Wanted: Store owner
Seeking: one buyer willing to bring classical women into the modern age.
Hamilton East clothing store La Cherie is for sale, with owner Gaye Fitchett set to retire in May.
A fixture of the older woman’s wardrobe for almost 60 years, Fitchett, 64, is hoping to find a buyer willing to carry the store into the future – and possibly the digital age.
‘‘It needs someone younger. My ladies don’t go online, and I don’t want to get into that.
‘‘When I came here, I was 40. I had a bit more drive then.’’
La Cherie is on the market for $125,000, with another $150,000 worth of stock.
If no buyer arrives, loyal customers will be disappointed to see the store close.
One of formerly seven similar outfits in the village, La Cherie is a far cry from the fast-fashion stores which populate retail centres.
It’s not cutting-edge, for a start – Fitchett’s daughter doesn’t shop in the store – but that doesn’t mean it isn’t fashionable.
Catering for women aged 40 to 100, La Cherie sells quality clothes from New Zealand, Australia and further abroad.
The store first opened in 1960 in Hillcrest and was bought two years later by Thelma Harris, wife to coffee importer Robert Harris.
Fitchett’s mother, Muriel Sorensen, began working there that year and bought it six years later.
Starting in the business at 14, Fitchett owned an orchard for some 10 years before returning in 1992. Much has changed in the years since. Fashion is now far more casual. Gone are the days of the three-piece suit ‘‘ensemble’’ once so popular.
‘‘I’ve got women in their nineties wearing jeans – it’s great. The older woman is dressing younger, but it’s not mutton dressed as lamb.’’
And the younger women are eventually dressing older, in a way.
Fitchett says there are always new customers coming of age.