Few women dare to wear heels in their 80s, but Dorothy Simpson is cut from a different cloth. Hair slicked back into gathered gray chiffon, feet tucked into a matching pair of pumps and neck adorned with five strands of faceted crystal, she was elegant, with a twist.
"Here I am, just a little old lady," she said, to the amusement of her staff.
At 82, Simpson is the grand dame of Caledonia Fine Fabrics, a multi-faceted Boise business that began in a Boston basement in 1947.
It was there that Simpson started working with textiles when she was 22. Two years later, she pieced together an inventory of remnants from her father's import business and $200 made from the sale of her collection of fine old clothes. Within a year, she was making $100 a week buying and selling fabrics, and after leaving her first husband, she poured all of her energy and resources into being an entrepreneur.
"I was divorced and in business. Ladies didn't do that then," she said, smiling.
By the time Simpson was running her own successful fabric shop in Pelham, N.Y., people were thinking differently about what women did and did not do. Six were featured in a 1952 article in Glamour Magazine called, "What it takes to operate your own business." Managerial know-how, capital, personality, integrity, trustworthiness and robust health were listed, along with photos and descriptions of successful women, including Simpson, selling everything from baby clothes to holiday decorations.
Wearing a tailored jacket, classic pearls and a perfect manicure, Simpson stood in front of shelves of fabric waiting to be sold to neighborhood clients or shipped to mail-order customers. Her story was told to inspire other women, and many years later, it still does.
"She's a matriarchal force, a visionary and a rock. She's amazing," said Diana Howard-Turner, Simpson's daughter and business partner. The two have been working together since 1996, but Howard-Turner followed in her mother's footsteps long before.
When she was 22 (just like her mother), she and her sister, Helen, opened a Benetton boutique franchise in Downtown Boise. They did well enough to open six more stores in Idaho and Washington, due in great part to the values they learned growing up in the family's New York shop.
"My customers are everything," Simpson said. She remembers her first one, an Italian woman who was still buying fabric from her 40 years later. "I always bought value, attractive things that would wear well and give good service I made up my mind I was never going to sell a woman something bad."
And as far as anyone can tell, she never has, even if that has meant spending more.
"Any fabric business has a relatively slow turnover. It takes a lot of money to keep the shelves stocked like this, but Dorothy believes in instant gratification," Howard-Turner said. "We care about every yard that gets purchased and made into a garment. There's a lot of love going into every piece."
These pieces blur into a visual feast. Customers have been known to wander the bolts for hours, taking in classic silk dupioni, Ultrasuede in every color and couture labels like Chanel, Ellen Tracy, Roberto Cavalli, Betsey Johnson, Nicole Miller, Dolce and Gabbana, Carolina Hererra and Mood, which supplies the hit Bravo show "Project Runway." And that's not counting the home decor section.
The "notions" room is full of lace and clasps, zippers and ribbons, buttons in every color. There are John Deere tractors, red poppies, poker cards, tribal images, skulls, portraits, even a button made of tiny buttons. They range in price from about 20 cents to $30, but at Caledonia, you get what you pay for.
"There are three things I don't believe in: retirement, homework and undercutting other people's products," Simpson said, reading aloud a needlepoint of a John Ruskin quote done by a former employee. " 'The bitterness of poor quality lingers long after the sweetness of low price is forgotten.' "
She called herself a functionary of creative people, but for some, Simpson also is a landlord. She and Howard-Turner completed construction on a 6,000-square-foot addition to Caledonia one year ago, and they are celebrating how it has come to life.
Downstairs is Holland's Sew Shoppe, which sells top-of-the-line sewing machines, sergers, accessories and supplies, as well as running a full service department.
Upstairs is Fuzz, which offers a rainbow of unique materials such as ultra-warm bison yarn, recycled Indian saris and the luxurious by-products of corn, soy, milk, even shellfish. Mary Humme and Diane Rinaldo own and run the place, and they offer instruction in techniques from spinning to weaving to knitting in the hope of preserving as many handmade arts as possible. They also work with charitable organizations like Sheila's Shawls and Paul's Scarves, which donates handmade items to victims of domestic abuse, and Manos del Uruguay, which provides native women a sustainable wage.
Down the hall is a space that doubles as a production area and a classroom for the developing sewing school, where customers turned employees like seamstress Carol Relf and manager Peggi Anderson can pass their knowledge on to pupils ranging from teens to retirees.
"It's a creative little mecca," Howard-Turner said.
And the creative people within it seem to feel as though they are part of something special. Relf insisted Caledonia is unlike any fabric store she has ever seen. Humme and Rinaldo say Simpson is like a mother to everyone, not just in the building, but in the community. Her shop serves local theater companies and special interest groups. Men come in for silk to make fishing flies or trim for ballroom dancing costumes. Women flock to learn how to sew one-of-a-kind clothes or to reupholster their living room furniture.
"Our customers' success is our success," Howard-Turner said. "Supporting that is my absolute goal, watching them take off and run."
The sewing school is helping more and more people celebrate their own successes, even if it's just patching a pair of favorite jeans. The November calendar is full of classes from copying couture designs to building bustiers to pajama workshops for kids, and Simpson and Howard-Turner hope to create a program for boarders at local shelters that will help them learn a useful trade. For now, they are happy to see people taking an interest in something dear to their hearts, the endless possibilities of a needle and thread.
"This is not a business where you get rich quick," Humme said. "You have to be passionate. Dorothy and Diana are incredible. They live and breathe it. This whole building is full of unique creativity."