At seven a.m., San Diego Chargers tight end Antonio Gates is rolling out of bed for practice.
Elizabeth Patterson is getting up, too, but she won’t be donning a number 85 jersey to stand on the sidelines and root for her 245 pound, 6-foot-6 NFL star fiancée.
Instead, on a recent day at her new boutique “Elizabeth’s Closet” ” a cozy, 700-square-foot space nestled between high-end shops along La Jolla’s Prospect Street ” Patterson, who had been up since the wee morning hours, scrambled around trying to get organized, with only three days left until the store’s Nov. 4 grand opening.
She motions to the flat-screen plasma television mounted on the wall, which doesn’t quite fit the room’s romantic crystal chandelier and classic vintage feel.
“Antonio said, ‘If you can’t be at the games, you at least have to watch them on television,'” she recalled with a laugh.
The 32-year-old’s energy is contagious inside the small shop, and it has been building for the last three months as she’s worked around the clock in preparation for the big day.
Carrying clothing that Patterson classifies as an “urban, hip, going-out” style for both men and women, the shop’s closet-like shelves hold Christian Audigier tees, Rock Revival and Monarchy Jeans, and Co2 cashmere hooded sweat-shirts and buttoned sweaters.
Although the experience is new to her, ideas about opening her own store have been brewing in the young entrepreneur’s head since 2001, when she was a student at the Fashion Institute of Technology in New York and working as an intern for well-known designer Nicole Miller.
After obtaining her degree in fashion merchandising, Patterson moved to Los Angeles two and a half years ago and earned an interior design degree at the Fashion Institute of Design and Merchandising (FIDM).
That’s when she also happened to meet the love of her life.
Gates, who is originally from Detroit, has played a role in Patterson’s decision to make her dream a reality.
Returning home from Detroit each time he visited, Gates was always clad in “cute jeans and a polo,” Patterson said ” items that he could never find in San Diego because of his unusual size requirements.
“Antonio picked out a lot,” Patterson said. “I would keep coming home saying, ‘What do you think about this? What about this?'”
The store caters to larger, athletically built men, similar to Gates and his teammates, with The Year Of jeans and Ike Behar tailored dress shirts.
Gates personally selected Behar’s shirts, and Patterson plans to hold several trunk shows at the store, one specifically allowing the designer to measure and customize a shirt for each individual guest.
But the NFL athletes weren’t the only ones suffering when it came to fashionable finds.
Patterson, along with other Chargers’ wives, often attended upscale events, and tracking down a unique dress became next to impossible, she said.
At the Pro-Bowl in Hawaii last year, Patterson was wearing the exact same dress as another woman.
“I turned to the girl next to me and said, ‘I really need to open my own shop,'” she said.
And although most people couldn’t see her vision, that’s exactly what she did.
In August, Patterson and several fashion merchandisers went to a clothing show in Las Vegas to scope out designers and place orders. She signed the lease for the shop shortly after that and has been riding a roller coaster of excitement and disbelief ever since.
About 150 invitations to the store’s grand opening “” an event that featured four live models, champagne mimosas and chocolate-covered strawberries “” went out to Charger players, their wives, and friends and business acquaintances who have helped make it happen for Patterson.
The event went off without any glitches, but Patterson wasn’t taking any chances in the days leading up to that. She didn’t even allow Gates to see the store before the big day.
Even as she talked of the upcoming gala, thoughts of owning her own store still hadn’t sunk in, and she paused to gape at the boxes of unopened merchandise near the dressing rooms.
“I’ll be standing in the corner going, ‘Oh my God! This is really happening!'” she said, covering her face with both hands, and then taking them away to reveal a wide-eyed look of utter amazement. “Every day I’m opening a new box, I’m like, ‘Whoa, something new.’ I love it. It’s yours “” it’s a little bit of your own.”
And that’s just what she’s been dreaming of ” well, if she ever has time to sleep in again, that is.
To contact Elizabeth’s Closet, 1261 Prospect St., call (858) 459-4673 or visit www.ElizabethsClosetOnline.com.