Kestrel
! HOPE TREMBLAY NATE BLAIS
E
liza Jane Bradley, owner of Kestrel in Northampton, is thrilled to celebrate her shop’s 10-year anniversary in 2022 in the town where it all started. Bradley started her career in Northampton, working at Roz’s vintage clothing shop. When the owners took her to a trade show in New York City, she was hooked on fashion. Bradley moved to Colorado where she was a buyer for Buffalo Exchange, then enrolled in the Art Institute for Fashion Design in San Francisco. Throughout her career, Bradley yearned for her own store. “My entrepreneurial interest continued to grow and the seed of having my own shop ‘in the future someday’ was planted,” Bradley said. After college she worked for two independent children’s clothing brands. “I learned from working in small businesses that one must be able to
wear many hats,” she said. “I worked in product development plus design, managing wholesale accounts, graphic design, e-commerce and helped open a small retail shop in San Francisco’s Mission District. “The work was diverse, challenging, and I learned a lot, but I was ready for a change. I kept coming back to the idea of working for myself and wanted to make it happen.” Bradley said she had no idea how to start so she took a 12-week intensive business development class. “It was there that I really finetuned my vision, learned to write a proper business plan and, most importantly, gained the confidence to take the leap,” said Bradley. Taking that leap was a bit easier close to home and she recalled how much she enjoyed her retail experience in Northampton. “Growing up in western Massachusetts and knowing what a wonderful town Northampton is,
GOLOCALMAGAZINES.COM 19
