containers. It’s called “The Wardrobe,” and in the winter months when it’s too cold to be on the road, Dengel can be found manning the boutique there.

“I have a lot of women come in and say, ‘Oh, I’m in a rut. I’ve been wearing the exact same thing everyday, and I want something different,’” Dengel said. “I love being able to help them out and make them feel good. If someone walks out of here feeling really good about what they’re wearing, then I’m happy.”

Contact Jamie Brian at [email protected].