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A store is born

A new Port Washington boutique tries to fill the void left by local retail legened Janet Brown

BY ANNE BRATSKEIR | Special to Newsday

April 14, 2008

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Likely you've never heard of Julieann Orso, a woman so painfully shy she's probably glad of it. But there's a good chance that Orso, 42, of Sands Point, may soon become an important name in the elite and increasingly rare ranks of independent luxury fashion retailers.

This saga begins with the death in March 2007 of Janet Brown, the legendary Port Washington retailer with a huge personality, whose small, ramshackle store met the high-fashion needs of her fiercely loyal clients for 24 years. Brown, 59, died of a heart attack while driving to work from her home in Oyster Bay. Her sister, Elaine Edelstein, an accountant from Pennsylvania, took over but closed the business just before Christmas.

"When Janet died, I believe the store died," Edelstein told Women's Wear Daily, adding that no one could duplicate her sister's expertise. "She was a genius." (Edelstein declined Newsday's request for an interview.)

Indeed, Brown's followers considered her a brilliant fashion stylist, life coach and friend who operated her shop like an old-fashioned social salon, where the conversations were as rich as the customers. She was a global concierge with information on the finest of everything - dining, hotels, even the name and private number of the best water taxi driver in Venice.

On the flip side, she was famously difficult and sometimes a snob. "You're the only customer in here who looks at the price tags," she chastised one regular shopper. Still, she was beloved by many, and in a time when independent retailers were verging on extinction, her business flourished.

After Brown's death, Orso, a devoted customer and a self-proclaimed shrinking violet with a passion for fashion, says she became "possessed" with the idea of maintaining Brown's legacy, offering to buy the store from Edelstein. When that didn't work out, Orso opened Julianne (using the more familiar spelling of her name) on Main Street in Port Washington, a stone's throw from Brown's old store.

Though not an experienced retailer, Orso's interest in fashion goes back to the days when she was a high school student in Manhattan.

"All the girls were wearing their mom's Chanel clothes," she says. "My mom didn't have any, so I started knitting." Eventually, she took some of her designs to an open call for new designers at Bergdorf Goodman, which started to place orders. Later, she entered the swimwear arena and by "a stroke of luck" one of her suits ended up on the cover of Sports Illustrated, worn by Elle McPherson.

After she married and had children, her interest in the business waned, until last October, when she opened Julianne. Like an exclusive club, the shop has no sign and the only clues to its contents are a few lonely items in the window - a dress, maybe a handbag.

Inside, three French vanilla-and-caramel rooms are stunningly decorated in a way that conveys a chic living room. Shoppers gaily forget the word "recession," spending anywhere from $100 for a recycled cotton T-shirt to more than $6,000 for a gown. The meticulously edited stock includes designer names like Marni, Dries Van Noten and Lanvin. Besides the clothes, there are handbags and shoes and a small case of precious but artsy jewelry that is, frankly, to die for. "The women who shop here have every imaginable kind of jewel," Orso says. "They don't need another big, traditional diamond."

While Brown ruled her roost with an iron fist, Orso is a gentle soul who regularly doles out hugs to her not-so-secret weapons: Brown's former staff. Randi Newman, 50, spearheaded sales at Janet Brown for 20 years. It is Newman who belts waists, wraps scarves, coos and clucks over clients at Julianne. She'll gather 30 "fabulous" items and drive them for approval to clients' homes, with a seamstress in tow who makes alterations as they go.

"I am very fortunate that the majority of customers followed me from Janet here," Newman says. "Janet is still in my heart, and in my glove compartment. I keep a framed picture of her there. Janet was my teacher. But Julieann is my guardian angel."

Orso also employs the two seamstresses that Brown plucked from haute hub Hirshleifer's 17 years ago. "Janet used to call me her Michelangela, " says Nina Raimondi, 72, who works the finery side by side with Sherry Parsehian, 61.

Finally, there is Susan Stone, a friend and colleague of Brown's who runs Savannah, a parallel business in Santa Monica, Calif. When Orso asked her to be a consultant, she says, "I thought it was an interesting challenge, and I think I wanted to see some sort of legacy for Janet Brown." Still, she says the new team is blazing its own trails. "We are not Janet Brown, and we are not trying to be Janet."

Orso, who hides from our cameras when we go to photograph the store and only reluctantly sits for a portrait, agrees. "It's not ever going to be Janet. I don't have her personality, but I wanted to make the customers feel ... the way she made her customers feel. That they were in a quiet, tranquil place where women can talk about everything and nothing bad could happen."

Except, that is, to your credit cards.

CHIC CHOICES

There are plenty of big, name luxury merchants around - Gucci, Burberry, Louis Vuitton to name a few. But love them as we do, it's nice to know there are still a few high-end specialty stores run by people, not corporations. It takes merchants with vision and a fabulous sense of style to survive in this marketplace. So when you need an impossibly gorgeous something, here are a few of the Island's major players:

ADELE KAUFF

Since 1956, the in-the-know have shopped this tiny Great Neck bastion of high style. Richard Kauff (son of Adele) has been there since '74, and, gushes one customer, has, "fabulous taste." There's an excellent selection of Armani Collezioni here.