Fairfield Woman's Hat Business Growing, Featured By Macy's

FAIRFIELD, CT — A small Fairfield business is seeing success with one of America’s most prominent department stores.

Shady Lady hats are now being sold by Macy’s.

“It was honestly like a ‘pinch me’ moment, because we hadn’t even been in business for a year,” founder Allyson Mandelbaum said. “To have it happen in the first year is amazing and fantastic.”

Since Macy’s started selling Mandelbaum’s hats on its website, orders have more than doubled, Mandelbaum said.

Mandelbaum launched Shady Lady in June 2020 after struggling to find a comfortable and stylish ball cap. She met a Macy’s buyer in November after an employee of the brand saw one of Mandelbaum’s former coworkers wearing a Shady Lady hat.

In the last year, Mandelbaum has expanded her business, hiring an employee, starting an internship program and releasing a line of beach hats called Shady Beach. The beach hats feature an adjustable band, maintain their shape and have “the right amount of floppiness,” Mandelbaum said.

With ball caps and beach hats already on the market, Shady Lady’s next project will be a line of winter hats, available in the fall, she said.

Mandelbaum and her husband design the hats, which are produced by a New York-based manufacturer and can be purchased locally from Saltwater in Fairfield or Winged Monkey and Scout & Molly’s Boutique, both in Westport. Shady Lady also sells its hats on Amazon, and will be at the PopShop Market from 9 a.m. to 4 p.m. July 31 at Milford Green in Milford.

In honor of its first year in business, Shady Lady donated a percentage of its profits to the Surfrider Foundation for beach and ocean preservation, according to Mandelbaum, who said Shady Lady will make a similar donation annually.

For more information, visit shopshadylady.com.