When you live on the Hill, things can look a bit monotonous when some of the closest closet options are orange apparel shops and J Michael Shoes.

Life calls for more than ‘Go Orange’ T-Shirts and designer jeans. There’s the business casual outfit for the meeting with a potential employer, the attractive-but-fun outfit for a first date or a dress for the next greek life formal. If students push their scopes outside of the box, they might find their next favorite outfit for every occasion.

The internship interview ensemble

Frankie & Faye, 317 Franklin St.

Frankie & Faye is a small boutique on the outskirts of Armory Square. With its bright pink insignia on the window, it’s almost impossible to miss. It’s a very clean, if not slightly cramped, store with hardwood floors and pop music pumping through the speakers.

The store offers styles that one would find at a department store’s business casual section, but there is one glaring difference: quality. With chain retailers, quality can sometimes be lost for quantity and demand. Betty Jacobs, the store’s manager and buyer, travels to New York City during Fashion Week to check out pieces from her favorite designers, which include Last Tango and Ya. She then has pieces shipped to the store and determines a reasonable price for customers.

The store carries business casual clothing and going-out items, mostly in neutral colors. Jacobs said the most popular items are the purses and handbags (usually priced around $50 and made with actual leather) and Last Tango’s wide-leg pants. With prices of most pieces averaging $50 to $60, Jacobs said a shopper can find anything he or she needs in her store.

‘They’ll spend two hours at the mall and not find anything,’ she said. ‘But then they’ll come here and find something in 15 minutes. We try to have a fun atmosphere that people will enjoy being in.’

Stick with window shopping

Jet Black, 129 Walton St.

Upon opening the double doors of Jet Black, one feels the sophistication come off the shiny hardwood floors and minimalist decorations. More casual wear is on a lower level, along with the sales racks. The upper level includes jackets and dresses. Jet Black’s simple black dresses are finely made and perfect for a wedding, but the high prices can be a huge turn-off.

Jet Black carries a lot of designer names, such as Elizabeth and James and Diane von Furstenberg. Though the clothes are striking and beautifully made, they also carry huge price tags. The prices don’t seem realistic for college students who live off Chinese food and cereal. It might just be better to go to a department store instead of splurging hard for a $490 multi-colored Furstenberg cocktail dress. Even a basic black T-shirt costs $50. (It’s designer, of course, but still.)

Vintage with a modern twist

The Edge, 325 S. Clinton St.

For a place that started out as a menswear boutique, The Edge has seen its share of changes. The store has been a staple in Syracuse for about 20 years but has changed locations several times. Just a few months ago, the boutique moved to make room for the new Urban Outfitters at its old location on 221 Walton St. Before that, it was closer to Landmark Theatre on South Salina Street.

Greeted with a plate of cinnamon candies and mints, one walks into a room completely wallpapered (literally) with pages of The Post-Standard. The racks are full of modernized vintage looks, complete with 1950s A-line skirts and ‘Jackie O styles,’ said Leslie Kalil, a sales associate at the store.

There is no particular client the store is trying to pin down, Kalil said. They serve people of all ages, from teenagers to college students to women in their 60s. She said this is because owner James Horan doesn’t look at what is necessarily the trend of the time but at what will appeal to his customers.

‘Sometimes he’ll sit in Times Square and see what people will be wearing to work,’ Kalil said.

But the best part of this store stems from its downfall: The Edge will be moving again to an undecided location, which means employees are trying to get rid of their stock. Everything in the store is $20, Kalil said. Italian designer skirts originally priced at $60 come down to a cool $21.50. This will not last, however. The store will close down between December and January, so jump on the opportunity to get high-end, good-quality clothing for a good price.

Shop for a costume party at a place closer than Sal Val

Cluttered Closet Consignment Shop, 742 South Beech St.

Consignment shops conjure images of gently used secondhand clothing at very reasonable prices. With Cluttered Closet, just a stone’s throw from Westcott Street, the name says it all: cluttered. Flouncy swing skirts in rainbow colors hang from the ceiling, shoes are hanging up on walls — it is organized chaos.

With a consignment shop, it’s easy to expect a lot of vintage treasures. However, this store gives more of an outdated-Halloween-costume vibe, placing cowboy ensembles and old cheerleading outfits on mannequins.

Kathy O’Toole, the owner, said she has a large range of styles because she buys out large estates and gets clothing from some of her customers.

‘It’s kind of like modern-day treasure hunting,’ she said.

The prices were very reasonable, especially for students on a college budget. It would be hard to find a cashmere sweater for cheaper than $10 in good condition unless it was stolen. There was also a Louis Vuitton change purse for $6, but it takes a bit of searching to find it (and it could have been fake, but if it was, the logos were pretty spot-on).

Surprisingly, the consignment shop isn’t strictly clothing: It has a small but diverse collection of old vinyl records, with artists ranging from ol’ Blue Eyes (Frank Sinatra to those who don’t know) to KISS to Stevie Wonder.

‘Well, it’s kind of a win-win-win situation because the consigner wins, the shopper wins, the shop owner wins,’ O’Toole said.

One-stop shop

Boom Babies, 489 Westcott St.

With fliers running up and down Euclid Avenue, Boom Babies is a shop widely advertised to Syracuse University students. It’s a dress-up kind of store: During the Halloween season, customers could be greeted by an employee dressed as a 1940s gangster, a flapper or even a 1970s go-go dancer. This kind of fun, casual atmosphere is definitely embodied by the store itself.

With a definitive divide separating the store, one side devotes itself to women’s formal wear and prom dresses (glamorous ones, at that, and relatively well-priced). The other has more casual clothes with a vintage flair.

Since starting Boom Babies almost 25 years ago, Lorraine Koury has come to know her customers and knows what to look for.

‘We travel all over for our merchandise,’ Koury said. ‘And a lot of our customers come from out of state because they know we can get great stuff for a great price.’

Boom Babies often has pieces priced cheaper than its more mainstream competitors. A purse almost identical to one at Frankie & Faye was about $20 cheaper at Boom Babies.

‘Stuff doesn’t need to be expensive anymore,’ Koury said. ‘I’m amazed at what some people charge their customers when they can come here and get it cheaper.’

smtracey@syr.edu

 

Published on November 3, 2010 at 12:00 pm