Stylish Person

1980: Starting out, I had a small store, some good friends (that's Janie holding Cltloe), and a very big dream.

I am a working woman who has spent the past thirty years building a business ‘ and an identity in a store that started out the size of a closet. I’m a big believer i transformation—after all, that is how La Petite Coquette was born in the first place.

I opened my own business because my husband at the time lent me some money to get me out of his hair. Little do my customers know that the original space, which is just across the street from my current location, was once a kosher barbecue chicken joint, where the owner killed fresh chickens and roasted them on a grill right in the window. (Everyone said it was the best chicken they’d ever eaten.) The place was filthy when I moved in—the grease and sawdust covering the floor were the least of the mess. Well, I got in there and turned it into one of the hottest lingerie destinations in New York City, stuffing more merchandise than you can believe into those 160 square feet. It’s hard to imagine that my tiny jewelry box of a store was hatched from such squalor! From roasting chickens to hot chicks? Anything is possible.

Everybody has something special in herself, even if she doesn’t recognize it at first. I apply this same logic to lingerie. If you feel like you’ve got nothing going on, a little silk will create a whole new scenario in your mind. If a woman feels embarrassed about her body, she needs only to learn the things that will look best on her and she will shine. Or if she feels like her relationship is a little dull, I encourage her to open up and try something different. If you don’t ask for what you want, and then make some effort to pursue it, you’ll never be happy.