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trunk space
Fashion retailer opens second downtown boutique
Cheryl
Caswell
Daily Mail staff
Thursday November 10, 2005
Sheff has been tempting shoppers for 10 years with his fashionable assortment at Ivor's Trunk not far away on Capitol Street. His ever-changing collection of clothes and accessories has always been an alternative to the usual mall offerings.
"People think I'm moving," said Sheff, who opened the second location quietly a few weeks ago. "I'm not. We'll have two stores."
Lisa Holley, who has worked at Schwabe's and The Dresser, will handle sales at the new Ivor's, located next to Galperin Jewelry Co. She'll also help Sheff with some of the buying and serve as a wardrobe consultant and personal shopper for those who need more guidance than a browse through the store can provide.
"If you come in here and do not see exactly what you want, I can find it for you," Holley said.
It's a customer-catering style that echoes Sheff's own. For years, he has been willing to take customer requests scribbled on notes on his buying trips to New York City.
Sheff began his career in retail sales as a street vendor selling jewelry from a table and later from space rented in the basement of a Kanawha City hair salon.
The new location will help meet the needs of a lot of his customers who say they can't find larger sizes.
"We will have a concentration of 14s, 16s, 18s and some larger," said Sheff. "The customers are telling us they want this, and the manufacturers are telling us. A lot of stores don't want that customer, but we do."
The store carry some clothing lines not usually found in department stores or chain stores -- Sweater Sweater, Cyrus, Berak, Design Options, Windridge, L.A. Blend and Susan Bristol, among others.
"I'm in New York every six weeks," Sheff said. "And our clothes are also coming from Las Vegas, Atlanta and Dallas."
The store will also feature a changing exhibition of artwork, primarily by local artists, and it will be for sale. Currently, Sheff is displaying paintings by Emily Roles and Karin Riccardi.
"We'd like to jump in on the art walks in Charleston," Holley said.
When the location next to Galperin became available, Sheff first looked at it as a temporary overflow during the holidays when his Capitol Street store is bursting at the seams.
"But once we got in here and saw the building, we thought we would really try to do something different," he said. "This is a great space.
"I came from Kanawha City to Capitol Street 10 years ago because (landlord) Brawley Tracey thought I could do well there," said Sheff. "I paid him a very low rent to test the waters, and people were buying things out of the boxes before we could even unpack them.
"That's what jump-started me in retail," Sheff said. "Now, the same scenario has happened here before we've even advertised or had a grand opening."
Ivor's is open 11 a.m. to 5:30 p.m. Tuesday through Friday, 11 a.m. to 3 p.m. Saturday and Monday by appointment.
Contact writer Cheryl Caswell at 348-4832
Charleston Daily Mail
Charleston, West Virginia