A corner shop with class
By
The pavement outside Heimie’s Haberdashery is a dichotomy of neatly arranged, aged brick pavers fused with recent slabs of imposing bland concrete. In a world of e-mail, hybrid technology and multi-tasking, Heimie’s itself is a dichotomy – a throwback to the era of leisure, attention to detail and time to kill.
A traditional masculine definition permeates Heimie’s interior. Mounted animal heads and stuffed ducks pose along walls. A sizable sailfish scrutinizes racks of suit jackets. Clocks – wall clocks, clocks built into statues, clocks as standing lamps – pop up among mannequin halves and empty chairs. A humidor crammed with cigars and pipe tobacco faces the glass storefront. Mirrors hold positions all around the store, tossing reflections of ornate scenery back and forth like shuttlecocks.
And everywhere, the hats. Fedoras, homburgs, bowlers, porkpies, top hats, telescope hats. Straw hats, wool hats, fur felt hats.
Hats, predictably, are a strong seller. Considering the paucity of contemporary haberdashers, Heimie’s “could be considered as having a captive audience,” deadpanned Duncan Holmstrom, Heimie’s manager. “You can count the major hat sellers on one hand, and that is nationwide.”
Salesmen march past pairs of glittering cufflinks that share display case space with an assortment of flint lighters, cigar-cutters, billfolds and flasks of assorted shapes and sizes. In another case, neatly folded neckties run a spectrum of hues beneath a display of splayed handkerchiefs in solid, checkered and polka-dotted varietals.
While off-the-rack goods like suits, shirts and shoes are more modestly priced, Heimie’s caters to more expensive tastes with tailoring and custom-made clothing. “You can spend all the money that Solomon can get out of the mines,” remarked one salesman, referring to Heimie’s tailored suits.
“Fine men’s clothing is a very seasonal thing,” explained Holmstrom, perfectly at home in both his work and his sleek gray three-piece suit. Winter is about heavier wools and flannel, Holmstrom said, while summer involves “more pastels, more bright colors,” lighter cottons and mohair (a yarn made of the hair of an Angora goat). In anticipation of summer an entire wall presented straw fedoras and homburgs.
While traditional downtown department stores – like Macys, just around the corner – have slowly declined through the years, Heimie’s attention to detail and customer service testify to its well-being. At 1 p.m. on a Monday, customers whisk in and out with sold items and bills of sale. One man sits for a haircut at the barbershop adjoining the sales floor.
Anthony Andler founded Heimie’s in 1921 on West Seventh Street. Through the years the shop has been situated at Roberts Street and two locations on Saint Peter Street, moving into its current – and largest – location in July 2007.