After a six-month stint in Phoenix, Joyce Feickert and her husband, Marvin Kirchler, have returned to Tucson to reopen their store, Hem & Her.
“I got really homesick and missed the people who had been my customers for 30 years,” Feickert said. “I had no idea it was gonna be that hard. So I talked my husband into coming back.”
Feickert has a long history in the tailoring business, which started three decades ago, as the owner of A Tailor Tuxedo and Bridal on North Campbell Avenue, north of Grant Road.
Hem & Her was first opened in 2000, in a renovated 1920s farmhouse on North Stone Avenue. When the couple moved to Phoenix six months ago, they chose to keep the property, so were able to reopen in the same building.
When the store announced it was closing at the end of May, it had 600 wedding gowns and 5,000 tuxedos and quinceañera dresses in stock.
Before reopening, Feickert looked at the tuxedo rental aspect of the business, and decided it was too much of an expense in today’s economy.
Feickert sold the remaining rental tuxedos before moving back to Tucson and bought new inventory — which consists of destination dresses, evening gowns and prom and pageant dresses — and dropped the word “bridal” from the store’s name.
“I got a lot of Academy Award-style dresses the movie stars would wear,” Feickert said.
Custom designs, a specialty of Feickert’s, will still be offered at Hem & Her, as will wedding gown alterations.
