Antonella Pastorelli tells Natasha Baluchi why, at the age of 58, she decided to take on Clothes Sense, an alterations and haberdashery shop celebrating its 50th anniversary this year
WHILE many Islanders would most likely be planning for retirement in their 50s, Antonella Pastorelli instead took, what she calls, a “leap of faith”.
Born in Jersey to an Italian father and English mother, Antonella spent much of her childhood in Italy.
“I’ve been sewing since I was nine,” she said. “Everybody sewed where we lived in Italy. One of my aunties was a seamstress and she got me doing little stitches and sewing waistbands onto trousers.”
After returning to Jersey and building a career in administration and nearing retirement, she found herself looking for a “new challenge” following the Covid pandemic.
At 58, the former school administrator spotted an unexpected opening. Her friend was preparing to sell Clothes Sense, a long-established alterations business in St Helier.
Sensing the chance for a late career pivot, she stepped in to take over the business.
“I spoke to Ruth, the previous owner, about maybe doing some extra sewing from home and she dropped the bombshell question: ‘Would you like to buy my business?’”
After a quick turnaround, Antonella bought the shop in December 2021, a decision which required her to quickly develop skills she had never previously needed.
“It was serendipitous really,” she says. “I’d never been an employer before, and I’d never owned a business. It was a steep learning curve.”
Clothes Sense first opened in 1976, and, in the ensuing 50 years, it has become a familiar fixture opposite Sand Street car park, predominantly providing services of alterations, repairs and costume design.
Today, the shop employs five members of staff, who bring decades of specialist experience within the industry. They also take on apprentices, bringing what Antonella describes as a “young and fresh vibe” to the business, while giving people the opportunity to learn from the team’s extensive expertise.
“I’ve been really lucky with the ladies I inherited with the business. They’re dedicated, professional and there’s a really good atmosphere in the shop,” she says. “Clients often even comment that there’s a nice vibe in the shop.”
The shop’s services now range from replacing zips and shortening trousers to fitting wedding dresses and creating bespoke curtains.
“We do a lot of prom dresses and bridal wear too,” she explains. “We can do anything that requires a needle and thread, basically.
“We also offer a home service as some of our clients have been coming to us for many years but find the stairs quite difficult, so I’m always happy to make home visits.”
While some customers underestimate the complexity of clothing alterations, Antonella said the work required significant expertise and it “isn’t an easy process”.
“People think it’s just taking in a seam, but it’s not. You’re not just paying for our time; you’re paying for our knowledge and our skills.”
She describes alterations as “reverse engineering”, requiring expertise and knowledge of clothing and how they are formed, even explaining that “a zip can take 30 to 45 minutes just to remove”.
“You’re unpicking somebody else’s work and reconstructing it,” she said. “These ladies know garment construction inside out, literally.”
Over the years, the business has seen an increase in customers buying second-hand clothing and looking to repair or adapt clothing rather than replacing it, a move often driven by environmental awareness.
“There are garments people simply don’t want to part with,” she said. “If the clothes are worth saving, we’ll save them.
“Because people are more conscious of the waste and pollution the fashion industry causes, we do get people who, for example, buy prom dresses from a charity shop. We can alter them by shortening them or pulling them in.”
The owner adds that some clothes even hold significant emotional value and recounts a memorable experience where a customer repeatedly returned with the same pair of jeans for alteration.
“By the end there were more patches than original Levi’s, but what mattered the most was that he loved them.”
The shop also creates memory bears from clothing belonging to loved ones, which holds huge sentimental value.
“There’s a lot of sentimentality attached to clothes. We’ve made memory bears from baby clothes or from garments belonging to loved ones that have passed away. It’s really lovely to see people’s reactions when they collect them.”
Alongside traditional repairs, the business has seen unexpected modern trends influence demand.
The rise of weight-loss medication, says Antonella, has also created an unexpected source of business, with customers bringing in their entire wardrobes to be resized rather than replaced.
“We’ve had a few people who have had a whole wardrobe and don’t want to necessarily get rid of all their clothes and start from scratch, so they come in with bundles of clothes to alter,” she explained.
In common with many small businesses in the Island, Clothes Sense has faced a number of challenges, including “increases in cost and a lack of qualified staff”, which Antonella says have made their “margins tighter”.
However, with help from the Better Business Grant – an initiative designed to help local employers boost productivity and skills – Antonella has upgraded her sewing machines and also taken courses in London to enhance her knowledge.
“I applied for a skills and productivity grant. The productivity grant allowed me to purchase three new machines, which then allowed me to take on an extra person for the team,” she said.
“The skills grant meant that I could do a course at the University of the Arts, London. There’s always something new to learn which I can pass on.”
Looking ahead, Antonella worries about the long-term future of traditional textile skills.
“We need to make sure we don’t lose these skills,” she says. “I can’t imagine a robot unpicking a zip without ripping it to shreds.”
Despite the challenges she has experienced, Antonella is adamant that it was the right decision to step into business ownership.
“I’m proud that I took the leap of faith,” she said.
While reflecting on her journey from administration to running a well-established Jersey business, she returns to one quote.
“People say do something every day that scares you. I think I did my lifetime’s worth all at once.”
