A clothing business that has been a staple of the Hunterdon fashion community for 40 years will close its doors come the New Year -- but not all of them.
Addicted Jeans Store & Mary’s in Clinton will be closing its Main Street location on Dec. 31, at which point the store will consolidate with Addicted Chic, located at 100 Reaville Avenue in The Shoppes of Flemington.
The Addicted boutiques are owned by mother-daughter duo Mary Kayler and Annie Rossi, the latter of whom said that the closing of Addicted Jeans Store & Mary’s, located at 43 Main Street, was largely driven by non-clothing businesses replacing clothing retailers that had once been in the Clinton area.
“When a woman is going to get fro-yo, she’s going to get fro-yo. And if she’s going to get coffee across the street, she’s going to get coffee across the street. She’s not shopping for clothes," Rossi explained.
Rossi nonetheless described the closing as “natural” in expressing her excitement to fully commit to the Flemington location, which is shoulder-to-shoulder with prominent names in the clothing industry including Talbots, Loft, J. Jill and HomeGoods.
“(Clinton and I) just grew apart as a town and a business," Rossi said. "Clinton is still an awesome town with so much to offer, and bustling and full of people, but it’s not a place that women go to shop for clothes anymore.”
Courtesy
Exterior of Addicted Jeans Store & Mary’s in Clinton
In addition to an expansive selection of shoes and accessories, brands sold at Addicted Jeans Store & Mary’s and Addicted Chic include Joseph Ribkoff, Frank Lyman, Free People, Citizens of Humanity.
The Addicted boutiques cater to a customer base of 35 to ageless, according to Rossi. Kayler described the clothing and accessories as highly business- and event-oriented, largely catering to women in the workplace and/or frequent travelers.
While Rossi said that the stores have played a role in “helping women to understand and to define exactly what business casual is,” the concept of business casual clothing initially challenged rather than reinforced the business’s viability.
After Rossi began working as a fashion stylist at Kayler’s then-boutique, Added Touches by Mary, LLC., an evolution in fashion jeopardized the store.
“She came and joined me, and took the bull by the horns, and said, ‘What are we going to do here? Because women aren’t dressing up to go to work anymore. They don’t need suits,'” Kayler said.
“Around the year 2000, at the end of the season ... we looked around the store and were like, ‘Oh my gosh, we have so much suiting left,’" Rossi added. “And that was our real wake-up call that fashion was changing for the businesswomen who were indeed able to start wearing business casual.”
Rossi and Kayler were obligated to redefine Added Touches by Mary, LLC., which had been shaped by the “strict dress code” followed by women in the workplace throughout the latter half of the 20th century, according to Kayler.
“Fashion was very different back in those days. Women had to wear suits, women had to wear pantyhose, they wore silk blouses and scarves and jackets and high heels,” Kayler explained.
Rossi said that the business significantly evolved after beginning to sell the Joseph Ribkoff brand, the top line in the store that “changed everything” for the Addicted boutiques.
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Annie Rossi (left) and Mary Kayler (right) in Addicted Jeans Store & Mary’s
“It’s geared towards women, but it’s still sensual enough. It clings enough in the right spots, it feels great against a woman’s skin, it dresses her professionally, but she still feels like a woman," Rossi said.
Kayler and Rossi became partners in 2005 after they developed Added Touches by Mary, LLC into Addicted Jeans Store & Mary’s, expanding the one-floor boutique into four floors with a winding staircase and brick walls.
“Annie and I talked about it, and she had the dream. And between the two of us, we investigated the building,” Kayler said. "The (Clinton location) actually had a tin ceiling on the first floor. We took the dropped ceiling with fluorescent lights down, and discovered that the ceiling went up between 12 and 15 feet, and there was a tin ceiling in there. We repaired it, we painted it, and it’s a beautiful gold ceiling now.”
Rossi added that the timing of the major renovation was “perfect" in that it coincided with the beginning of denim revolution.
“Jeans went from something that you worked in the backyard in, to something that became a fashion statement. They were made with premium fabric and the fit was really worked on. And when a woman put on a pair of these jeans, it was like getting into a Mercedes,” Rossi said.
As a result of their success, the mother-daughter duo opened Addicted Chic in 2015, which will become the business’s sole location at the ring of the New Year.
Courtesy
Interior of Addicted Chic in Flemington
Kayler described the consolidation of the stores as “a very emotional decision” that her and Rossi made together.
“After being in one location for 40 years, it was more my home than my home. And Annie felt the same way," Kayler said. “When we announced we were going to close the store, I had people come in and actually say, ‘No, no, you can’t do this. Why are you closing? I love this store. I don’t want you to close.’ We’ve cried over it together because it has been such an important part of my life and a little part of everybody else’s too."
Echoing Kayler, Rossi said it was “really heartening” to realize how beloved the store had become in the Clinton community. Nonetheless, she expressed her belief that the business would be “more focused” after becoming limited to the Flemington location.
“Sometimes the former needs to pass away to let the new spring forth and be even stronger. So I do feel we’re going to be even better and stronger and be able to serve our community, and the beautiful women of Hunterdon County, even better,” Rossi said.
All current employees of Addicted boutiques will remain on the staff following the stores’ consolidation, Rossi confirmed.
In light of its closing, Addicted Jeans Store & Mary’s is currently offering a sale of 25 to 70 percent off select items until the end of the month.
“We have a huge sale going on right now in Clinton that’s running strong. There’s still lots of bargains to grab," Rossi said.
Caroline Fassett can be reached at cfassett@njadvancemedia.com.
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