EAST VILLAGE — Two sisters — part of a third-generation family that runs Alcala's Western wear shop — launched a line of custom beaver blend black hats that are headed to the shelves of trendy New York City boutique VERAMEAT.
In January, Elia Alcala and her sister, Linda Alcala, co-owners of Alcala's Boutique, 1739 W. Chicago Ave., introduced the line of hats made in Bedford Park.
Elia Alcala:
Just a few days after putting the hats, which start at $164, in their West Town boutique, Vera Balyura, owner of VERAMEAT, happened across the shop, said Linda Alcala, who designed the hats.
"She randomly walked in while shopping and asked my sister, 'Who is the designer of these hats? and left her number. We met a few days later at the Soho House to talk about it," said Alcala, 30.
Just shipped to VERAMEAT this week, the "Alcala for VERAMEAT" hats will soon be for sale in New York City, starting with variations of the "Lady Linda" and the "Brett," two of five initial styles offered by the new millenary, Alcala said.
Balyura, wearing an "Alcala for VERAMEAT" hat; photo courtesy of Alcala:
Balyura runs three VERAMEAT shops in New York City neighborhoods and one in Beverly Hills, Calif.
A spokeswoman for VERAMEAT did not immediately respond to a request for comment on Thursday.
VERAMEAT is known to carry unique jewelry pieces like "Hibernation Hump," a ring featuring two bears having sex, according to DNAinfo New York.
Alcala's hats, which can be worn by men and women, are handmade with 100-percent beaver fur blend. There are five styles.
The styles also include a "Bad A-- B---- Kara" hat, named for West Town Chamber of Commerce Director, Kara Salgado.
"You have to have character to pull off the hat. When she tried it on I said she can pull it off more than anyone," Alcala said.
Alcala, who studied business at DePaul University before joining the family store, said Salgado has been an inspiring force.
"She showed me not to give up," Alcala said.
Salgado, wearing the "Bad A-- B---- Kara" hat:
Two years ago, Alcala and her sister, Elia, 31, opened their own shop just a few doors west of their family's western wear store, which was started by their grandfather, Luis Alcala, in 1972.
Though the boutique sells women's clothing, purses and jewelry, Alcala said she did not want to sell cowboy hats, like at her father's shop, which sells hundreds of hats as well as custom Stetsons.
"In my family, a cowboy hat is normal; I wanted to be different and never wanted to wear one, but my dad would say, 'You need to put on a hat, we sell cowboy hats," Alcala said.
But when she went to Mexico to buy merchandise, her volume at the spin-off boutique was not large enough to warrant wholesale purchases of any hats, cowboy or otherwise.
Then, at clothing trade shows, Alcala said she would "see the Jewish people in black hats."
"I thought, man I would want to wear a hat like that," Alcala said.
Orthodox Jews, in black hats, at a Wicker Park mikvah groundbreaking in February.
In addition to the new VERAMEAT partnership and selling the hats in her Chicago Avenue boutique, Alcala said she has been in talks with merchandisers from Downtown department stores about carrying the hats, too.
Linda Alcala, wearing her "Lady Linda" hat:
Photo by Roberto Mauricio
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