The manager of downtown Lawrence’s newest women’s clothing store said she believes the business has found an unfilled niche in town.

It’s a niche that’s located somewhere between a women’s belly button and her hips, she said.

Mary Quinn, Lawrence, puts clothes on display at Ginger & Maryanne, a new women's clothing store at 914 Mass. Quinn is the manager of the store, which features clothing for the thirtysomething crowd.

“The younger kids want to wear those low-cut jeans, but a lot of people who aren’t teen-agers don’t,” Mary Quinn, manager of Ginger & Maryanne, said. “But they don’t want to wear older lady pants that go all the way up to their belly button either. What we’re trying to provide is something that is in between literally.”

Ginger & Maryanne, 914 Mass., is the newest business venture for the owners of apparel retailer Easton’s LTD, 839 Mass. Greg Easter, an owner of both stores, said the store, which opened last week, was striving to be a unique “East Coast-style” boutique that serves people other than the traditional college crowd.

“In this town there seems to be an ample supply of clothing for the younger set and quite a bit for, how should we say, the more mature customer, but there seems to be a bit of a gap between those two,” Easter said. “I guess you could say we’re looking to be thirtysomething but hip.”

Easter said the store will try to compete with larger chain and department store retailers by focusing on buying unique brands of clothing and buying items in limited quantity so “customers won’t see themselves walking around town.”

“I’m guessing that 95 percent of the brands we have in here, you won’t be able to find in any other store in Lawrence,” Easter said. “We want to sell to everybody, but we think our strength will be with people who like fashion and understand the value of a designer label.”

Easter said he and his wife, Beth, have been thinking about opening the store for more than three years, but weren’t able to find the right location until this spot, which formerly housed Vormehr & Youngquist Gallery, became available.

Easter said he did have second thoughts about opening the store, which required about a $100,000 investment, during a slow economy. But he said he decided to open it anyway because he thought it would help diversify his business since Easton’s is primarily known as a men’s clothing store.

“The great thing about women is they’ll shop us out of a recession,” Easter said. “They are buyers. They like to shop, so even during a slow economy they still come through the doors. It’s not that way with men.”

As for the store’s name, it is related to the two characters on Gilligan’s Island Ginger, the dressy, fashionable lady and Maryanne, the “girl next door.”