By Jamie Kelly, Bulletin editor

For Suzie Hauptman, the launch of her boutique is both a new adventure and a return to her roots.
Hauptman hopes to open Polly and Esther in the 5300 block of Penn Avenue by the end of October.
While most of her career was spent in the health care industry, that wasn’t how she got her start. After graduating from college with a degree in journalism and advertising, she wanted to go into promotions.
“But the jobs, finding them and then getting interviews and stuff was really tough,” she said. “So I got into retail, and I just did really well in it, but you made no money. So I got the opportunity to move to Columbus, Ohio. I opened a mall. One of the women that worked for me convinced me to apply Nationwide Insurance for, like a real job, I guess. And I got the job, and I was making more money than ever.”
From there, she moved into health care, but after several rounds of layoffs, she wanted to be in control of her own destiny.
“Why not take what I loved, which was clothing, retail and customer focus and actually do it myself?” she asked. “When I was in retail, I had always thought I was going to open a clothing store. So Polly Esther was always the name.”
Her family history helped convince her of the location. Her father once owned a business in Bloomfield and later owned another business on Centre Avenue in East Liberty. She once lived nearby also, and said she thinks Garfield is a neighborhood that will keep growing.
To make a store possible, she worked with the Urban Redevelopment Authority of Pittsburgh and the Neighborhood Community Development Fund. She was also helped by the Center For Women’s Entrepreneurship.
Hauptman’s hope for Polly and Esther is a store where women can find clothes they love to wear and that look great on them.
“I want people to know that they can look good at any size, at any age, and that they can feel comfortable too,” she said.
To help with that, she plans to offer both new and vintage clothing.
“My store will have a mix of new clothing, new styles, you know, cutting edge fashion, but I also will have a resale component, so that you can be in one place buy a gently used pair of pants right to go with this beautiful new top that you just bought,” she said.
She plans to offer people discounts in return for gently used clothes as a way to encourage people to bring in items.
Hauptman said she thinks the time’s right for a boutique like hers.
“I want people to have a positive experience,” she said. “We’re coming out of COVID. And people want to go back in the stores. They want somebody to say, yeah, that looks good on you.”