Chattin’ It Up With the Locals: Heather Beal of The Clothing Line

Published February 27, 2007

By Jen Nolan

When walking into “the clothing line” in downtown Burlington a person isn’t sure where to look first: the large hats, poofy vintage prom dresses, oversized brightly-colored sunglasses in every color. This potentially catastrophic dilemma comes to an end when a woman behind the counter focuses your attention when she yells out, “Hey, how are you?”

This is the owner, Heather Bea, who’s been running the store for five years. She’s become very familiar with UVM visitors — a.k.a. “the big bling buyers.” The students are different from her other customers because of their young energy — it’s the students who come in talking about how they’re supposed to be in class at that moment, crazy stories from the previous night’s party, or a concert they’re psyched about.

Heather likes how down-to-earth the shoppers of Vermont are: “If someone says they like your boots, they’re probably thinking they look warm.”

Heather started working when she was 13 years old for a “wonderful old woman who constantly chain-smoked and called me sweetie.” Although she loved her boss, selling Christmas decorations at “Holiday Enchantment” was not quite her ideal job.

When asked what she would do with $2.3 million, she said that she would set up a cooperative work environment, a socialist setting where people would own shares of the business they worked for. Heather compared it to a “super-duper Recycle North.”

In addition to this work environment in America, ideally she would set up another workplace like this in another country.

She tells me a psychic once confirmed that she would make this happen, and judging from her evident passion and planning for this idea, I agree with the psychic.

An Ideal Saturday night for Heather is surprisingly simple: a dinner with her boyfriend who would cook her fried catfish, along with oatmeal stout beer, watching “ Battlestar Galactica.” Apparently, it’s on the SciFi station if you’d like to tune in. She has two tattoos: a black dragon on her stomach, and a spiral and sun on her back.

Heather’s friendly demeanor hints at her positive outlook, which was confirmed when I ask her if she believes in karma and why: “YES! Because it’s true!” In her words, “Everything is what you make it — might as well make it good.”

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