Andover’s Chic Consignment Closet: Not your grandma’s thrift store. By Alyssa Giacobbe. Photographs by Brianna Moore.
During a late-winter road trip down south, Lisa Nardone, owner of Andover clothing boutique Gigi’s, was doing her usual “comparison shopping” when she noticed the area’s many consignment boutiques were bustling. Back home, Nardone’s retail business, like most others in the area, had been experiencing a visible shift: shoppers were more hesitant to buy, and some weren’t coming in at all. Says Nardone, an Andover native, “When I saw how busy the consignment shops were, it was like, duh.”
In the spring, she launched a consignment “closet” in the back of Gigi’s to an overwhelming response; in June, the closet was given its own storefront a few doors down. Tiny but well-arranged, Nardone’s Chic Consignment Closet deals in designer and upscale clothing, shoes, and accessories no more than a few years old-a recent trip saw a silk and tulle Diane von Furstenburg skirt for $60, a Jimmy Choo tote for $600, and racks upon racks of designer denim starting at $50. Recession or not, Nardone says the store’s already a smash hit.
“We’re all women, we love to shop, we love new items, but we just don’t have that income anymore,” she says.
Consigners, meanwhile, earn 40 percent of their items’ sale. “It’s a win-win for everybody.” Chic Consignment Closet, 46 Main St., Andover, 978-474-1755, www.chicconsignmentcloset.com.
A Fine Vintage, Izzy’s Reborn debuts
Economic downturn is the mother of reinvention at Andover boutique Izzy’s Emporium, where owner Leigh Heffron, a former fashion stylist and self-described amateur historian, has launched a line of reworked vintage, called Izzy’s Reborn. Created with store creative director Giovanni Capato, vintage coats and blazers are “reborn” with new linings, modern tailoring, vintage buttons, and other retro embellishments. Like everything in Izzy’s, prices remain affordable-a reworked plaid blazer from the 1970s might sell for around $200, a relative steal in the world of vintage-and 10 percent of proceeds from Izzy’s Reborn will go to charity. “The hardest part for me might actually be letting go,” jokes Heffron, wistfully modeling a cherry-red blazer that was custom fitted for her, but available for sale. This is a recession, after all. Izzy’s Emporium, 21 Barnard St., Andover, 978-475-0194, izzys-emporium.com.