Top Drawer Lingerie, which has been in business in East Hampton Village for 29 years, will close by the end of March, its owner, Margarette Doyle, announced.
“I just felt that this was a good time to make a change,” Ms. Doyle said this week. Her lease on the Park Place retail space is up at the end of March, and rather than sign on for another five years, she decided to begin a new chapter. “I wasn’t pushed out,” she said.
The decision to close, however, is not without mixed emotions.
“I’ve always been very, very lucky with my clientele,” she said. Since hearing about the closing “a lot of people have been coming in to say goodbye and reminisce.” It has been a week of “tears and laughter,” and she expects more of both as she winds down the business.
Ms. Doyle began working at Top Drawer in 1995, when it was located near the Circle. In 2001 she bought the business from Lucille Kelman. It was moved to its current location that same year.
To many women, Top Drawer is one of the village’s most essential shops, where a certified bra fitter — yes, that’s a thing, and Ms. Doyle is one — can be trusted to help them find exactly what they need. “It’s a very private type of retail,” she said, and customers sometimes “feel very vulnerable.” Her job is “to make sure that they feel comfortable.” She and her longtime employee, Katie Slowey-Nilson, who has already moved on, were much loved for doing just that.
“It’s a great feeling when you have a customer that needs your help and they walk out and they’re so happy with the way they look,” Ms. Doyle said.
Many younger people are more accustomed to shopping online. “It’s a generational thing.” The internet’s biggest impact on her business has been on repeat customers. People may come in to be fit for a bra the first time, but once they know their size, they buy the next ones from online retailers. Still, “a lot of my customers don’t shop online; they only shop with me,” Ms. Doyle said. “I have a huge customer base.”
As Ms. Doyle clears out her stock, everything in the store is now 20 to 70 percent off. She will still do select special orders when possible through mid-February.
After nearly three decades in retail, she is ready for something different, she said. “What I’ll miss most will be the wonderful customers.”