Jessica Herman

While the sentiment "I 'heart' New York" rings true for New Yorkers and New Yorkophiles, many of us would be happier flaunting our Wicker Park or Lincoln Park pride. Thanks to Neighborhoodies (1300 North Milwaukee), international purveyor of custom-stitched garments, you can.

Opening on November 26, the storefront is essentially a production warehouse stocked with a bevy of basic garments that customers may choose to decorate. Within the hour a team of seamstresses stitch your design du jour, offering aesthetic advice upon request. And while the company started primarily as a way to show your neighborhood love, customers mix it up with their requests with references to inside jokes, quotes from favorite books and quirky combinations of shapes and text.

After flaunting his own Brooklyn neighborhood pride in the form of a hand-sewn sweatshirt, 31-year-old founder Michael de Zaysa started Neighborhoodies three years ago as a mail-order operation. His company speedily grew bigger than its britches. He moved the production out of his apartment into a loft space, has fifty full-time employees, three storefronts-two in New York, one in Hollywood-and bundles of shipments are flying across the country, even across the pond, due to online orders.

Written up in the New York Times, with his concept touted by Fader magazine as "the most brilliant yet simple fashion idea of this decade," de Zayas seems to have found the secret to success. And it's not rocket science.

"We do things with love," de Zayas says earnestly. "[The item] is translated by human beings, touches so many hands. We have a stamp for each of our sewers that says 'Stitched by hand with love by [fill in the blank].'" www.neighborhoodies.com

(2005-11-21)

Also by Jessica Herman

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