In 1972, when Ted Hall opened up his women’s clothing and accessories boutique on 52nd Street — the Strip”— the corridor was Black mecca. (It’s also known as Muhammed Ali Way.) Today, Babe boutique is one of few Black-owned shops there. And, at age 87, its owner is as spry, sharp and stylish as ever.
“We opened during the boutique era, and we operated successfully,” says Hall. “Back then, we had two other stores. The main store was in Cedarbrook Plaza [in Wyncote], and this was one of our island stores. Then, through what’s called the vicissitudes of business, we lost one of them. But that’s the nature of business itself. Fortunately, we bought the building here, and we have been able to make this our flagship.”
You’re not going to find a lot of familiar designers at Babe’s. Right now, they’re stocking deconstructed pieces from Croatia, handmade leather trenches from Hungary, along with the usuals: furs, dresses, hosiery, heels, sunglasses, jewelry, business suits, loungewear — for every mood a woman has. Many of Babe’s pieces are made in the U.S.A. They’re all made to last.
“I decided a long time ago, if I was going to sell to my own people, I wouldn’t sell them junk,” says Hall. “Black Americans are always inundated with cheap stores etc. And, we all socialize at pretty much the same kind of places. So, I decided I don’t want anybody mad at me because I sold them something that didn’t hold up; I decided I’d sell them something I would want my woman to wear.”
In 1980, Hall renamed the shop from “His Girl” to “Babe,” he says, in recognition “of women’s lib.”
Babe then and now
Today, shoppers, some second- or third-generation, drive in from all over to shop at Babe. They know they’ll get something one-of-a-kind, that no one else is wearing, pieces that are exclusive. The kind of apparel that suits what Hall calls “downtown Black America.”
Back in the 80s, when I was around 12, my grandmom, Mary Gibson Rice, would drag me to Babe’s. I used to hate it. She came for car coats; she loved her car coats. What I didn’t know was that the experience would resonate with me, with what I’m doing now, as far as styling and fashion.
After shopping, she’d take me to the Cookie Jar on the corner. They made the best homemade cookies. You could smell that butter and sugar down the block. They had ice cream floats too. I used to love that place. Now it’s an H&R Block.
Williams and Punchey’s Seafood, Foo Foo’s Steaks and Big George’s Southern Kitchen — and Mr. Silk’s, where Sammy Davis Jr. and Roscoe Lee Browne hung out — were other mainstays on the Strip that are now long gone.
Most of the business owners on the strip these days are corporate or foreign. “Other African Americans that owned buildings on this street, they decided to give into the pressures of speculators,” says Hall, whose look — the hat and mustache — reminds me of the late, great photographer Gordon Parks.
Nonetheless, he believes in the power of entrepreneurship. “There’s alway opportunity. That’s the nature of business here in America — that opportunities come and they go, but it always turns around again,” says Hall. “People, don’t lose faith in the idea that you should offer something that people in your neighborhood require. That is enough to start a business, if you are the one who is able to supply it.”
As for Babe, it’s getting busy during the holidays, with shoppers coming in for end-of-year parties and so forth. Hall is also because he’s “finally come in from the cold” and is launching a website in the New Year.
Still, I say, it’s always best to shop here in person, to see what you’re buying, to feel it, to truly treat yourself.
Babe, 111 S. 52nd Street, open Monday through Saturday, 10am to 6pm
West Philly born and raised with a slosh of Brooklyn New York in between, Big Rube partnered with Mitchell & Ness in 2000 to help make it a global brand marketing and selling high-end vintage jerseys. He has been photographing Philly since 2009, including in a Daily News Column from 2011 to 2017. He’s also a chef, operating Chef Big Rube’s Kitchen seven days a week at Pitcher’s Pub in Manayunk, selling the best handmade food in a Main Street dive bar.
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