After attending college and teaching in Alabama, Wilder visited Chicago for the first time in the summer of 1975 and never looked back.Ĭhicago afforded Wilder more opportunities. Plantation life also propelled Wilder to move out of Alabama and escape miserable conditions. It’s antithetical to Wilder today, who wouldn’t be caught dead wearing the same outfit twice – he cycles through high-end brands like Brioni Purple Label, Kiton and Oxford, which retail for upwards of $5,000. The clothes he wore as a child often had to last him a few days before his family could do laundry, which meant wearing the same outfit more than once. “We lived off the fat of the land,” he says. However, his experience in the fields instilled in him a strong work ethic, an interest in fashion from having to make his own clothes and dreams of leaving the plantation behind. Temperatures reached 90 degrees and people received $2 per 100 pounds of cotton, which usually took a day’s work to collect. Growing up in the '60s and early '70s as a Black man in rural Alabama, Wilder says he fought for an education and worked his body to the bone for eight hours a day on a cotton plantation. Jump back a couple decades in Wilder’s life, and the story is much different. But he has lots of other stories, and they are not all as uplifting. Wilder likes to tell stories, and how he came to own Classy Closet is one of his favorites.
The price was right, and he bought the shop. He frequented the store so much that when previous owner Noel Coker was ready to sell the shop, her employees told Wilder to call Coker for a quote. The sister store to its main location on Dempster Street, Crowded Closet was considered the “dumping ground” for menswear and clothes that didn’t sell.
In 1981, Wilder used to be just a loyal customer at the shop, then called Crowded Closet.
#Poppin tags boutique full#
But if you look past that, you’ll find store owner Emanuel Wilder in a full pantsuit complete with cowboy hat, handkerchief and cowboy boots, sitting behind a desk covered with boots and purses.
Crew sweaters, Eileen Fisher cardigans, Ralph Lauren jeans and Nike shoes. If you know where to look, you’ll find discounted J. Open the door, and you’re greeted by the jingle of chimes and the scratch of hangers. “Superstitious” by Stevie Wonder and Ella Fitzgerald’s “Misty” play back-to-back.Ĭlassy Closet stands at the corner of Custer Avenue and Washington Street in South Evanston. The mannequin opposite dons an early 2000s bodycon dress that forms to the shape of her fake little derriere. In the front display, one mannequin wears a blouse and a calf-length ‘50s plaid skirt.
#Poppin tags boutique windows#
A retro red and white typeface flaunts ‘60s-era flair – “Classy Closet” – across the windows of this Evanston thrift shop.
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