Saratoga Trunk - News Article




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From Supplement to the
Schenectady Sunday Gazette
July 23, 2000

Saratoga Trunk loaded with fashion treasures

By GAIL SHUFELT
Gazette Special Sections

SARATOGA SPRINGS — Natalie Sillery grew up wearing hats.

She remembers picking out one of her very first, at the former Whitney's in Albany. It was "yellow and I had to have it," so her mom got it for her. Sillery was 5.

From then on, it seemed, the Rensselaer native always wore a hat, right through high school and college.

Then, like so many other women, she got away from hats. But not from her love of high fashion, nor the enjoyment of dressing in chic, quality finery.

Five years ago, with only her own personal sense of style and with no experience whatsoever in retail sales, Sillery opened Saratoga Trunk.

Photo by Heather L. Rohan, Gazette Photographer

Natalie Sillery, owner of Saratoga Trunk, leans into a mirror while modeling one of the hats her Broadway shop is so well known for.

It's an apparel shop at 493 Broadway with a reputation that far exceeds its five-year history. Just about everything (except shoes and lingerie) that any woman might want or need is available. Clients range in age from 13 to 90, and in size from 0 to 24.

Here they can all find something for a day at the office, a morning at church, an afternoon at the track, an important dinner date, a casual holiday party, a summer gala or a formal wedding reception. In other words, Natalie Sillery, who was educated at Albany's Mercy High School and Boston College, offers clothes for every woman and almost every occasion.

Today, there are even ties, golf and Hawaiian shirts for men. Such a gift for hubby sometimes helps absolve a guilt pang or two for customers, she quipped, after they've bought an expensive hat.

But Saratoga Trunk prices are not prohibitive. While it's true that not everyone could — or would want to — spend $750 for one gown, there are few who wouldn't splurge on one of Michael Simon's playful sweaters, especially when in a whimsical mood. These usually range between $60 and $200. Even some of Eric Javits' hats, starting at $100 and then going on up to $700 and $800, are affordable.

Hats are among Sillery's biggest sellers, especially in August. One year, she was completely sold out by the annual Hats Off to Saratoga celebration.

Early this year, Saratoga Trunk was selected by USA Today as one of the 10 best places in the country to buy a hat fit for a parade.

Not only are there the traditional and glamorous hats of Javits, a New Yorker who's best known for those crushable, packable hats that still look like new when unfolded, but also the chic, artistic "and sometimes outrageous" creations of Kokin.

Kokin this year has come out with a sleek, little jockey cap made of python skin in a wide range of colors from natural to pink, blue, orange and such. They sell for $165.

Sillery and her fellow Trunkettes (the women who work in the store and model at Saratoga Trunk fashion shows) do keep track of the hats sold so customers never have to worry about bumping into someone else wearing the same bonnet.

Some customer might want to go even further and embellish an existing hat or create a brand-new one. That's always possible because of Nancy Matt of the Loudonville-based Le Beau Chapeau. Matt is available to meet with Sillery or the customer herself on special orders. Then she'll create a one-of-a-kind hat that best suits the customer's mood and personality.

"We have a lot of flowers and feathers," said Sillery. In fact, one of Matt's ready-made designs, prominently displayed in the front showroom, is a basic, wide-brimmed hat in white, adorned with red ostrich feathers and silk flowers. There's another one like it, but in mauve.

Women need to try on hats, reported Sillery. The main reason, is because hats can look very different on. You can also change the entire appearance simply by changing the hat's slant or position.

"No one wears a hat with the label in the back anymore. You have to move it around. Each hat has a minimum of three phases. You have to keep moving it around until you find the look that is you, at that moment."

Most women wear hats on the back of the head. But for a more dramatic and often more attractive look, Sillery recommended they pull them forward and down, closer to the eye. And they should pull their hair back, so it isn't competing for attention.

Hats are more than a decoration, more than an accent. Any woman, she continued, can wear them, and should. Why? Because they make a statement and because they're lots of fun.

Oh, yes. She's wearing them again, at least for special occasions.

There are times, in Saratoga's whirlwind summer social season, when it almost seems hats are mandatory, as they were in the city's Victorian heyday.

Many of today's summer people — who come from New York and Miami, Lexington and Louisville, Washington and California as well as Saratoga and Schenectady — wait until they get here to find an appropriate hat, and gown.

Some may call in advance, to get a feel for what's available or to talk about something specific they may have in mind. Others will simply stop in when they arrive.

Accommodating them and providing whatever service they need, said Sillery, is a Saratoga Trunk watchword.

She and the other Trunkettes all cater to the client, telling her if the dress she may prefer isn't that flattering or appropriate and then finding something that is. When it needs altering — many off-the-rack selections do, no matter how high the quality, to fit appropriately — then arrangements for that will also be made.

Sillery, who uses and strongly recommends tailor Paul Ritmo at Rodino's in Troy, has even gone so far as to meet her clients there, extending that service watchword a bit further.

When she went into business five years ago, Sillery — with an educational background in psychology and work experience in the field of marketing — had no lifelong dreams to fulfill, no deeply entrenched plans that she'd secretly been working on for years, not even any pre-business thoughts and ideas.

Natalie Sillery simply went into business, believing she could take what she knew about dressing herself and help other women to the same — with a sense of style, a feeling of exhilaration, a joie de vivre.

There's a Victorian sofa in the front room of her shop. It sets the mood, sure, but it also serves as an invitation for clients to sit and chat awhile, as they might have done 100 years ago.

All around are the colorful dresses and gowns, hats and hat pins, jewelry and handbags, gloves and wraps, suits that here never went out of style. The end result is more than an apparel shop, more than a retail business; it's the ambiance of Saratoga.

Saratoga Trunk, which does many fashion shows for charity throughout the year and occasionally brings designers to the area for them, is open from 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. Monday through Saturday and noon to 6 each Sunday, year-round. Evening hours are extended on Thursdays, Fridays and Saturdays during the racing season.