Charlene Schlotzhauer hopes her new downtown Lawrence store teaches people an important lesson about art :quot; it doesn’t just hang from walls.

At her store, Prairie Pond Studio, 809 Mass., it is much more likely to hang from your shoulders. The store features what Schlotzhauer calls “wearable art.” It includes everything from silk ruanas, a type of cape, to kutas, a style of African shirts. And all the clothing is custom dyed by Schlotzhauer and other area textile artists.

“My philosophy is really to encourage people to be themselves and to make a real statement about themselves,” Schlotzhauer said. “I think one of the best ways to do that is with wearable art.”

Schlotzhauer, a former art director for the engineering firm Black & Veatch, opened the store in early October in the former McQueen Jewelers building. She said the response from customers had been overwhelming.

“Lawrence has been great for this,” Schlotzhauer said. “This is clothing for people who like to be expressive ,and the majority of this community is very expressive.”

And it isn’t just college students who are expressing themselves with tie-dyed clothing. Schlotzhauer said her best customers tended to be older.

“This is a great place for old hippies,” Schlotzhauer said. “The baby boomers are really our target market. We just haven’t grown up yet. We still want to play, and if we have something neat to play in, that’s even better.”

Schlotzhauer became involved in textile art after taking a class at the Lawrence Arts Center seven years ago. The class piqued her interest so much that she enrolled in Kansas University’s School of Fine Arts.

Prairie Pond Studio, 809 Mass., has been open about a month, and owner Charlene Schlotzhauer says the store has been popular with baby-boomer customers. Schlotzhauer is a textile artist, and her tie-dye and fabric art clothes, along with items from other local artists and producers, are for sale at the store.

Now she dyes clothing every day at her studio in her rural Douglas County home to bring into the store. She said her style was relatively simple.

“What we try to do is help people look like an artist or look a little Bohemian,” Schlotzhauer said. “It not the tie-dye that people remember from the ’60s.

“Probably more people are wearing it now than back then because the colors are more subdued. We don’t have so much of the tartness or Jerry Garcia look these days.”

The store, which employs eight people, is open 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. Mondays, Tuesdays, Wednesdays, Fridays and Saturdays. It is open 10 a.m. to 8 p.m. Thursdays and noon to 4 p.m. Sundays.

Schlotzhauer said the average outfit at her store ran about $125, although she has items ranging from $5 to $500 for people who are willing to dare to look different.

“If they’re looking for something that matches, they’re not going to find it here,” Schlotzhauer said.