BY CHRISTINE VARNO
Staff Writer

Above, Kailee Heagney looks over some of the T-shirt designs she helped to select for the new store. Bottom left, Leigh Heagney opened Bellacosa to cater to shoppers who want to dress in their own unique style. Bottom right, Danielle Guzman (l) and Timea Chemez with one of the trendy shirts sold at Bellacosa in Fair Haven. FAIR HAVEN –– Lots of clothing stores carry the latest in fashion trends, but a new Fair Haven boutique has staked out a niche for customers who want their own unique look.

“My daughter always liked to wear the latest styles, but she never wanted to look like everybody else,” said Leigh Heagney, Rumson, owner of Bellacosa which opened, on River Road on June 30.

“There was no store that served that business, so I decided to open my own store where I could bring in my own things and carry just a few of each item so people could walk out of here with their own look.”

Heagney’s 12-year-old daughter Kailee was the inspiration behind the store, which in just over a month has had “awesome business,” Heagney said.

“I went shopping with my daughter all the time and we were always looking for different things,” she said. “So now we have brought that idea to this store and only carry six to eight articles of each style.”

PHOTOSBY MIGUEL JUAREZ staff And Heagney believes her customers appreciate that exclusivity.

“The business has been steady and we already have had return customers and great feedback,” she said.

“When you are only carrying six articles of one item, people have the ability to look different.

“People are really liking that there is not a million of a single item. Now they can be individual. People are telling us they just love it,” she said.

“Our goal is to keep a good variety of clothes,” Heagney said. “We get items delivered every day so there will always be something new when you walk in.”

Bellacosa, which means beautiful thing in Italian, was a name picked by Heagney and her daughter to describe the ambiance in the 1,000-square-foot shop.

The boutique-style store carries the latest clothing trends that Heagney refers to as “modern-hip” styles that she says can be worn by women of all ages.

“It’s a one-stop shop,” she said. “It is a store where a mother and daughter could shop together and buy anything they need.”

Although the focus is on girls from age 10 to late teens, Heagney said she is 42 years old and wears clothing from the store.

The store carries sizes extra small to large, but Heagney said she is starting to order bigger sizes to cater to an older crowd.

“There is also a small T-shirt section for men,” she added.

The store carries a variety of items in a range of prices, including jewelry starting at $6 up to jeans for $200, sweaters for $160, shoes for $120 and bags for $100 with T-shirts, skirts, sweat pants, makeup and lingerie priced somewhere in between.

“We are trying to capture a unique style, while keeping our prices reasonable,” she said.

Brands include: Acrobat, Junk Food, Hard Tail, Butterfly Dropout, Brave, Eliza B., Rafe NY, Hanky Panky, China Doll and Roxywear.

Heagney, who was a partner in a store in Monmouth Beach for a short while before beginning this venture, says her staff is the reason for the store’s success thus far.

The four-woman staff includes three teens and one 40-year-old.

“This has been great,” Timea Chemez, 18, Rumson, said about working at the store. “I have worked with [Heagney] since the beginning. I wear these clothes all the time.”

Chemez and Kailee accompanied Heagney to showrooms in New York to select the clothing lines for the upscale shop.

“They help me pick out everything,” Heagney said about her staff. “I want the people who work here to have a say in what we sell.

“That is how we can keep everything up-to-date and fresh.”

Bellacosa is open Tuesday through Saturday, from 10:30 a.m. to 5:30 p.m., and Thursday, from 10:30 a.m. to 7 p.m.