From the Star today:
Accessity accessories boutique is closing shop at 136 Cumberland St. after 32 years.
“Whoopi bought 16 hats one year,” recalls owner Oriella Stillo.
Celebrities from Halle Berry to Carol Burnett shopped at Accessity for yummy costume jewellery, Italian gloves and scarves, hosiery, statement belts and bits and pieces of clothing.
Shania Twain bought Avindy, a jewellery line featuring semi-precious stones. Keanu Reeves bought gifts for his mother and sister.
“Who didn’t shop here?” asks Stillo. “Marcello Mastroianni did. So did everyone from Heather Locklear to Jennifer Love Hewitt, who came in every second day when she was here shooting.” Barbara Amiel Black buys all of her tights at the shop, she adds.
The deal breaker was renewing the lease. Stillo would be locked in for another decade.
“He is a wonderful landlord. It has nothing to do with him,” Stillo says. “I asked myself if I still wanted to do this for another 10 years.”
The retail landscape has changed enormously over three decades, says Stillo. “This area 30 years ago was made up of independent stores. The chains came in and took over Bloor St.”
The shuttering of small, independent retailers like Accessity is bad news for the young Canadian designers Stillo nurtured. Her shop was the first to carry Toronto jewellery designer Rita D, for example.
“Who else is going to mentor the young talent?,” she demands. “The face of retail these days is really, really high end or really, really low end. Target is coming; Marshalls is here. The indie retailers are disappearing. ” .
And chain stores don’t offer the same the personalized service either, says Stillo.
“I will talk to people, make them an espresso. I remember what they bought and tell them, ‘No, you don’t need that.’ That kind of service is gone.”
Regular client Janice Kussner, chic in red coat and a Christopher Kon handbag she purchased at Accessity, has been shopping there since 1986.
“Accessity is an outstanding retailer and merchandiser,” she says. “You come here and it feels like home – I’ve come in just to say hello. I never felt any pressure to buy. ”
Stillo is mulling over her future. “I’ll do something; I can’t sit still. I’ll take the summer off for the first time in my life. I have been working since I was 15.”
Stillo stresses she is not bankrupt. “I operated with integrity and I am closing with integrity. All suppliers will be paid. I have a clean slate and a good reputation. If I decide to do something again, it will be an asset.”
Acccessity is having a going-out-of-business sale with items reduced from 30 to 70 per cent off.
“I have the lease until April,” Stillo says. “If I sell out earlier, I will leave earlier. The landlord is so accommodating.”
But over at UPC, the edgy, New-York-meets-Queen-West boutique at 128 ½ Cumberland St. – closing at the end of January – the landlord isn’t so compliant.
“It is the end of the lease,” explains co-owner Maha Zeibak, who opened five years ago with partner Anat Lowe. “We signed the lease when the economy was at its height. Eight months later, the recession hit and the landlord wouldn’t budge to reflect the times.”
Canadian lines like Chloe Comme Parris, Travis Taddeo, Paris Li and Heidi Ackerman will have to find another home.
UPC is on sale at 30 per cent off, with 50 off starting Boxing Day.
“The experience has been incredible,” Zeibak says. “We are both leaving feeling good about what we have accomplished. We will be back. We will do something in Toronto – something exciting, different and creative.”