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Shopping might not be in her DNA, but it is most certainly a cherished family tradition for Southampton retailer Stephanie Finkelstein.
When she was growing up in Westchester County in the 1980s, Ms. Finkelstein and her grandmother, Beatrice Zimmerman, used to take long shopping trips into the city to look for perfect items to add to her grandmother’s home. During a recent interview, Ms. Finkelstein said she still has vivid memories of those trips with “Honey,” which is what she called her grandmother.
“We would normally go to lunch and then she would take us shopping,” Ms. Finkelstein recalled. “She was from a different generation. She loved shopping, and she loved looking at beautiful things. Always when you went to her house, everything was just so.”
These days, Ms. Finkelstein said she still thinks about her grandmother when she looks for items to stock her Southampton Village store, The Elegant Setting. The boutique stocks everything that any hostess or homeowner worth his or her salt would need: personalized linen napkins, pillows, tote bags, slippers, towels and many other items.
Just about all of these items can be monogrammed, and customers can choose from more than 300 thread colors and 200 fonts, which is one aspect that she says makes the items in her store special. In addition, the personalized items are usually available overnight.
“It’s really about being creative,” Ms. Finkelstein said, noting that the store is now in its sixth year. “An embroidered gift says that the person really took time to think about it. I think that’s a really nice feature.”
Recently, she got an affirmation that her products are as special as she believes they are: her monogrammable linen cocktail napkins were featured in the April 2009 issue of Oprah Magazine on “The O List,” which is a list of special items hand-picked by the magazine’s editors.
“It was really exciting,” said Ms. Finkelstein. The issue, which features first lady Michelle Obama on the cover, hit newsstands late last month.
The process of getting into the magazine took several months, Ms. Finkelstein said, explaining that she and her publicist, Nicole Starr Castillo of Wordhampton Public Relations, contacted the periodical late last year. The publication’s editors asked her to send samples of items she felt were original and unique, so she sent a few items from the store, including the cocktail napkins.
Ms. Castillo relayed last week that it was a great feeling to see her client’s products featured in Oprah’s eponymous magazine. “It was very gratifying to see months of hard work come to fruition and see a local store receive national recognition,” she said.
After several months of back and forth communication, Ms. Finkelstein learned that her efforts had paid off and that the cocktail napkins were being featured in Oprah magazine.
The release of the magazine corresponded to the launch of Ms. Finkelstein’s new website, theelegantsetting.com. The website also contains a listing of all the options that are available for monogramming and has online ordering capability.
The cocktail napkins are just one end of the business. The store also stocks everything that is needed for the tabletop. Some of the most popular items in the store, according to the owner, come from a line of crystal by William Yeoward that includes glasses, decanters, pitchers, and vases.
Ms. Finkelstein, who summered in the Hamptons as a child, personally oversees every item that appears on the store’s shelves. She says the store’s style is “modern traditional,” which she described as “a little preppy ... Not trendy, but tasteful.”
The entrepreneur says that she looks for most of her items at trade shows and flea markets, but she’ll also go to yard sales to find antique items. “I do a lot of looking in different places,” she said. “I personally oversee everything that goes into the store. I like that. The store feels a certain way.”
During the busy summer season, Ms. Finkelstein said, she also likes to keep things fresh by adding new items just about every week. With a good number of repeat customers, Ms. Finkelstein said she tries to make sure that they’ll see something new every time they come in.
The owner noted that her job now is similar to her last position—working as a social worker in Manhattan—in that she’s with people all day, and makes extra efforts to make sure her customers know they are appreciated.
“It’s all about connecting with people,” she said. “I have a lot of very loyal customers. People are very supportive and they make an effort to come in.”
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