When Eileen Burke said, “Why not?” to a girls’ trip invite to Bali two decades ago with another mother-daughter duo, a business endeavor was nowhere near on the radar. But the retail store owner has always had a way of running head on into enterprise.
Shannon Burke was only 14 when she hopped on the plane with her mother on the life-changing trip to the south Pacific. She had been a helper and fixture in her mom’s Encinitas, California, shop Queen Eileen’s, since she was in a bassinet and four days old.
“She came in every day after school, which was only two blocks away,” Eileen says of her best friend and now business partner, travel companion and sounding board.
In middle school Shannon helped at the counter. She baked cookies for the shop’s extensive gift basket business that grew into the largest in the San Diego area. “I was always that helping hand,” says Shannon.
Queen Eileen’s became a must-stop for travelers along U.S. Route 101 seeking novelty gifts and funnies from edgy greeting cards to cheeky tea towels and socks bearing zingers, along with name-drop pieces for tourists and locals.
Queen Eileen’s was well established. Then the Bali trip happened, and it was about to experience a bohemian-wanderlust revival, unbeknownst to Eileen.
Born from Bali
“We fell in love with it there,” Eileen says of Bali, the people, the cottage industry, the cultural texture and — the possibilities.
During the excursion, Eileen basically stuffed her suitcase with clothing, jewelry and inspiration. “I already had a store to put it in to sell,” she explains.
Before Eileen even left the Indonesian island, she was figuring out a way to come back.
Coco Rose’s mix of resortwear and accessories are hand selected from artisans in Bali.
Photos: Robyn Scherer
Once home, she sprinkled flowing caftans, kimonos, bottoms, tops and dresses into the Queen Eileen’s mix, along with jewelry and small decorative items like baskets and bowls.
“I was reinventing myself without even realizing it,” says Eileen, who relies on her gut for business decisions. At the time, the gift basket business was waning, but she had excitement for the handcrafted, heritage-rich pieces she brought home with her.
She developed a fast, trusted friendship with a Balinese shop owner named Yunik, who would buzz around Bali on a scooter with Eileen riding on the back. They met artisans, sourced materials and secured relationships with Balinese seamstresses, jewelers and craftspeople. Out of this came Eileen’s wholesale brand, Bali Queen, along with the first Coco Rose store in Carlsbad, California, dedicated to the imports and other lines with a complementary aesthetic.
Today, the Burke ladies are the creative engine behind Bali Queen and a growing portfolio of retail boutiques, Coco Rose, with seven locations across the San Diego coast and Palm Desert region. Eileen launched two additional concepts online this year — Coco Rose Home and Last Chance with discounted last-season luxe resort wear pieces, putting the number of mother-daughter businesses at nine.
“My stores are like potato chips,” jokes Eileen. “You can’t just have one.”
And since that initial trip to Bali, bulging luggage has evolved into 20-foot shipping containers annually, and a need for bimonthly deliveries.
Treasure hunting
Eileen credits Yunik for uncovering layers of culture, tradition and opportunity on the island. They met by happenstance at Yunik’s Bali shop. “I’ll close up here and give you a ride around,” Yunik told her.
Coco Rose’s mix of resortwear and accessories are hand selected from artisans in Bali.
“Then it was her and I riding all around the island sourcing items on her scooter, and we still are,” Eileen says. Shannon now accompanies them on the trips. They find fabrics or make their own screens for printing patterns. They select materials for spring and summer, and design about a half-dozen patterns for a collection.
All of this must happen six months before the season’s launch.
“Everything is crocheted or embroidered, all done by hand,” says Eileen. “It’s not wham-bam throw it on a sewing machine. Everything is cottage industry. There are no big factories.”
Eileen describes poking into showrooms and entering back areas where families live and work. “When we buy sterling silver jewelry, they are making it right there,” she says.
Except not on holidays, which are aplenty and can result in weeks off in Bali. “Then we can’t get shipments out,” Eileen says, noting how the same enchanting aspects of the island also present ordering, shipping and inventory challenges.
For instance, before opening the new Coco Rose Home in La Quinta, California, a container was supposed to be on the way for the Feb. 1 debut. But it didn’t arrive. “I flew to Dallas and put in immediate orders,” says Eileen. “I knew I had to fill the store, so I brought in lines from a lot of creative co-ops like Kalalou and A&B Home, along with stocking gourmet foods, tea towels and cocktail napkins.”
Once the container arrived, items sold within two weeks, which was going to require strategic planning to secure a funnel of inventory.
In spite of her go-with-your-gut sensibilities, Eileen is just as much a thoughtful visionary tethered by a strong business acumen.
“One of our keys to success as an importer is we take a percentage of everything we sell and reinvest it into new products,” she says. “If we sell X dollars in imports, a percentage is put into the import account every Monday. We do not take a paycheck from that. We do not pay for advertising with that. We are very diligent.”
Aside from importing Balinese resortwear, jewelry and decor, Coco Rose also sells products from Thailand and India. Eileen aligns with brands like Bombay, La Playa and Tribal Tides.
Jewelry selections include necklaces, earrings and bracelets in a range of materials with an emphasis on sterling silver along with an alloy collection. Coco Rose shops also feature home decor offerings, though the flagship for furniture pieces is Coco Rose Home.
“What I love most about my business is the treasure hunting,” Eileen says.
Coco Rose offers some coastal serving trays, bowls and other decor.
Shannon says their similar taste makes for smooth buying trips abroad. “We travel so well together and when we are on these trips, we go in, take a perimeter of the room, and her and I love all the same things,” she says.
Their differing strengths in the business are complementary. Shannon manages the wholesale side, marketing, online communications and social media. Eileen is in all of the stores, making rounds daily, merchandising, and sourcing. She’s also the engine behind a growing brand.
Eileen is a real-deal retail pro, listening carefully to the customer.
For example, when visitors at the Encinitas and Carlsbad shops wanted to know where they could find name-drop T-shirts and apparel, which the shop had tapered off, the Burkes reevaluated. Now, the company is working with Town Pride to offer sweaters for those store locations.
Meanwhile, at the original Encinitas shop that was rebranded as Coco Rose last December, customers still want novelties, gift baskets and sassy gifts.
Presentation matters
A stealth merchandiser and savvy saleswoman, Eileen’s time-tested presentation strategies follow a simple theme: “If you move it, it will sell.”
There’s also a high level of organization involved.
Eileen explains the jewelry presentation across Coco Rose locations. Pieces are first organized by type and then by color family. Teak trays in various sizes serve as display vessels, allowing customers to easily touch, try on and take.
“If we put bracelets on a bar, no one wants to take them off because they have to remove several pieces to get to the one they want,” she says. “They either don’t want to mess up the display or ask for help, so we started arranging bracelets on the teak trays, and we do the same for anklets and wraps.”
Wholesale customers can buy the trays, and Bali Queen will gift displays as a thank-you for large orders.
Necklaces are hung on Manzanita trees, also organized by color group. “I don’t mind a linen neck display if we have a showpiece, but with as many necklaces as we have, the trees are a better solution,” says Eileen.
The enticing displays encourage customers to play and partner different pieces with garments they are considering. Naturally, the presentation goes awry amid customer traffic. Eileen has 4-foot round flat baskets that she props on portable folding stands so she can systematically sort out-of-place necklaces and arrange them on the trees.
Presentation goes beyond the stores and into communities.
Coco Rose participated in Fashion Week El Paseo in Palm Desert, a seven-day experience including booths by invitation only. “We had events every day and got really creative,” says Eileen. “One day we had a psychic at our booth, another day we had a foot masseuse and a cabana boy bringing out fruit kabobs, and we had a caftan dance party.”
During that Coco Rose Home was due for its grand opening. And then a shipping container arrived. Never a dull moment, but that’s exactly what Eileen and Shannon love about the business.
“I love the people. I love the customers. I love the clothes — I love it all. I could roll in it,” Eileen says, authentically gushing over a lifelong passion project that takes her around the world, connects her to special people and cultures, and is an inseparable mother-daughter bond.
Threaded in community
The philosophy behind Coco Rose and Bali Queen is to create an oasis where mothers and daughters can love what they wear during travels and at home. The purpose is not only to create pieces for every body type, but also to support communities of hardworking women who handmake these garments.
All handpicked fabrics and designs in the Bali Queen collection generate jobs for Balinese artisans while sustaining the Coco Rose vision, Eileen says.
The community connection extends beyond textiles and into other efforts to sustain villagers’ livelihoods. In 2022, after the economic impact of COVID-19, the company purchased a rice field that was scheduled to be taken by the Balinese government for lack of paying dues. By doing so, the rice field retained vital jobs. “By buying the field, we saved jobs and donated all the rice to people in the community,” Eileen relates.
Eileen considers them an extension of the Burke family.
Customers’ purchases also support the Coco Rose vision and personally touch villagers. The Ralphy Campaign contributes $1 to Yunik’s son’s medical school fund for every caftan purchase made by his mother.
Ralphy is 12 and has always wanted to become a doctor. At one time, Yunik sold peanuts in front of his school to afford tuition. “We’re here to make his dream a reality,” says Eileen.
Eileen reflects on the amazing, fulfilling journey that unfolded after the initial trip to Bali with her daughter. “If this mom had not invited us to go on a trip, we would never have gone — Coco Rose and all of this would have never happened.”
This is why she encourages asking, why not?
What’s next for Coco Rose and Bali Queen? Eileen is telling herself: “No more stores until at least next year!” She laughs, adding, “But then, it’s all about the opportunity.”
