Small Business Focus: For 30 Years, CPW Has Dressed Customers from Age 18 to 90 (Updated to Include The Hat)

By Carol Tannenhauser

Hats don’t become me — except for the one I found last winter in a small women’s clothing store on 84th Street and Amsterdam Avenue, called CPW. I had wandered in and told owner Linda Wolff my dilemma, and she had produced a hat that she said couldn’t fail. She was right; I loved it like no other.

Then, I lost it. Bereft, I went back to CPW to buy another, but Linda said it was out of stock and they weren’t making any more. We commiserated, and I discovered she knows my cousin.

I was thinking about my lost hat this fall, when my cousin called to tell me that Linda had called to tell her to tell me that she was able to get more of the hats! I ran to CPW and bought two. You can have your acres-long department stores. I’ll take a mom and pop — or a Linda — any day.

Linda (who declined to be photographed for this story) has been in business on the Upper West Side for 30 years. She came to this location in 2002, and before that was on Broadway and 75th Street for more than a decade. To what does she attribute CPW’s longevity? “I have a certain vision,” she said, when we spoke in the store last Saturday, “and I’ve pretty much stayed true to it. I’m known as a denim store. I carry contemporary women’s clothing that is simple, with a little bit of an edge.”

If the clothes are edgy, the ambiance is not. “It’s very important to me to create a safe, nonjudgmental space for my customers,” Linda said. “They range in age from 18 to 90, and are very, very loyal. I know them well. You get a tremendous amount of service in this store. Some customers don’t even look at the racks. They come in and say, ‘What have you got for me?’ or they call ahead and I set up a dressing room for them.”

Linda knows shopping can be linked to mood and loves to make people feel better, but prudently. “Sometimes, I’ll say, ‘I think you have enough for today,’” she explained, but not this day.

“I’ve got a great new sweater for you, by the way,” she said.

CPW, 495 Amsterdam Avenue, southeast corner of 84th Street. Open 11 a.m. to 7 p.m. Monday through Saturday, closes at 6 p.m. on Sunday.