Scarpe at 30: Jenny DiFiore’s Scarpe has defined Telluride fashion for three decades
By Linne Halpern
Thirty years ago, fashion in Telluride looked very different. When Jenny DiFiore opened Scarpe in 1995, it wasn’t unusual to see visitors arriving for dinner on Colorado Avenue in their hiking boots.
Like many classic mountain-town stories, DiFiore’s began because of skiing. A Midwest transplant, she came to Telluride young, fell in love with the place and quickly started looking for a way to make it home for good. “I realized there were a few places you could go and buy a dress, but there was nowhere to buy shoes here,” she recalls. Spotting the gap, she drafted a business plan, marched into the bank and secured a small business loan. Soon after, in a rental space at 232 E. Pacific Ave., Scarpe, which is Italian for “shoes,” opened its doors.
At first, as the shop name suggests, DiFiore carried mostly shoes — a high-low mix of 1990s lines from Steve Madden to Calleen Cordero (still a beloved Scarpe favorite) — plus an eclectic array of jewelry, handbags and belts. After several years, she started introducing womenswear. “I busted out a fall women’s collection over one Telluride Film Festival weekend and everything was sold out by Monday,” she remembers. “From there, I expanded organically, and the price-point evolved too.”
In 2003, DiFiore bought the building at 250 E. Pacific Ave. and moved Scarpe into the first-floor retail space. When she saw the need, she began selling children’s clothes, and a few years after that, continued to grow into menswear. “There just weren’t many options for kids or men in town,” she says. “And that’s how I turned myself into a mini department store,” she laughs.
These days, on the women’s side, Scarpe is beloved for its tight edit of high-end wardrobe staples — from quality denim and luxurious cashmere to everyday dresses and special-occasion pieces. Global brands like R13, Officine Creative, Campomaggi, Pomandère, Hartford, Ulla Johnson and Pedro Garcia now line the walls.
DiFiore doesn’t base her buying decisions on fleeting trends. She’s much more concerned with helping customers put together practical, holistic and timeless wardrobes. She prides herself on offering head-to-toe styling, sharing expert outfit ideas with everyone who walks through the door — from loyal regulars to first-time visitors. “I work really hard to choose special brands and interesting pieces, to ensure there’s always a unique mix of items in our space that will excite a sophisticated clientele,” she says. That philosophy has sustained the boutique’s success for the last three decades.
The relationships Jenny DiFiore has built — and the loyalty of her clients — have been the true engine of Scarpe’s growth. “This community keeps us around,” she says. “It’s my favorite part of the job — the friendships and connection.” She recalls with gratitude how customers called in orders during the pandemic simply to support the shop, and how, in slower shoulder seasons, she now sends curated boxes of personalized edits to long-distance clients.
Her work has also taken her far beyond Telluride, on buying trips to Paris and New York where she hunts for pieces that would feel at home in her box-canyon boutique. DiFiore hopes to continue doing just that for another 30 years — offering chic, carefully chosen wares and the kind of personal service that has become Scarpe’s hallmark.