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  • Lizzi Lambert is moving the studio for her clothing store, Haystacks, which has locations in Leland, Suttons Bay andTraverse City. Record-Eagle/Jan-Michael Stump

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  • Some of Lizzi Lambert's clothing and accessories in her Haystacks shop in Leland. Record-Eagle/Jan-Michael Stump

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  • Some of Lizzi Lambert's clothing and accessories in her Haystacks shop in Leland. Record-Eagle/Jan-Michael Stump

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November 7, 2010

Northern People: Clothing line begins

First shop was in Fishtown; fourth in downtown TC

By VANESSA McCRAY vmccray@record-eagle.com

LELAND — Lizzi Lambert learned to sew as a kindergartener, making Barbie doll clothes out of scraps from her mother's in-home alterations business.

Now Lambert is the owner of Haystacks, a chain of four local clothing stores, much of whose stock is designed and manufactured in an upstairs loft space on Leland's Main Street. By mid-November, Lambert plans to move the sewing operation to a space in Suttons Bay.

She chooses vivid colors and graphic prints for her designs. Among the line's staples are skirts with a signature, lettuce-edge hem; loose, wrinkle-free pants; and accessories made with vintage trims. The clothes are simple and versatile, allowing the prints and colors to make the statement.

"I started with pants. I found this fabric that I loved," Lambert said, pointing to a bold, black-and-white print with a pattern that looks like a pile of newspaper clippings and headlines. "I needed to figure out something to do with this fabric."

Stitch by stitch, the clothing company expanded.

"I did just have an idea, and I was just determined," she said.

Lambert and her family moved from Florida to a farm in Northport in 1999. A few years later, she opened the first Haystacks store in Fishtown, Leland's little cluster of shanties along the river. The store is named Alice's Closet after Lambert's mother. During the day, Lambert worked at the store, getting a idea for the clothes customers craved.

"I would run up here and sew at night," she said, of the upstairs work space about a block away on Main Street.

She opened a second shop in Leland, located on Main Street across from her sewing studio. A Suttons Bay store followed, and this year she opened a fourth store on East Front Street in downtown Traverse City. The Haystacks name refers to the hay farming Lambert tried at the Northport farm.

"The equipment was always breaking down," she said.

But she liked the needle-in-a-haystack concept for her clothing brand. Lambert currently has two people who sew clothing for her, and she still does a lot of the fabric cutting.

Haystacks introduces new prints about five times a year to keep the line fresh and seasonal. Among Lambert's favorites are a textured, jacquard knit from Brazil, fabrics from a Los Angeles supplier and a French fabric from which she makes the roomy, cowl-neck "Manitou Sweater." It's difficult to get dealers to sell to her since she's a relatively small company, and "untangling the puzzle" of how to run a business has been one of the richest rewards.

A few times Lambert has spotted someone in a faraway spot, like a grocery store or an airport, in one of her designs. It gives her a little thrill to see her clothing worn by others, and she wants to open more stores in other states.

Pushed up against a big window in the Leland sewing loft is a reminder of where it all began. Surrounded by yards of fabric and a pile of finished skirts is the old family sewing machine on which Lambert first learned the craft.

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