Marcia Hecker, a groundbreaker in childrenswear who worked on both sides of the business simultaneously for decades, died March 2.
Funeral services will be held Tuesday at Eden Memorial Chapels in Fort Lee, N.J. for Hecker, 83, who had been living at assisted living facility Brightview in New Jersey. Her health had been ailing, due to Alzheimer’s disease, colon cancer, a bout with COVID-19 last month and more recently the flu, according to her son William.
Born Marcia Avnet in the Bronx, she grew up there until her family moved to Queens when she was a teenager. Her parents worked in the bar business in New York City. After graduating from high school, she attended Queens College for a semester before dropping out. After marrying Donald Hecker, a dress manufacturer sales representative, the couple lived in New York City for a bit before relocating in 1967 to Fort Lee, where they raised their two sons, Dean and William.
Arty by nature and a little hippy-dippy, Marcia Hecker used her knack for hand-painting and batik by redesigning overalls, jeans and T-shirts. Looking for something to do, she started selling her DIY designs from the family’s home, but that was more as a hobby than a business. Her son William said, “She was just a fashionista. At that time, everyone had kids or was having kids. She was a new mother and had a vision that there weren’t a lot of places to get unique clothing for children.”
In 1972, she opened the first Marcia’s Attic store above Italian restaurant Café Italiano in Englewood Cliffs, N.J. As the name suggests, the boutique was housed in an attic. When demand quickly picked up, Hecker relocated to a Main Street location in Fort Lee. A women’s store was opened next door a few years later. In 1977, Hecker and her cousin Donna Black set up a wholesale business for childrenswear called Donna & Martha Ltd. in New York City. Two years later, she ventured out on her own at the same West 34th Street address above a former Woolworth store. Her husband Donald then gave up his job in the garment center to join her.
Partial to pink, especially hot pink, Hecker was also high on anything with heart insignias. She signed her name by dotting the “i” with a heart, and she also used hearts in the Marcia’s Attic logo that she created. Experimental and directional with her stores, Hecker maximized her selling space by stringing accessories and innerwear on clotheslines.
Marcia Hecker at a 50-year anniversary party for her store Marcia’s Attic.
Photo Courtesy
The energetic businesswoman also favored unexpected looks like wide-leg overalls with a T-shirt with puffed shoulders and a head wrap that was reminiscent of ones worn by the musician Stevie Van Zandt, or leather pants with a cropped top. Her sons tried — unsuccessfully — to ask her to tone down the daringness when she attended special events at their summer camp or their basketball games. William Hecker said, “Whatever was in and happening, or whatever was going to be in and happening, she would wear,” recalling how she had the foresight to cut off the sleeves of a jean jacket to wear as a vest — seasons before that trend took hold.
Hecker also used ingenuity — like insisting on mismatched swatches and yarns for toddler’s sweaters when helping develop a private label, despite others’ skepticism. Shoppers from Manhattan, Westchester County and Long Island flocked to Marcia’s Attic in the 1980s for its selection, which ranged from $3 Trimfit socks to a $280 gold lamé Trotinette snowsuit. Hecker also had a store that focused on European labels like Petit Bateau and Jean Bourget, decades before splurging on childrenswear had become routine procedure for many moneyed parents. Her son laughed describing the boyhood photo of him wearing a leather knee-length jumper with a handknit bonnet. His father had a signature store at one point for boys’ clothing from Pierre Cardin, Polo Ralph Lauren and Lacoste, but that was short-lived in the late 1970s. That Fort Lee location was converted to a woman’s store.
In a 1986 interview with WWD, retail competitor Dori Cerruti said, “She’s an innovator on top of everything, a key resource with an uncanny sense for fashion trends and a wealth of knowledge that’s unique in the industry.”
Fifty-three years after the first location debuted, a Marcia’s Attic Kids store is still operating in Englewood, N.J., and a Marcia’s Attic women’s store is run in Closter, N.J. The latter focuses on contemporary premium denim and sportswear like Mother, Rag & Bone, Vince and Theory. In 1984, Hecker tapped into the popularity of Michael Jackson’s “Thriller” album by selling Hi-5 gloves and other items inspired by his look. Hecker also once had stores in Englewood Cliffs, Edgewater, Ridgewood and Livingston over the years. At one time, Hecker had four stores operating at the same time. Her wholesale business was closed in 1993.
Her son William said, “Even though she had all of these businesses going on, she never missed any of our basketball or baseball games. She still made family dinners. She was always taking care of us, if we needed a tutor or asking if we had done our homework. It was never like, ‘Where’s mom?’ She always knew what we were doing and this was before you could track anybody with cellphones.”
Her son continued, “She was always there for us. We took that as second nature almost, not realizing how hard the retail world was. Let alone she had a wholesale business on top of it.”
Predeceased by her husband, Hecker is survived by her two sons and her brother Gary Avnet.
