Business owner proves youth, fashion are just states of mind

Date: 4/14/2010

April 14, 2010.

By Katelyn Gendron

Reminder Assistant Editor



AGAWAM -- Eighty-year-old Irene Scanlon isn't like many women her age. She's sassy, energetic and has a passion for her career.

Scanlon tried retirement 10 years ago when she closed her consignment shop, Irene's Closet, but when her lust for fashion and daily work took hold there was no letting go. These days she runs her shop on Main Street in the afternoons, greeting customers with colorful ensembles and an enthusiastic grin.

"I was one of 10 children so you either made your clothes [or got stuck with hand-me-downs]," Scanlon explained of how she began her 60-year career as a seamstress.

"It has been hit or miss since I was 12 years old," she added in describing her affordable ensembles. "I've bought all my clothes at my own consignment shop or other consignment shops."

Today, Scanlon is wearing a vibrant chartreuse handkerchief skirt and button-down top with black stockings and matching strapped cloth heels, accessorized with a silk chartreuse belt, gold hoop earrings and a large green and white broach in the shape of a frog.

She said she mixes and matches designer labels from her shop including Jones of New York, Talbots, Ann Taylor, Chicos and Liz Claiborne, which she sells at deep discounts of 75 percent or more off manufacturers' prices.

When asked how well her ensembles are received by buyers in Western Massachusetts, Scanlon replied, "Clothes hanging on a hanger, they don't look the same. You have to be willing to try it on. I have confidence, period, in anything [I wear or do in life]."

She's also created her own line of purses and bags, composed almost entirely of neckties, which are also on sale in her shop.

Holly Kirby, one of the shopkeepers at Irene's Closet, said she's constantly amazed by Scanlon's creativity and energy.

"She's the same person [I've always known] but she's stronger willed," Kirby said of her boss.

"I've never met anyone like her," she added, referencing Scanlon's boisterous, enthusiastic and colorful nature, even at 80.

When asked how she gauges the success of her business, Scanlon replied, "I want [customers] to make this a habit, to come in here and shop and brag to all [their] friends about it."

Hours of operation at Irene's Closet, 141 Main St., are 10 a.m. to 3 p.m., Monday through Thursday and 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. on Saturday.

For additional fashion-forward inquiries, call Irene's Closet at 786-1239 or e-mail irenescan@comcast.net.