ABOUT
When Emilia Dlugolecka was laid off from her corporate
job in January, she never imagined she’d become an entrepreneur.
“At first it was like, this is great, I’m gonna hibernate this winter and I don’t have to fight traffic or get on the El when it’s like zero degrees,” she recalls. A few months later, she went into panic mode. “I kind of woke up from hibernation in late March and said, ‘ohmigod, I don’t have a job,’” she says. “I literally got in my car one day and started looking for storefronts… I called every place on Clark in Andersonville that had a ‘for rent’ sign on it.”
Just two months later, Dlugolecka was “standing in line downtown, getting [her] business license. I’m going, ‘what the hell am I doing here?’” she says.
Opening Mr. and Mrs. Digz to the public in May, Dlugolecka was beginning the next chapter of life—on a budget. “I started this boutique on a $15,000 budget, and from beginning to end, I never went over a penny,” she says.
Impressive, given the high-end brands and quality of Dlugolecka’s lines. Featuring exclusive local artists like Andersonville fave Eva May and bad-boy brand Corporate Punk, Dlugolecka either handpicks (or makes!) every item in her four-part concept store: new, gently used, handmade and vintage.
“There’s only one of everything in here,” she says. “They’re little treasures that you’ll find, you’ll take home and love.” |
