May 2015 | view this story as .pdf

Style and smiles go hand-in-hand as a new season unfolds.

By Claire Z. Cramer

Nothing wakens the summer spirit like a stroll downtown to discover–reconnoître–the sweet new places to shop, vintage 2015. Especially when the very newest among these welcome us with high hopes, adorable inventory, and a snappy salut tout le monde.

SociologIe

The first thing that strikes you when you step through the Middle Street entrance to Anthropologie is how big it is. Yikes. High ceilings, huge abstract murals, racks and stacks of colorful clothing, a bed, furniture, accessories, fancy candles, hand creams, tchotchkes, table linens, pottery tableware–no aspect of your lifestyle is too trivial to curate. This is a rustic-chic empire. A row of bins fashioned from distressed wood contain cabinet and drawer pulls made of pottery, glass, and metal whispering that the knobs on your dressers at home are boring. A coffee table book, Remodelista, sits on top of the bin for guidance about rectifying this.

“Are you finding everything OK?” asks one of the smiling assistants.

What you find here are $88 metallic-thread tank tops to wear with $78 itty-bitty short-shorts, great-looking leather totes for $268, skinny blue jeans for $188, many garments made of Asian fabrics. A $178 spaghetti-strapped floral chiffon jumpsuit entices you to imagine a life where such things are worn. In an area devoted to France, there are books–Paris Street Style and The Gospel According to Coco Chanel–among the black biker jackets, knit tops, and coffee mugs.

“Please help yourself to complimentary strawberry-cucumber-lime water,” says a saleswoman. We chat about the store, which opened in March, and the company. How big is it? “I’m not exactly sure, but you can check the store locator on our website. We keep growing.” She declines to give her name, because she says, “Home office asks that we not be quoted.”

Later, a check of anthropologie.com reveals the home office is in Philly. Portland’s store is the only branch in the three Northern New England states; most of the other 47 states have one or more. There are two in Oklahoma.

Taste Oasis

“I opened just in time for Christmas,” says Details owner and proprietor Barbara Schrade. “I’m from Saratoga Springs. I was a buyer there, and I’ve worked in California and Florida, but I’ve been coming to Maine my whole life. I knew when I opened my own store it would be here.”

Schrade has created a serene boutique at 10 Exchange Street–brighter and airier than when the Leather Exchange occupied it for years–stocked with tasteful gifts, most under $100. There are hypoallergenic lotions and soaps; oil lamps in glass jars contain arrangements of seashells, flowers, and other found objects. “This is the ‘anywhere fireplace’–no smoke,” she says, pointing to the compact arrangements of smooth stones within small glass boxes above which flames dance. “You fill the [concealed] fuel container, and it burns for about four hours.” You’ll want to curl up in front of one, wrapped in a dreamily soft, woven wool blanket from Bronte by Moon.

Wee and Twee

A tiptoe up Exchange at No. 42, Little opened in mid-March. It may be the center of the universe for indulgent grandmothers with money to burn.

“We do get a lot of grandparents,” says Ashley Jordan, a former Urban Outfitters merchandiser who now manages Little’s inventory of tiny kids’ clothing and toys. Racks of Bolshoi-ready sparkly tutus ($94) stand at the ready for your three-year-old Margot Fonteyn to treasure forever. In one corner, a Maine Bunk Bed surprises with the top bunk at right angles to the bottom–just for the L of it. The beds are colorfully topped by inquisitive plush animals. Don’t you wish you were five again?

Gem Therapy

Attos By Design Estate Jewelers is an elegant showroom at 50 Exchange, down to the upholstered antique chairs and oil paintings. It’s the new incarnation of the former Stonehome Estate Jewelers, which spun off to Kennebunkport. Proprietor and designer Attos Santana can help you create a new piece with Granny’s old jewels, but in the event you don’t have any, he’s also got a store full of estate pieces with their own charms. He points to a pretty fruit brooch two inches high. “It’s Austrian, 1950s. The cherry is carved coral, the leaves are jade. Those are diamonds at the top–real craftsmanship.”

Santana points to a flashy but delicate gold bracelet. “Tiffany, around 1960. Four thousand dollars.”

Then he removes a spectacular gold cuff from a glass case. The two-inch-wide shackle is perfect–a simple oval with serious heft.

When he clicks it into place on your wrist, your inner Holly Golightly sends you straight to the gilt-framed mirror to wave at your fabulous self.

Fancy Dress-up

OK, glamour-puss, head next door to Tavecchia where, for 32 years, owner Judy Parker set a high standard for well-made women’s clothing and accessories. On March 2, the baton passed to a new owner.

“I’m carrying a lot of the same lines,” Rachel Justice says. “They’re excellent quality. We’re going to paint, and we’ll add more shoes and handbags, make a few other gradual changes.” Parker’s retired, but her spirit remains.

At the register is a familiar smiling face. “We’re all still here,” says Lynn Harrison, one of Tavecchia’s long-time saleswomen.

“How could I ever replace their knowledge and experience?” asks Justice.

She heads over to the special-occasion frocks and bridal gowns. “We have a lot of demand for ‘mother-of’ dresses that aren’t quite so boxy and conservative. This is a whole new generation of ‘mothers-of,’ and they want to look great.”

No pastel Queen Elizabeth A-line-shift-and-jacket sets here; today’s mothers like fitted gowns, bare shoulders, bolder colors, and a little glitter for their kids’ weddings. Since it’s also prom season, there are racks of super-glam short and full-length prom gowns shimmering with sequins and beads. A show-stopper on its own dress form–purple and swingy with black trim–grabs your eye as you walk in the door.

“We have about 100 prom dresses here, for the most part just one of each. We keep track of schools and proms to minimize the chance of duplicates at the same dance.”

Upper East Bayside

Shopped out? Maybe it’s time to pick up a bottle of bubbly on the way home at Maine & Loire Wine Shop, open since the first of the year.

“When this space became available, we made our move,” says Peter Hale, who owns the bright, airy new store at 63 Washington Avenue with his wife Orenda. “We were in New York, but my mother’s familiy is from Maine, the Turner and Leeds area.”

Maine & Loire is in the brick retail strip that formerly housed the multi-ethnic Mittapheap market and Masterpiece Reprographics, both of which have found homes elsewhere. Silly’s Restaurant and Coffee By Design are the anchors on this block. A rumored Latin/barbecue hybrid restaurant, Terlingua, may soon join them.

The Hales have maximized the industrial-chic quality–white walls soar to a very high ceiling with giant exposed duct work all painted in a deep shade of gray. Wine bottles are arranged mostly by country of origin on free-standing metal racks. You can roam the original wide-planked hardwood floor from an Italy rack to France, Spain, and so on. A long harvest table runs down the center of  the room, also covered with bottles, including a “Bubbles” section. The table is weathered, salvaged wood; so is the check-out counter, which has pounded tin ceiling panels as siding.

Both the table and counter were created two doors down at Repurposed, a huge antiques and architectural salvage emporium filled with old signs, pottery, kitchenware, collectibles, furniture, and another zillion treasures. Proprietor Bill Simpson and his partner Steve Trask like to create “fun and weird stuff”–not to mention some beautiful furniture–from bits of salvage. Repurposed’s neighbors are Maine Mead Works and Oxbow Brewing’s tasting room. You’re just east of the Old Port, but it feels as if there are still things to discover over here.

Meanwhile, back at the wine shop, Peter Hale explains that “all our wines are organic or biodynamic, and most are sulfite-free.”  Biodynamic farming is like organic farming in that it doesn’t involve chemicals, but the use of the term biodynamic is not regulated by the U.S. government. What these classifications do indicate, though, is that “we don’t carry any mass-produced garbage wines here.”

There is, however, a heavenly “under $14” table. Value shoppers know there can be real finds in such sections, and chatting with wine shop owners is the way to find them. Peter describes a snappy 2013 Cotes du Roussillon Clot del Pila Les Cargolines as “similar to a RhÔne but more prune than fresh berry.”

His description proves apt. The velvety red table wine is a hit later at dinner.