After nearly four decades in Manhattan the famed vintage clothing store Chic Jack”™s New York City Vintage, known for outfitting entertainment productions from Broadway stages to Hollywood sets, recently relocated to downtown Stamford.
With such a well-established reputation, loyal clientele and a bustling storefront in one of the most popular cities on the planet, what happened?
“The Manhattan real estate boom is what happened,” said Mona Markus, co-owner of Chic Jack”™s. “Sixty-thousand dollars a month is a very large nut to crack. Forty years ago the rents were a pittance compared to what they are now. Manhattan is becoming a place of nothing but big box stores.”
In addition to skyrocketing rents, Markus said Chic Jack”™s was hit especially hard hit during the 2008 recession. While the store was able to “muddle” through the downturn, the final straw came with emergency renovations at their 5th Avenue and 31st Street location that hid the storefront behind a blockade of scaffolding and temporary construction offices.
“We came in one morning and we were completely surrounded not only by scaffolding, but on 31st Street side there was a construction shed completely blocking us in,” Markus said. “It was over at that point.”
Prior to the 5th Avenue debacle the store built its book of business at a location in Union Square for more than 25 years, pulling in an array of clients from throughout the entertainment industry.
“I have had a part in practically every Broadway show there is,” she said. “You name a movie we probably had something to do with it,” she said.
Chic Jack”™s collection of vintage clothing spanning from the 1800s to the late 1990s has been worn in productions including “Jersey Boys” on Broadway, “Saturday Night Live” and “Mad Men” on TV, and movies like “The Curious Case of Benjamin Button”  and “Wolf”, according to Markus.
But the move to Stamford has seen much, if not all of this business drop off, she said.
Along with her partner in business and in life, husband Jack Markus, the pair are trying to reestablish their fashion prowess in Stamford after being lured by the city”™s mix of demographics and growing popularity as a New York City satellite.
After searching for a suitable location in New Jersey as well as New York’s Westchester County, Markus said she decided on Stamford as it has the right mix of elements to provide a “fashion forward” customer base that values quality clothing.
“I found out that Stamford is a little bit of an international city, about millennials doing the reverse commute and its foot traffic,” she said.
Markus admits Chic Jack”™s has hit headwinds in Stamford with business being slow to gain momentum since the store officially opened its door on Bedford Street on May 23.
“Even in the city when you move a business, no matter how well known you are ”” and we were known all over the world ”” it still takes a year for people to find you no matter how much advertising you do,” she said. “It takes time. We do have to educate the consumer on the advantages of shopping with us opposed to something like H&M. It is really costing them far more money because they have to keep replacing the stuff.”
Business has dropped from rough estimates of up to 200 customers per day during the week to upwards of 450 per day on the weekends, she said.
Business in Stamford is a fraction of that, but to make a comparison would be apples-to-oranges, she said.
“It is a different business model,” she said.
Also serving as the store”™s in-house historian, Markus has observed the garment industry transform over the last several decades as the quality of clothing deteriorated with the rise of off-shore manufacturing in the 1980s.
“Designers decided they needed more profit than they already had and sent everything to China and Pakistan,” she said. “You cannot get the quality of the fabrics anymore. I don”™t care who the designer is, the quality, the workmanship don”™t exist anymore.”
Markus prides herself on her hand-picked collection of clothing, some revived by her master restorer husband, and her personal commitment to customers.
“I did this in the city and I will forever do this ”” I will never sell a garment to a woman just for the sake of selling it,” she said. “If it doesn”™t do her justice I will tell her it doesn”™t do her justice and I will tell her we can do better.”
Markus said so far she has been selling items mostly to women, although she does offer menswear. A broad range of customers ranging from 16 to 80 years old has come in.
As she has in the past, she is relying on word of mouth, as well as the increasingly rare quality of clothing and personalized shopping experience to bring people into her store. The vastly different market has led her to also add social media outreach.
“Business in the suburbs is very different,” she said. “If they are concerned about the environment, if they are concerned about quality and if they are concerned about their own personal economy then they absolutely should shop at Chic Jacks.”
Welcome to Stamford. The store address, website, and phone number would be very helpful to potential new customers, but they’re not in your article