In the two years since Megan West started Claim Clothing, she has encountered many interesting people come into the store with different stories to share. One time a young woman walk into Claim Clothing looking for a white dress, West recalled. Little did she know,  this lady was looking for a dress from the shop that she could elope in.

The store, is co-owned by Central alumna West and her husband, Jared.

One of these interesting people was an older lady who had suffered from cancer. She had come into the store a couple times, West recalled. This lady had gone through severe surgery but refused to let her struggles bring her down. This lady, whose name escaped West, always came into Claim Clothing with the brightest smile on her face and had the most cheerful, upbeat attitude.

West said that she could see that this lady, who has now moved away from Ellensburg, was a very strong woman who had overcome so much and West was very inspired by that.

“She was so strong,” West said about the woman. “She was really having trouble with the rest of the surgeries and being in therapy and it was just probably the most impactful I’d ever felt- that women are just so strong [in] what we have to go through, deal with and encounter throughout our lives.”

On Wednesday, April 4, Claim Clothing celebrated their second anniversary with their first ever anniversary-centered party, which lasted from 5 p.m. to 8 p.m..

“I was really anxious,” West said. “I didn’t know what the turnout was going to be.”

According to West, the turnout to the celebration party was very successful. Over 200 people showed up to the clothing store for the night.

“It [was] like rump to rump, elbow to elbow in here,” West said. “That’s how it was for all three hours, it was so cool.”

West said that congratulations on the anniversary were given all throughout the night, and the party gave West and her employees a great chance to see every day, regular customers along with customers who were only seen every now and then.

“We had food and wine, and a 20 percent off storewide sale,” West said. “Typically, we’ve never done a storewide sale so we saved that for our anniversary.”

Food at the party included Caesar pasta salads, hummus dip and various cookies. It was a very great night for the business.

Emily Shamrell, a Central graduate who was well familiar with Claim Clothing, had first heard about the store when she participated in the student-run spring fashion show last year. Claim Clothing merchandise was used as one of the clothing brands in the show and was included in the ‘ready to wear’ section, opposite of the student designer section of the show.

“Other big providers for ‘ready to wear’ were the Wildcat shop, Warrant and Fred Meyer, so it was not exclusively Claim Clothing,” Shamrell said.

According to West, the store still welcomes customers who are unfamiliar with Claim Clothing, even though the store has been around for a couple of years.

“We still seem to have people who have never heard of us in here, which is really interesting because I feel like we’re out there a lot,” West said.

West said that Central Washington University students make up about 50 percent of the amount of customers Claim Clothing receives.

In the next month, Claim Clothing will be launching an online shopping site called claimclothing.com for graduates or anyone who may be out of town but still wants to purchase their favorite clothes from the store.

“My favorite part is that our customers are just so invested in us that we’re able to share our lives with them in some form,” West said.