Leaving in style
Village Streetwear owners closing up shop after 32 years
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This article was published 06/01/2017 (3380 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.
After 32 years in business, Marla and Avie Kaplan are ready to cut the thread tying them to Village Streetwear.
The couple, which has been credited with being the first to bring some of the most popular clothing brands to Winnipeg, will close their River Heights store on Jan. 25.
The Kaplans introduced Village Streetwear (10-1700 Corydon Ave.) to the community in 1984 when the former Safeway was being redeveloped by Ed Shall and Sam Klapman into a strip mall. With a young family in tow, Marla and Avie decided to break out on their own as entrepreneurs. The two opened their very first business, diving headfirst into fashion retail without looking back.
After dedicating much of their youth to the store, the two River Heights residents say they’re ready to retire and have some freedom.
“This is a very tough business to do in Winnipeg so the fact that we’ve been here for 32 years, people think it’s insane,” Marla said. “So many stores have come and gone since we’ve been here, including Eaton’s.”
In the early ’80s Marla, who worked in the men’s section of a local department store while studying dental hygiene, and Avie, who was a production engineer at his family’s clothing factory, noticed a gap in the fashions available to customers in Winnipeg.
Streetwear was just beginning to come into vogue with shoppers looking for quality clothes that were both casual and fashion forward, but broke away from the formality of trends at the time.
“There were lots of companies — Big Star, Esprit — that were focusing on teenage and university student streetwear,” Marla explained. “All of that started then.”
By offering a different shopping experience for customers and carrying brands such as North Face before any other retailers, Village Streetwear developed a loyal following over the years.
“We were a destination store and not in a mall,” Avie said. “We had to give people a reason to come and by having these lines — we were the first ones to bring in Guess, Diesel, and Tommy Hilfiger — we had to be pioneers.”
Village Streetwear also carried Lululemon, Canada Goose, and some of Aritzia’s lines before any others, the two say. Once the market became too saturated with a brand, the Kaplans would seek out something new.
However, the constant search for the new trends in fashion and the challenges of running an independent business meant family and social life was centered around the shop.
The two say they’ve built many friendships through the business with customers and staff who often return to visit. The annual end of January blowouts that would require the Kaplans to staff the store with friends and family paid with pizza are also great memories the two won’t forget.
“It’s been 32 years. There’s a lot of history,” Avie said. “We’ve made really close friends being here.”
“A lot of the success is because people feel like they’re family and they’ve grown up here,” Marla added. “(The business) is in our blood and the last month has been overwhelming. People have been crying in the store actually. I knew it would be tough but it’s turning out to be very emotional.”
The store’s merchandise and fixtures are on sale with discounts continuing until closing day. For hours, go to www.facebook.com/villagestreewear.ca