Soul singer's hat could boost local business

DENVER - As soon as she walked in the boutique, a feather-accented purple wool hat caught her eye.

"This fits my head perfectly," exclaimed 74-year-old Julia J. DeBuyzer, as she tried on the sleek chapeaux.

The store's owner, Judy Day, knew she could count on faithful customer Julia to come in and survey the newest trends. Other visitors to Unique Boutique, on 2021 East Colfax Ave. in Denver, have been few and far between.

"With the way the economy is, we're down to a few people a day," she said.

Day opened the boutique in 1992. It began as a consignment shop, but she couldn't ignore the one request that customers kept making.

"All of these ladies were coming in asking me to bring them hats when I went to New York," she said, "bring them hats."

Once she started providing what the customers wanted, word spread quickly; often times when the women like Julia DeBuyzer wore the hats to church.

"(They would say) 'Oh my God! Don't you look good,'" she said.

Day says since then, she's sold thousands of hats, most selling for under $100. However, within the last few years, interest in the extravagant lids has fallen off.

"I used to order hats every five or six weeks," she said. "Now, it's down to two or three times in the summer or once or twice in the winter."

Day says younger women aren't interested in hats. Her more mature clients either already have enough hats or they don't have the money to spend on them.

Day estimates she's getting about half of the business that she used to.

"It's tough... I've seen some of my competitors go out of business," Day said.

Day says she will watch the books closely in 2009. Because, if things don't go well, it could be her last year selling the fancy hats and suits she's become known for.

On Jan. 20, Day's pursuit to keep hats fashionable got an unlikely ally: Aretha Franklin.
Millions of people watching the presidential inauguration couldn't help but notice her larger-than-life rhinestone-covered hat.

DeBuyzer was one of those people.

"I loved the hat she had on! She really looked good," she said. "I'd like to have a hat like that."

Apparently, so would many other people. The Detroit shop that created Franklin's custom-made hat says it's been overrun with requests. The hat fascination has trickled down to Denver too.

"Everybody wants that hat," said Day. "I've had some phone calls and maybe some new customers from that."

Day just hopes those new customers will be as enthusiastic about hats as her past customers were.

"It uplifts," she said "You can have anything on. But if you have on a hat, they're looking at that hat."