Vintage
A North Shore discount store launches a fashionable side project
As a young fashion stylist in 1990s Manhattan, North Andover native Leigh Heffron would buy $10 vintage coats from a tiny shop in Greenwich Village and spend hours reworking them on the floor of her apartment. In a parallel universe, Giovanni Capato, an Italian-born veterinary student in Brazil, was working nights dressing Brazilian musicians and politicians. When the two came together just a few years ago at Andover discount clothing boutique Izzy’s Emporium, it was nothing less than a very stylish twist of fate.
Heffron returned home in 2004 to take over and redesign family business Izzy’s, a discount store started by her great uncle Isadore. Under Heffron, 35, Izzy’s has become the North Shore’s go-to for off-price designer denim; their more than 60 brands include Hudson, Paige Premium Denim, True Religion, and Les Halles.
Capato, meanwhile, moved to Boston and embarked on various careers, including modeling and costume design. For a while, he owned South End tailor and dressmaking shop Giovanni’s Atelier, which he ran until he was hired as Izzy’s store manager in 2007.
As a discount business, Heffron says, Izzy’s has been somewhat recession-proof, occupying a new 1,400-square-foot space in downtown Andover that’s twice the size of its original location. Still, she was seeking a way to reenergize the boutique, and her own creativity. Together, she and Capato, 36, dreamed up a line of one-of-a-kind reworked vintage outwear, called Izzy Reborn.
“From the minute we started working together, Gio and I realized we both had a passion for costume design and antiquing and history,’’ says Heffron. Coats and blazers from the 1920s to 1980s are “reborn’’ with new linings, modern tailoring, vintage buttons, and other retro embellishments, like upturned collars, removable vintage brooches, and fur accents. Jin Hu, a part-time tailor for Barneys New York who got his start sewing at Giovanni’s Atelier, executes all tailoring in the Izzy’s basement.
“The amazing thing about vintage is that there’s so much out there,’’ says Heffron, “and it can be anywhere from the ridiculous to the sublime.’’ The duo spends most Sundays trolling flea markets and vintage fairs throughout New England for inventory. A favorite is Todd’s Farm in Rowley. Capato, meanwhile, recently returned home from a trip to Europe with suitcases full of thousands of vintage buttons, to the delight of US Customs.
Like everything in Izzy’s, the Izzy Reborn line remains affordable: A refurbished plaid blazer from the 1970s might sell for around $175, not unreasonable considering each piece can take up to 10 hours to complete.
They’ll take special orders, too. A camel-colored, calf-length, ’60s-era wool coat (full disclosure: it belongs to this reporter) was, in its previous life, four sizes too large, shapeless, and destined to a life in the back of the closet. Even attempts to unload it via eBay were unsuccessful. Reborn, it’s a knee-length A-line jacket with vintage black glass buttons, leopard-print lining, rabbit fur cuffs, and a very promising future.
Izzy’s Emporium , 21 Barnard St., Andover, 978-475-0194, www.izzys-emporium.com
