After realizing a gap within the scarf market — designer scarves offered for hundreds of dollars and mass-marketed scarves made from cheap material, with nothing in between — Mount Vernon resident Vanessa Bailey and her former colleagues Joe Losardo and Michael Castellano created laetly, a unisex scarf company.
Their 18-piece collection, available at Wondrous Things in Briarcliff Manor, features colorful patterns and prints (the phrase “phone, keys, wallet” inscribed on one, a graphic owl on another). They are made from 100% extra-fine merino wool and cost $75 to $85 — quality material for a reasonable price. As the founders each have a background in marketing and design, Losardo explains, “We saw an opportunity to creatively take a big accessories category that hadn’t innovated much in terms of design and do something fun that we could apply our personalities to.”
While they originally thought their scarves would appeal mostly to Millennials, Losardo says, “That is absolutely not the case. It’s been great to see the unisex element come to life and see a 65-year-old man and a 25-year-old woman wear the same scarf and each make it their own.”
