Kingston clothing store ordered to make entrance wheelchair-accessible

The state Appeals Court on Friday upheld a decision requiring 11 J.M. Hollister clothing stores in Massachusetts to make their entrances accessible to people with disabilities.When Hollister opened its store at the Independence Mall in Kingston in 2015, it replaced an accessible interior entrance with two adjacent doors, one with steps and one without.In 2018, Jennifer Niles, a wheelchair user, filed a complaint with the state Architectural Access Board saying the accessible doorway frequently failed to work.In November 2018, the board ordered New Albany, Ohio-based Hollister to make the entrances handicapped-accessible.An emergency access next to the other entrance was later modified to be wheelchair-accessible, but the board ruled that all three doors must be accessible. The board found that the potential benefits to disabled shoppers far outweighed the cost of modifying the main entrance.

Hollister appealed, but a Superior Court judge ruled that the board’s decision was proper. In upholding that decision, the Appeals Court agreed and suggested that Hollister inflated its estimate of how much it would cost to make the entrances handicapped-accessible.“Even if cost were considered, the board did not find the construction estimates of between $64,000 and $100,000 to be adequately supported in the record,” justices wrote in their decision. “Although Hollister provided a cost estimate, the board considered the estimate excessive.”MacKenzie Bruce, a spokeswoman for Hollister, said the company does not comment on pending litigation.Eleven of the 16 Hollister stores in Massachusetts have the same style entrance as the one in Kingston.

Jewelry designer to host trunk show

Barnett hand engraves a customer's monogram on anything that has a space for it."It is important to know that this line is not a religious statement, although it is a spiritual one," explained Barnett, in an email.All the jewelry is "Made in America," with the design and fabrication done in Dallas.The jewelry journey for the former interior designer began when she traveled to Mexico with friends. "We all brought back santos figures and retablos, which are paintings on tin. They tell a story about a miraculous event in the life of the painter and are created to give thanks," Barnett said.This artist then started collecting saint medals and made personal necklaces out of them.

When admirers requested that she make similar pieces for them, she agreed, "It was more or less a hobby for several years until I decided that was what I really wanted to do," the designer said.She was a single mom, 45, when she changed careers 22 years ago.It was scary at first, but the business grew from one room of her home to an office with several employees, including four who follow her designs and put together the jewelry.Materials used in the designs include: cut stone and various sizes and shapes of freshwater pearls from China or Japan.The saint medals cast in red bronze are the best selling product in the line,"These medals were cast from vintage ones, Barnett said.Another hot product hit: sterling cuff bracelets crated from antique napkin rings.Some pieces are replicas of antiques and some of the larger pendants were originally such things as whiskey labels or dance cards, while some belt buckles might be baby brushes, soap dishes or dresser jar lids.

L.A. house fits family heirlooms into vintage modern design mix

When Mark Fay heard that the F.P. Fay Building was about to be demolished, the "True Blood" sound engineer drove to downtown Los Angeles to see the building named for his great-grandfather. That day, Easter Sunday, he discovered the building had already been knocked down, with little left but some ironwork and Fay Building signage on a piece of marble.Twenty-three years and one trip to the welder later, the silver F-A-Y lettering now hangs above a treasured turntable, standing out against a living room wall's matte black chalkboard paint. In the Eagle Rock home where Mark and Melinda Fay live with their two boys, Boon and Haskell, the rescued sign represents not only a piece of salvaged family history but also the decorating mix of the moment: a playful blend of vintage and contemporary."I have great nostalgia for things and an appreciation for vintage," said Melinda, a psychotherapist who specializes in art therapy. "I love Midcentury, but I believe in comfort. I like to mix it up."

The heirlooms go beyond inherited pieces (those Emmy Awards on the shelf belonged to Mark’s father, Sheldon, a cameraman). For these regulars at the Rose Bowl and Pasadena City College flea markets and aficionados of Etsy and EBay, possessions have been amassed through a combination of kismet and determination.Case in point: After his grandparents' house in the Hollywood Hills was demolished, Mark jumped the fence and found "The Archer," a large stone relief originally mounted outside the pool house. He snagged it from the junk pile and hung it on the exterior of the brick fireplace at the Eagle Rock house. "The Archer" now oversees his children at play, just as it did when he was a child.The Fays’ surplus of artworks, including outsider art and thrift store finds, chronicles the couple’s life together. In the master bedroom hangs a painting by street artist Becca that Mark bought to woo Melinda. Over the couch in the family room, a snake is rendered on a vintage map by Lynn Hanson. "Our house is right on the bottom above the artist’s signature," Melinda said.

Clothing swap thrift shoppers help women in need

Vividly colored dresses, lightly worn shoes, shirts and jeans of all sizes, shapes and hues neatly lined the walls of a Norman elementary school gymnasium Saturday as it was turned into a momentary thrift store boutique for a noble cause.The first Norman Clothes Swap, started by a few women from Redeemer Church in Norman, NYC group gives away prom dresses to Sandy victims.was held from 10 a.m. to noon at Roosevelt Elementary School. Shoppers were encouraged to bring clothes to donate, or swap, or just to come and purchase from the various donations received earlier.The event raised money to provide clothing and supplies for at-risk women in the greater Oklahoma City area, and all of the extra clothes will be donated to various local community groups that help women in need, said Jenny LaBahn, the event's organizer.A few agencies in the area that work to assist at-risk women tabled at the swap and discussed the importance of the event.Vanessa Morrison, representative from the Women's Resource Center of Norman, a domestic violence and emergency shelter for women, expressed how important this event was in helping to provide much-needed clothing for the agency.

"The women that come to the Women's Resource Center of Norman often have nowhere else to go, and many come in with no shoes or their babies come in with no clothes, literally in a diaper, so the Norman Clothes Swap is very important for us because it pulls together the community resources to provide those clothing articles for the residence of our shelter," Morrison said.Other representatives of local organizations devoted to assisting women expressed the event's significance not only in raising funds and receiving donations, but also in spreading the word about local agencies and getting in contact with individuals interested in helping in their communities."The Norman Clothes Swap is a great chance for us to meet people who are interested in partnering with us," said Corrie Matchell, a representative from the Spero Project, an organization that mobilizes the church to under-resourced populations, mainly in Oklahoma City.

NYC group gives away prom dresses to Sandy victims

Girls whose families were wiped out by Superstorm Sandy can still party in style, thanks to a New York City charity that has collected more than 1,000 prom dresses for the storm's victims.The nonprofit group Where to Turn held a free dress expo at a Staten Island high school Saturday for teenagers whose families lost homes and cars in the massive storm. People from all over the country, as well as a Hollywood marketing firm and a prom dress company in New England, contributed gowns to the event, held in a neighborhood devastated by flooding.The group has held smaller dress giveaways in recent years to help kids from down-and-out families afford prom night, but this year's event took on new significance after the storm damaged or destroyed tens of thousands of homes in New York, New Jersey and Connecticut."Right now, people are rebuilding and they don't have enough money to take care of the normal day-to-day things ... things that, you know, kids really shouldn't miss out on," said Where to Turn executive director Dennis McKeon.

Among the roughly 125 teenagers who came through the exp was Katie Zukhovich, 15, whose home on the Staten Islan waterfront filled with 7 feet of water during the storm. She picked out a black dress with a low slit in the back.Where to Turn was originally founded to help victims of the 9/11 terror attacks but has branched out into a variety of other charitable endeavors over the past decade. At the dress expo Saturday, it also had 250 pairs of donated shoes and $5,000 worth of hair accessories donated by Conair. A Staten Island dry cleaning company cleaned all 1,000 dresses for nothing."We had long, elegant, beaded gowns to short dresses to everything in between," McKeon said, adding that "I don't know much about this stuff because I have three sons."