Business has been steady and then some, especially amid Halloween season trappings, for downtown costume shop Ensemble since it opened in August.
Caren “Ooollee” Brickner sold her boutique Vintage Ooollee, a Broad Street staple, to mentee Jessica Netzler over the summer.
Patronage started steady for Netzler, most of it consisting of clothing alterations. Her transition from a role managing a bridal tailoring business streamlined the changeover for the shop, as well.
“Ooollee retired over the summer, and while she was cleaning out the space and selling her inventory, I left my job and continued doing alterations,” Netzler explained. “So that kind of got me going… I just carried over my clientele.”
Ensemble doesn’t sell vintage clothing, as Ooollee’s did; it does, however, offer alterations to the public, along with pre and online booking.
Costumes, however, are still a specialty of, and a big draw to the downtown sewing shop, especially during fall. A two-man show for Fort Gordon Dinner Theater and the Walk With Spirits event at St. Paul’s Episcopal Church kept Ensemble busy through last week, alongside demand for Halloween.
“The alterations part of the business is a steady flow, whereas the costumes are very seasonal, so I think it’s a good balance,” Netzler said.
Customers have responded well to the store’s changing of the guard — “Respectfully,” she said, “because they know and love Ooollee.” Many of the costumes Ooolleee had in its inventory were made by Netzler, working under Brickner.
“I think they liked that it sort of ‘stayed in the family.’ Everybody’s been very friendly and supportive,” said Netzler. “They’re excited and they like seeing the physical change, because this space looks so different than it did before.”
Netzler grew up sewing, she says, nurtured in the skill at her mother’s sewing machine. A matching interest in fashion and its history developed into altering and repurposing thrift store and vintage clothes, making mistakes and masterpieces. In a sense, especially after working for Brickner, that she would take up the mantle of running the boutique seemed like the most likely trajectory.
“I’m always just like, ‘This is crazy that this is my business,’” she said. “But really it’s exciting… It’s a full circle moment.”
Ensemble Sewing & Costumes is located at 1125 Broad St., the former location of Vintage Oollee. For more information, visit its website at https://ensemblesewing.com/.
Skyler Q. Andrews is a staff reporter for The Augusta Press. Reach him at skyler@theaugustapress.com.
