Phoebe Petrovic Photo
Born and raised Jewish in Brazil, Marcia Calisman moved to Israel as a young woman, and again to the U.S. in 2006. When she arrived at her first stop — Old Saybrook, just 20 minutes away from New Haven — she wasn’t thinking about opening a business based around clothing and accoutrements.
Having worked careers in the film and fashion design industries, she’d moved because her husband, Ronen Yur, had found a job designing jewelry for art and craft fairs around the country. As he adjusted to new work, Calisman got U.S. certification as a doula and joined a massage practice, doing painting and jewelry making on the side.
But both of them have a relentless fascination with beauty — and the way it plays out in clothing — and Calisman kept thinking about it. Reentering the world of fashion intrigued her; so did the new American audience she might be serving.
So when she caught word that a boutique in New Haven, nestled at the corner of Chapel and York Streets, was closing in fall of 2009, she pounced.
First, she worked with the infrastructure and customers that the boutique had left behind. But slowly, she came into her own, buying clothing and accessories from around the world.
Recently, she came on an episode of WNHH radio’s “Open for Business” to tell that story. Below is an excerpt of the interview. To listen to the entire piece, click on or download the audio above.
Why and how did you leave your native country? When did you leave?
I grew up, born and raised Jewish, in Brazil. Israel for me was a place that we all, we dream it all our life — about Israel, we heard about Israel, we had a Jewish education, is how I was raised, and I went and the opportunity went for a kibbutz and somehow after that I stay longer, and came back to Brazil, and came back to Israel again. I lived in Israel for 15 years … We came here because he [Yur] got a job. Today we have three kids and they’re all here in America … 24 years old, young man, my oldest, I have a 13 years old daughter and a nine year old son.
Where did you live when your first came to the U.S.?
We live in Old Saybrook, on the shoreline, beautiful town, close to the sea. I’m originally from Rio de Janeiro and I love to be close to the ocean.
How did you decide to launch this business? How did you get started?
He [Yur] used to do also some artist exhibitions, he had a business of handcrafted jewelry and he used to do show and art exhibitions. We decided we wanted to have a store and at the same time this opportunity came, downtown New Haven, and we just took the opportunity. It took probably two months until we opened. It already had here the structure of the store, as I said there was a previous boutique here, we just make changes and bring our own stuff.
How did that go?
Because it was winter time, it was 2009, and the economy was not so good — the beginning was not very easy, and I remember it was, you know, we’d been working hard, but we had the power and we felt good about this space and we put so much passion and love into this business that it was worth it. I had a little baby, he was little and used to come sometimes with my kids, and that was how we started.
We started very small, and we started growing. Before here there was a boutique here, which you know we kinda started with things from the other boutique and we started adding, that’s how we started. We started adding my taste and different things that I found. Now we have a combination of different kinds of jewelry and accessories and different things. The store is a collection of different designers from different parts of the world….We have shoes from Brazil and bags, you know jewelry, and clothing from different designers from all over. A lot of made in America, and also I have a lot of fair trade things.
What’s your focus in the business?
To open a business you need to learn also your market, who you want to focus on, and in the beginning I focused on more young age, after that I changed and I became different. My focus is women in different ages, it doesn’t matter age is not, biological age doesn’t count, only that they like colors and have a free spirit and open mind to try different things, and that’s what I focus on.
How much of your business is focused on your community?
Anyone that comes here in the store can feel the energy because everything is about energy. We really happy to see woman discover their own beauty. I think beauty comes from outside in and inside out. When we have a nice outfit, a nice dress, it can really help you to, you know, feel good about yourself, about the world around you, it really helps your self esteem and I think they’re good in that. Everyone comes here, she’ll feel awesome. Always find something, it doesn’t matter your size or — you can always find something that can make the change about who you feel about yourself.
And we first, we chose this place because it’s downtown NHV, we love the city. I think New Haven is a really cool town, first there’s a lot of life here, a lot of culture, and we can meet a lot of people from different parts of the world. It’s really cool about NHV, always have new people coming and going and it’s a very spicy town … spicy because it’s like from different flavors, different people from all over the world. New Haven’s a diverse city and lot of cultural life and great food, great artists and Yale University
Are you here to stay?
You know my heart is divided in different places, also family in Brazil and I love Brazilian culture, I love to travel there as well, and also Israel. We both like you know, a combination of things, but for now we stay here. I don’t know what’s in the future, I follow the spirit. Where the spirit takes me, I’ll go.
It’s about having your way, but Yurway. Yurway is your way. Yurway is your way.
This interview is part of WNHH-LP’s “Open For Business” series on immigrant business owners and leaders in the nonprofit community. “Open for Business” is sponsored by Frontier Communications. Frontier is proud to be Connecticut’s hometown provider of TV and internet for your home and business. Their phone number is 1.888.Frontier and their website is Frontier.com To listen, click on or download the audio above.
