Tuesday May 19th marks the return to work for Top Shelf. We have many customers to contact for appointments for fittings on work in progress, and new and existing clients already have appointments for this week. Our biggest concern is the safety of both staff and clients. Our Covid plan for the foreseeable future includes masks when unable to social distance, hand washing upon entry, temperature checks, and constant sanitation and disinfectant of all the touchable surfaces. We’ve connected through webinars with other custom clothiers around the US and shared many good ideas adaptable to different businesses. We are very fortunate to have a large showroom area, and a spacious workroom to be able to bring back our crew. Even so, staff will work different days and hours to cut down on contact with one another.

An interesting topic has been discussed on how the virus might linger on clothing. One good thing is that our clients will only be trying clothing on that is made for them.  We will be protecting all our garments in plastic until ready to be tried on, and will hang for 48 hours after being worked on. Evidence suggests that it’s much harder to catch the virus from a soft surface like fabric, although it might linger on hard surfaces like buttons and zippers. We like to have customers be able to touch and feel fabric swatches, and we’ll be leaving any samples out in the open exposed to sunlight as much as possible for natural disinfecting.

 

Top Shelf has been honored to have many local musicians as clients, like Paul Peterson, The New Standards and Jeremy Messersmith wearing our tailored outfits in front of thousands of people.  This year just before the Covid crisis took off, we were proud to add another veteran of the Minneapolis music scene Tina Schlieske (https://tinaschlieske.com).  She had seen Wesley Snipes wearing a beautiful burgundy tuxedo for the Golden Globes and wanted a similar one. She also had a favorite coat, in red velvet and requested another in green velvet.

Tina is most well known in the Twin Cities for over 2 decades of performing with Tina and the B-Sides, and recently for several Dakota shows of Frank Sinatra tributes, and as special guest with the New Standards laying them in the aisles with her rendition of James Brown’s “This is a Man’s World”. She now calls Santa Barbara home with her partner and two children.

It would be great if we could reopen, but our governor has pushed back the timeline for us until May 18th.  In the meantime, we’ve been cleaning and preparing with Covid plans to welcome customers  back. We have lots of beautiful ties, socks, belts and other accessories for spring. Like is too short to wear boring ties and socks.

We are hoping that our clients are healthy and safe, and we thank all the first line responders who have been putting them selves at risk so that we can buy groceries safely, and go to the hospitals when we need to.  A big round of applause too for all the UPS, Amazon, US Postal workers and all the others who allow us to stay inside and order what we need.  Hope to see you soon!

Even though we’ve not been allowed to open our doors, we have stayed very busy preparing for when that day comes. We’ve been scrubbing and disinfecting every inch of Top Shelf in anticipation of re-opening. Our workroom just needs tailors back in action doing something besides making masks. We have a Covid plan ready to operate safely with all the precautions we can take. Our operation is spread out over 4 floors, and our tailoring staff can easily work with in social distancing guidelines. Our book-keeping and admin will be isolated on the second floor. The main floor has plenty of space for distancing, hand sanitizing sprayers are at the ready for coming and going, and masks and gloves for facing the customers will hopefully do the job of keeping everyone safe. We are just crossing our fingers that May 4th will be the day we can welcome our guests again.

It happens every year in April! Today they are looking good despite the snow. We’ve got 2000 fresh bulbs just starting to pop. Even though we’re closed, it’s worth driving by to feel the power that spring flowers bring.