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Helen and Kevin Knight first met at Beverly’s, once a popular Rochester bar at the corner of Avenue D and Conkey Avenue. They loved to listen to live reggae music at local dance halls and were known by other patrons for wearing stylish clothes.
“Everybody would see their cool outfits and say, ‘I want that. Where did you get it?’” They were the original influencers,” says Searnie Knight, the couple’s daughter.
In 1996, the Knights turned their love of fashion into a business, launching a boutique, New York Stylee. Since then, the couple has spent three decades dressing Rochesterians in fashionable, unique pieces. Everybody who knew the Knights as fashion icons could now buy their clothes.
New York Stylee, at the corner of Monroe Avenue and Meigs Street, isn’t like other clothing stores. The Knights, who are also the store’s only two employees, are essentially personal stylists.
“People will call me and say, ‘My birthday’s coming up, and I’m going to wear this color hair,’” Helen Knight says. “And I’ll search for a birthday outfit for them.”
“I once helped a customer find a wedding dress on the day of,” Searnie Knight says.
When they first opened, Helen would buy two or three of the same items during shopping trips to New York City so that she could wear one and sell the extras at the store.
Now, she sources most of the store’s inventory from wholesalers in Los Angeles. Other items, like jewelry and accessories, still come from shopping trips to New York City. Certain custom items are bought from designers.
Kevin Knight designs the elaborate display cases. He is also a seamster, frequently mending and altering clothing as needed. Searnie Knight, the couple’s youngest child, began posting videos on Instagram and Facebook to promote the store. These videos all start the same way, with the phrase, “Hey, Styleestas!”.
“We were sitting around trying to come up with a name for the shoppers,” Helen Knight says. “Beyonce’s got the Beyhive. We have the Styleestas.”
Being a Styleesta doesn’t just mean you shop at the store. It represents a true sense of self, expressed through the clothing you wear.
“Fashion isn’t just about wearing what’s trending; it’s about wearing clothes that fit your personal style,” says Searnie Knight. “We help people find that.”
Social media has proved to be a great marketing tool for the Knights, with more and more people recognizing the family from their videos.
“Everywhere I go, I hear, ‘Hey Styleestas!’, ‘Hey Styleestas!’ It’s really picked up,” Helen Knight says. “It’s definitely a part of New York Stylee now.”
The business now partners with content creators to grow its presence online. For these partnerships, local influencers try on clothes in the store and then make one dedicated grid post and five story posts promoting the store. Searnie Knight’s own career as a content creator has picked up in recent years, so the Knights understand the impact of influencer marketing.
New York Stylee also partners with a promotion team to sell tickets to festivals and concerts. This allows customers to buy tickets to events and then shop for their outfits in the same place.
“People are coming in to buy tickets and they’re able to leave with an entire outfit,” says Searnie Knight. “We sell everything. Clothes, accessories, nails. Anything they need.”
The store’s busiest night for sales is New Year’s Eve, with many customers often buying their outfit just hours before the ball drops. However, Helen Knight has noticed that those busy days have been happening more often as more businesses pop up on and around Monroe.
“Some of the days are like, wow, that was almost like New Year’s Eve,” she says. “We’ve got a new bar on Monroe and a new bakery around the corner. There’s a lot of new things opening up around us. We’re getting a lot of new people passing through the neighborhood, and that’s what’s bringing in more people.”
The community of small businesses on Monroe has been a huge part of their experience running the store. They are in a text chain with other business owners on Monroe to look out for each other. Once, when someone smashed the display window at New York Stylee, the other business owners alerted Helen Knight and then waited outside of the store for her.
The group also organizes collaborative shopping events, like sidewalk sales and Second Saturdays, that multiple businesses participate in.
“We are just so grateful for the community,” Searnie Knight says. “We wouldn’t have 30 years in business without them.”
Looking ahead, New York Stylee prepares for Carifest, New York’s largest Caribbean festival, which takes place in Rochester. Customers frequent New York Stylee for clothing, flags, bandanas, and jewelry for the parade and festival. Originally from Jamaica, Kevin Knight sews halter tops and other garments out of Jamaican flags for Rochester’s Caribbean community to wear at Carifest.
It’s fitting that the Knights will celebrate the anniversary of the business by dancing to reggae music, just as they did when they started out 30 years ago.
Audtra Fitzgerald is a recent graduate of Ithaca College and a member of the Oasis Project’s third cohort.
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Good article. I remember when the store first opened. I have always wondered about it. I used to see her around when her kids were small. It’s quite the fashion hub of Rochester.