This time of year, most emails from clothing stores feature bright photos of merchandise or announce special sales — but not this one.
In mid-November, loyal customers of the D.C. boutique Upstairs on 7th — a mother- and daughter-owned shop just around the corner from Trump International Hotel — found a very different kind of message in their inboxes.
“We hope you will want to help,” Ricki Peltzman and her daughter Katy Klassman wrote. “We are going to be putting together bags of necessities for you to distribute to the many homeless people in our neighborhoods.”
The email spurred an outpouring of goods and money that eventually totaled about $5,000 worth of supplies, said Peltzman, 70. A few weeks later, some loyal shoppers volunteered their time, too: Dozens of women crowded into the small but stately women’s clothing shop Tuesday, the day of the boutique’s annual holiday party, to whip together packages and maybe squeeze in a little shopping on the side.
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“Our customers are just wonderful,” said Klassman, 46, surveying the group of women clustered near the front of the store, where prices for some designer items can be as high as $1,600 and the average item costs $185.
And lucky, her mother added: “If you’re blessed enough to be able to shop here, then you should give back to this city.”
Klassman and Peltzman came up with the idea for the charitable initiative a few months ago, when a mutual friend celebrated a birthday and asked people to prepare packages of necessities for the homeless instead of giving gifts. Klassman loved the idea and suggested Upstairs on 7th try it out at a larger scale.
After scouring the websites of various homeless shelters and nonprofit organizations, Klassman and her boyfriend compiled a list of suggested items most helpful to individuals in need: warm socks, Band-Aids, lip balm and packages of tuna, as well as travel-size lotion and small bars of chocolate. Klassman and Peltzman included the list in their email and said they’d use any donated funds to purchase more supplies.
By the day of the holiday party, Klassman and Peltzman had collected or bought enough materials to fill about 75 gallon-size zip-top bags, they said. Though customers managed to compile most of the bags on Tuesday, the two women will complete the process over the next few weeks, Klassman said. After that, the final step: delivery.
In addition to handing out packages themselves to homeless people they pass on the streets, Klassman and Peltzman are encouraging shoppers to swing by the store, grab a few bags and hand them to homeless individuals living in their neighborhoods or along their commutes. Upstairs on 7th regularly sees customers from across Washington, Maryland and Virginia, so the two women expect their packages will spread far and wide.
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The project was designed to encourage everyone to step up somehow, Peltzman said. “People can donate money, if they don’t want to donate items, or they can help us pack it up, or distribute them. … Everybody can do something, but they don’t have to do everything.”
Marilyn Kressel knew she wanted to help the moment she opened the email announcing the initiative. Kressel, an attorney who lives in Bethesda, spent about two hours at the shop Tuesday, packaging bags, munching on store-provided holiday snacks and trying on the occasional shirt, jacket or dress that caught her eye.
The longtime customer estimates that more than half of her wardrobe comes from Klassman and Peltzman’s store — and there’s a reason for it.
“Because of things like this, [Peltzman] has always been so much more than someone who owns a retail store,” said Kressel, 70. “It’s more than just shopping for clothes. I like her, and I also like what she represents.”
Or as fellow shopper Rebecca Coccaro, a 51-year-old lawyer who also lives in Bethesda, put it: “We are all trying to think of ways to give back, and it’s nice to support someone who does this.”
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Peltzman has paired business smarts with charitable initiatives from the very beginning, she said, going back to when she opened her first clothing store in March 2007, shortly after she remarried and moved to Washington. At first, Peltzman operated out of a 250-square-foot upstairs room in a downtown art gallery on Seventh Street (hence the name “Upstairs on 7th”). Klassman summarized the first iteration of the shop as “my mom, her little stool and like two items of clothing.”
Over the years, as her business proved a success, Peltzman moved into larger and larger spaces. Still, one thing did not change: her determination to use the store to give back to the community. In the early years, this took the form of monthly “Random Acts of Kindness,” in which she would ask shoppers every few weeks to donate money to a different nonprofit, but always one that helped women or children.
She soon noticed that efforts were more effective, drawing more interest, if she spaced them out. So Peltzman slimmed the number of initiatives to about five or six a year, always making sure to hold a big drive during the holiday season, when customers seemed most inclined to contribute. Klassman had admired her mother’s drive to serve others, she said, so when the opportunity arose about four years ago, Klassman quit a corporate job in Chicago and moved to Washington to help her mother run the store.
“Sure, yes, we’re doing this for our livelihoods,” Klassman said. “But it’s so important that there’s also some element of service. It would feel pretty terrible to just be selling all the time.”
There’s another important aspect to Upstairs on 7th, Peltzman added: fostering female friendship. The store, with its artsy but work-appropriate jewelry, jackets, skirts and dresses, has always attracted a certain kind of clientele — almost all professional women (or their husbands seeking holiday gifts), many of whom have reached the pinnacles of their careers.
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Peltzman said she regularly sees judges, top attorneys, high-level federal employees and MacArthur “genius” grant and Pulitzer winners (though she’s only ever welcomed one Nobel honoree).
As they browse the shelves during a lunch break or on weekends — the store is open Monday through Saturday — shoppers also settle into comfy gray sofas to chat with Klassman and Peltzman, at least one of whom is always in the shop. Scores of customers have made friends with each other and with the owners over the years. “It’s a place for women to come and have fun and feel comfortable,” Klassman said.
The mother-daughter pair have grown so close to some customers that the women stop by not to shop but to chat, Peltzman says. And, as is inevitable in the District, the conversation typically runs in one direction.
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“Oh, all day long, it’s politics,” Klassman said.
“But we don’t get insider — we don’t get classified information,” Peltzman interrupted quickly.
Klassman paused. “I will just say we’re good listeners.”
On Tuesday, they had plenty to listen to: Shoppers chattered away about topics including impeachment, family developments and new store offerings as they gathered around a table to stuff washcloths, chocolates and toothpaste into bags. Klassman and Peltzman buzzed around the room, offering opinions on outfits, making sales and occasionally chipping in to wrap up a few packages.
It was how both women hoped it would be, they said, and perhaps spells a new future for the store.
“I would love it if this became something we did all the time,” Klassman said. “It’s just like, every time you come here to shop, you can make a package and deliver it, so there would always be packages here, because there are always homeless people out there.”
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