By Scott Sieber
Beginnings Bleus, a fashion-forward unisex clothing store stocking the latest brand names from designers most people shop for in Manhattan, peddles such titles as Seven, Juicy, Citizens of Humanity, Lacoste, True Religion, Paige, French Connection, Splendid T-shirts and Solo.On a recent Friday morning, Jill Bisbano, a 24-year-old Bayside resident and assistant manager, said the Bay Terrace Shopping Center store has effectively provided her with her dream job. With a sly grin, she explained the job perks surpass all others.”When we get a new shipment in, we go right at them,” she said, adding that the store receives new shipments every day, so taking stock and putting new items on display is a fashion hound's highlight of the workday. “This is the only place like this in Queens,” added her co-worker, Emily Draves, 19, another self-proclaimed fashion connoisseur. Indeed, with prices starting at $20 and rounding out at just over $400 for some of the elite of the elite jeans – the ripped, patched, frayed and frilled – from Los Angeles designers True Religion, even local celebrities have stopped by for decadent shopping sprees.R&B sensation Craig David and G Unit's Tony Yayo have perused the goods in Beginnings Bleus for some of the handmade jeans. Even local boys from the New York Mets have shopped in Bleus.Unique items like the True Religion jeans, which come with the prices already attached to the tags, are hot sellers even among the average Joes and Janes, the girls said. “The patchwork jeans are expensive, but they're really trendy,” said Bisbano. “Each pair is handmade and each has a different design.”The devil is in the details, said Draves, pointing to one pair of jeans with a few strands of hot pink fabric sewn into the belt line.”They're really in demand,” said store owner Elaine Andriotis Chronis, who has been in the fashion business for the past 20 years. “It's premium denim.”Bleus also carries children's clothing designed by Juicy, Diesel and Ed Hardy, clothing with tattoo graphics woven into the fabrics.”This is a store a mother, a father, a son and a daughter could easily shop in,” said Andriotis Chronis. “I have four boys, from 19 to 7, and they all get their clothing in our store.”Bleus is located in the Bay Terrace Shopping Center at 212-09 26th Ave. in Bayside. For more information call 718-428-3771.Reach reporter Scott Sieber by e-mail at news@timesledger.com or by phone at 718-229-0300, Ext. 138.
