The Skinny On Civvies

The dress forms outside of Civvies, a vintage clothing boutique at 845 Chapel St., change almost daily. In this respect, Civvies is not unlike the block it sits on between Orange and Church, where storefronts can turn over frequently.

But Alyssa Breeden, 28, the main shop clerk at Civvies, has reason to believe that Civvies will thrive — just like EBM Vintage New Haven (formerly English Building Markets) its sister store two doors down.

“Every day we get more traffic,” said Breeden, dressed the other day in a black Ramones T‑shirt and blue jeans (“from Malaysia,” she said) and sported tortoiseshell glasses frames. ​“People are slowly starting to hear about us more. I’ve started to see some of the people come in with their friends.”

Civvies opened a little under a month ago, joining EBM and Fashionista, a popular and long-running shop on Whitney, in the vintage market. On Sunday, Civvies’ grand opening, a steady stream of customers milled about, drinking champagne and perusing the items on sale.

“This is fun!” one shopper exclaimed. ​“There are so many whimsical things here.”

The clothes at Civvies are organized by color rather than by size — dresses mainly, but a small (and growing, Breeden assures me) men’s section boasts sports coats, blazers, hats, and ties. The color-coded organization is for ease of use and also for netting customers who might feel intimidated or discouraged by size demarcations.

“I can almost promise that every person who comes in here will find something they like,” Breeden said.

Besides its eclecticism, Civvies checks off the usual boxes of vintage stores — quirkiness and color. The store hews closely to the aesthetic of EBM Vintage, which Carol Orr, 57, founded in 2008 before establishing Civvies this year. The robin’s‑egg blue walls and white ceiling set Civvies apart from EBM with its exposed beams, while little touches like vintage mirrors and sofas link it to its neighbor.

Civvies has the same cheeky humor as the English Building Market, too. In the men’s section, a manikin wears a preppy wool overcoat and Yale cap, but he has no drawers on. ​“Business casual we’ll call him,” said Breeden. (“Give him a little loincloth!” Orr shouted as she passed through the store.) 

Dark hardwood floors and sofas strewn with vintage fashion magazines give Civvies the air of an old-time boutique. Breeden, who trained as a costume designer and has worked retail at Saks Fifth Avenue, routinely takes a lint roller to the clothes on sale and makes the rounds to straighten disarranged hangers.

In the back, gold curtains separate the store from the repair room, which has a more utilitarian setup. Racks of clothes that need mending — often missing buttons or needing hems put in — await Breeden.

There are even two racks of bridal clothing and Edwardian mourning-wear, shown upon inquiry. Breeden pulled some widow’s weeds off the rack. The silk of one elaborate, ruffled vest was as soft as butter.

Once clothes have been repaired, Breeden said, she stays on the lookout for tears and loose threads. Vintage clothing, because it is structured and old, can often fall prey to careless try-ons in the dressing rooms.

“When people try on the handmade things I go in after them,” Breeden said. ​“One loose thread, the whole bottom rips off.”

The vintage clothes that Civvies sells used to be sequestered in the back of EBM Vintage. This year, when Nim’s Jewelry left 845 Chapel St., Orr said she saw an opportunity.

“I could rent that space,” Orr said. ​“The more I thought about it, the more excited I got. It’s a great building, great bones and great vibes.”

Orr said she was keen on reclaiming the space, which is owned by the Institute Library — a membership library housed on the upper floors at 847 Chapel St., to its immediate left — instead of losing it to a cell phone store or another transient business.

Civvies’ neighbors include PCX Apparel, Evolution Tattoo, Beauty Plus and Home City. The Dollar Tree across the street on the corner of Chapel and Church opened in 2014 amid controversy, after New Haven had failed to land an upscale retailer for the 9,000-square foot space. A parking lot between the Dollar Tree (852 Chapel St.) and the Foot Locker (832 Chapel St.), as well as a vacant lot on Orange and Chapel where a building burned down in August 2015 four years after the city sought to have it demolished, have also posed challenges for the block. But Orr said she hopes to make it a more elegant avenue for shopping.

“We’re taking this block to make it work,” she said. ​“I’ve already got my window washers doing other people’s windows.”

“It’s a schlog,” Carol Orr said — a Yiddish bastardization of ​“slog” that somehow captures the love and elbow grease that have gone into the project.

Though she’s used to it. EBM Vintage itself was a gamble.

Orr, a landscape architect by trade, and her husband, architect Robert Orr, 70, bought the EBM building at 839 Chapel in 2003. They gutted and renovated the place but soon, she said, they were at a loss — what would they do with such an enormous space?

When the housing market crashed in 2008, Orr said the two found themselves in a bind. Work was slow and loans on the building needed to be paid off.

“I cleaned out my basement and I opened the English Building Market,” Orr said. Soon she was trawling through kitchen drawers at estate sales in the area to find goodies that could go for sale at the shop. Estate sales now supply the bulk of EBM’s inventory.

The space has worn and continues to wear many hats. The New Haven Theater Company uses the back as a black box theater. Orr used to have informal tag sales in the shop before it became what it is today.

But the space itself has always posed a challenge. It is cavernous and narrow, due to a firewall and stairwell that obtrude upon the middle of the store. Clothes used to be located in the back of the store but many customers never made it back there. Makeshift dressing rooms gave the whole section an ad hoc air.

By opening Civvies, Orr said she hopes the clothes will have the breathing room they need. A comment from a shopper on Sunday suggests she has succeeded.

“They were cramped and it was hard to get to try things,” said Deborah Pullen sympathetically. Pullen has been shopping at EBM for years, and had come to Civvies on Sunday with daughter Dominique Moody to browse. ​“My daughter has received some goodies from there,” Pullen said.

“The hats are what piqued my interest” at Civvies, Moody said, but soon she and her mother were exploring the store’s entire stock.

“I’m 65, so it always gives me flashbacks,” Pullen said of the clothes, from the tailoring to the colors and patterns of the fabric. ​“I’m transported to another time.”

Though the hunting was part of the fun, too — looking for something ​“unique,” Pullen said.

“It’s the needle in the haystack,” Moody said. ​“When you find that original piece that you won’t see on anyone else anywhere, there’s some pride to be had in that.”

Brian Slattery contributed reporting.