(Credit: Steve Thurston, 2023)
Eliza DeRocker stands outside her Bride and Gown shop. She is still moving into this new location at 12 Circular St. in Saratoga Springs.
The owner of Saratoga Closet and Saratoga Bride and Gown, formerly of 38 Van Dam St. in Saratoga Springs, took to Facebook on Jan. 4 to announce that she’d be closing her store as a result of her landlord failing to renew her lease. The store closed Jan. 10.
Bride and Gown has since relocated to 12 Circular St., in the yellow building next door to the Batcheller Mansion Inn in Saratoga Springs.
DeRocker says she always enjoyed a great relationship with her former landlord, Karen Golden.
“She and I got along very well,” DeRocker added. According to her, that all changed when Golden sold the building to Dhianna and Peter Yezzi, of Integrated Staffing Corporation.
“Peter one day just came into the store during a bridal fitting and said, ‘This is going to be my new office.’ They did offer me Unit C in the building, for $1,600 per month; but that unit is only 250 to 300 square feet, while Unit G, which is where I was, was 2,000 square feet. And I was paying $2,000 to rent that unit.”
Reached for comment, Peter Yezzi said in an email that “We feel this is a private business matter.”
Opening to great fanfare in July 2014 — even then-Saratoga Springs Mayor Joanne Yepsen sung its praises — Saratoga Closet was known for carrying new and used luxury clothing, bags and gowns. Its website proudly trumpeted the fact that the store carried such brands as J. Crew, Michael Kors, Prada and Gucci.
DeRocker said she had 40 part-time employees working for her among her three stores, and is hopeful that she can find a new property for Saratoga Closet, the consignment shop, by March or April.
“Many people are now reaching out to me; I’m absolutely looking for a new space," she said.
Bride and Gown also has a sister site in Charleston, S.C.
DeRocker said she is looking to possibly reopen in Glens Falls where she had a store at 56 Glen St., a building purchased by Christian and Melanie Weber of Common Roots Brewery last March. The building is empty with boarded windows, currently.
However, she acknowledges that she has also been speaking with Lilly Pulitzer Outlets, where she was once head stylist, about returning to work for the resort wear brand in either their King of Prussia, Penn. site or their Palm Beach, Fla. location.
A prolific user of social media, DeRocker thanked everyone who has supported Saratoga Closet in another post on the store’s Facebook page.
“We will miss you,” she wrote, “and we will miss our beautiful space. Onto bigger and better things.”