A Boutique Owner Who Does More Than Sell Clothes
NEW YORK, N.Y. — Rain fell quickly onto the already flooded streets. On a quiet side street in Chelsea only a few New Yorkers could be found as the weather clearly kept them away. It was not a night for wandering and shopping, but this didn’t keep a small store from buzzing with activity. Employees bustled about, taking inventory and helping the few customers who had braved the elements to spend some time shopping. The store’s owner walked around, making sure that everything was running smoothly, and stopping to chat with customers and employees alike.
Deborah Koenigsberger started the clothing store, Noir Et Blanc, in downtown Manhattan, over 25 years ago. She has kept women fashionably dressed ever since, in addition to starting Hearts of Gold, a non-profit which aims to help homeless mothers and their children find permanent housing.
“What I love to do most is dress women,” said Ms. Koenigsberger. “I like making women feel really good about themselves.”
Ms. Koenigsberger did not always know that she wanted to work in fashion. At the age of ten her family immigrated from Jamaica to The Bronx. In high school she discovered a love of French and was eager to follow this passion. She attended New York University, where she continued to do more with language. She learned German, Italian, and French, all of which she continues to use to this day.
After graduating from college, Ms. Koenigsberger went to work at the United Nations. She had hoped to one day act as a translator, but soon found that everything leading up to it just wasn’t for her.
“To get to where I wanted to get to in that field it would have taken 5 to 7 years of drudgery,” said Ms. Koenigsberger. However, Ms. Koenigsberger did have another passion to fall back on. She had begun modeling at the age of 16 and found that she loved fashion.
“I left fashion, went to the UN and went right back to fashion,” she said.
With this in mind she began working in a clothing store. Eventually she began working as a stylist and then opened her own store.
“Being a retail store owner, it was very organic,” she said. “I literally climbed up every rung of the ladder.”
In addition to Noir Et Blanc, Ms. Koenigsberger also started the Hearts of Gold charity to keep homeless women and their children off the streets.
“I started Hearts of Gold because of a Stevie Wonder song that spoke about homelessness,” she said.
While Ms. Koenigsberger didn’t specify the song, she did explain that her goal was to embody that song in one way or another. At the time she lived near Madison Square Park, in Manhattan, and decided to help at least one of the homeless mothers who slept in the park because they had nowhere else to go. Ms. Koenigsberger soon realized that helping one family wasn’t enough and decided to start Hearts of Gold to continue her mission.
As part of the charity she runs a thrift store named The Thrifty HoG next to Noir Et Blanc. The store’s proceeds go to the charity and women can work in the store as basic job training. Through proceeds from The Thrifty HoG and donations to Hearts of Gold, over 20,000 women and children have been able to transition out of the New York City shelter system and into permanent homes.
“I think that the secret to nailing anything is that you better be passionate about it,” she said. “You better really want to do it.”
