Shades of pink will soon catch the eyes of many amid State Street’s myriad of color. Pink Panties, a new lingerie and dance product store taking the place of Sugar Shack Records, is scheduled to open Monday at 10 a.m.

Despite its upcoming debut, owners Melissa Files and her fiancée, Tim Hillers, said the store’s partially assembled furniture and semi-tarnished walls indicate the store is a work in progress.

“[The walls will] be pink, of course,” Files said.

A silver and crystal chandelier sits in a dusty box awaiting arrangement as the centerpiece, and will hang from the store’s reflective tin roof.

21-year-old Files has come a long way since she became determined to relocate her business from her native Rockford, Ill. to Wisconsin’s state capital. Her novice attempt at breaking through in Madison’s largest commercial district came after years of selling dance apparel to various Rockford dance studios.

Pink Panties will be State Street’s only store exclusively selling lingerie. It will offer the American and European undergarment brands Only Hearts, Cosa Bella, Eberjey, and Arianne.

“I like the ambience of this area and its European setup,” Files said. “I believe that we will contribute to the old-style feel of State Street, as well as to [its customers’] access to lingerie.”

A stock of novelty celebrity purses, with images of Marilyn Monroe and Elvis Presley, will contribute to the store’s desired antique atmosphere.

Files stressed that the store will sell panties in a variety of colors other than pink, in addition to the bras, panties, thongs, boy shorts, and a stock of dance products.

“I found out that there were a lot of dancers in Madison that went in to Chicago every time they needed to buy cool dance stuff,” Files said. “So I brought it to them.”

Katie Bodine, a University of Wisconsin junior and member of the UW Dance Team, considers the store a great idea, in view of the lack of dance apparel providers in Madison.

“Dancers on my team usually order their equipment online from dance distributing companies,” Bodine said. “However, we had a problem a while back: we accidentally ordered the wrong type of shorts, and the dancer did not have time to reorder them before the show.”

She added that having Pink Panties at its well-situated location could eliminate future incidents from occurring.

Nearby lingerie suppliers seem to think of the new store as a welcome addition to State Street’s lingerie market.

BOP manager Ann Knutson displays a lack of concern at the possibility of losing customers to Pink Panties due to the extended line of lingerie products found on their store’s Web site.

Amy Schye, manager of Urban Outfitters, calmly concurs.

“I don’t think Pink Panties will affect our sales because we do not carry that much lingerie in the first place,” Schye said.

The assistant manager of Sedona, Kristina Kraft, is not alarmed at the prospect of diminished lingerie sales.

“We do not get many sales for lingerie anyway,” Kraft said. “It is not our primary source of income.”

In contrast, there are some who deem the opening of a lingerie store on State Street as a “waste of space.”

“We could be utilizing that space for students’ everyday necessities,” UW junior Katie Crofton said. “For example, that could have been another Walgreens, as opposed to an overly luxurious place of high priced articles.”

The store’s only current employees are Files and her fiancée. Files plans on hiring additional personnel after a few weeks of working time.

“I would like to try out the business flow first, and then set my hours,” Files said.