Shari's Place: Keeping Fashionable Women Fashionable for Over 40 Years

We put our own twist on fashion,” says Shari Kaynes, beloved owner and proprietor of Shari’s Place on Main Street in Southampton. “We don’t let the styles you might see in Vogue or Harper’s Bazaar dictate what we’re about.”

Though the welcoming and cozy 900-square-foot shop is currently celebrating its 10th anniversary, Kaynes and her family have been dressing fashionable women for over 40 years, ever since she and her husband Larry opened their first store in Great Neck in 1981.

“After 40-something years, we get to know our clients very well, and that’s who we appeal to,” Kaynes notes. “We know their families, we know their histories. Our business is very personal.”

Along with the Southampton location, which is open from May to October, the Kaynes also operate two significantly larger stores, one in Greenvale, and one in Palm Beach, FL. The Greenvale and Palm Beach locations are both open year-round, and each feature approximately 6,000 square feet of retail space.

“I call the Southampton store ‘my little jewel box’” says Kaynes. “The stores are like a family with three siblings. They each have their own personality and aesthetic. For example, we sell a lot more gowns and cocktail dresses in our Palm Beach store because there are so many luncheons and charity events. Obviously, there are plenty of events in Southampton. But it’s not like Palm Beach, where there’s something going on seven days a week. Some of our Palm Beach customers can wear three different dresses in a single
day.”

Kaynes notes that Shari’s Southampton location is unique among her three stores in the way that its merchandise mix closely tracks the hyper-seasonality of the high fashion marketplace.

“In Southampton, we’re operating on the same calendar as the top designers,” she explains. “I open the store in May with transitional pre-fall and fall clothes, not summer goods. The store is always right on target and synced with the market.

Starting in late spring and early summer, all you see is fall merchandise in the windows of high-end fashion stores in Europe,” she continues. “And it’s the same in our Southampton store.”

Kaynes, who runs the store with her daughter, Logan Kaynes Erdman, and a small staff of longtime employees, describes the overarching design aesthetic at Shari’s Place as ‘classic with a twist.’ “Of course, we’ll have some fashion-forward pieces,” she adds. “But we don’t go too crazy on that kind of look because it doesn’t last. We sell clothing that lasts.”

Classic with a twist might mean different things to different clothiers. But Kaynes and Erdman explain that at Shari’s Place, the twist might take the form of silver leather or metallic pants paired with a classically tailored blazer. Or maybe a sophisticated Caroline Herrera blouse with a somewhat more daring Balenciaga pant — a look currently featured in Shari’s front window.

Shari’s Private Label: The Not-So-Secret Weapon

One of the key factors that sets Shari’s Place apart in the fashion marketplace is the company’s private label business. Though the store carries a host of high-end designer apparel from many top labels, Kaynes and her family also produce their own Shari’s-branded clothing.

Though Kaynes, and to an increasing degree, her daughter, are the faces of the business, Kaynes’ husband Larry devotes most of his professional time to the production of the company’s private label brand.

Kaynes proudly points out that all of the company’s private label merchandise is created in Europe — primarily in and around the global fashion center of Milan. Select garments are also produced in Paris.

Long known for customizable leather and suede clothing under the Shari’s label, the company now offers an ever-expanding line of branded merchandise, including pants in a variety of fabrics and styles, silk shirts, tank tops, blazers, accessories and much more. In fact, Kaynes estimates that private label clothing now accounts for almost half of the company’s total annual sales.

When it comes to dressing her well-heeled and fashion-loving clientele, Kaynes stresses the importance of age appropriateness. “I think a woman should embrace her age,” she says, pointing out that her typical customers are generally in their 40s to their 70s. “You can dress magnificently and still honor your age and life experience. We don’t want our clients to dress like their daughters and daughters in law. Of course, we love dressing multiple generations of women,” she continues. “But we’ll dress them differently.”

Kaynes also notes that her store is welcoming to women of all body types and sizes — it carries sizes 0 to 16. “We don’t discriminate,” she says. “We will never let a client walk in here and say, ‘I couldn’t find something in my size.’”

Obviously, Kaynes and her family have exquisitely good taste. They’ve proved that continuously over 40-plus years in business. But it takes more than just a refined sense of style to please the elite clientele that Shari’s Place caters to on a day-to-day basis.

“Sure, we carry a lot of very upscale clothing, and we dress a lot of powerful and accomplished women,” Kaynes says. “But I think the essence of our business is really our personal relationships with our clients. We’re still a mom and pop store at heart.”

Shari’s Place is located at 29 Main Street, Southampton. Call 631-726-7200 or visit sharisplace.com for more information.

-PARTNER CONTENT