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MARCH | PAGE 41 | 2015 Ralph Lauren in Highland Park Village. "I met Ed on the first day on the stairs," she recalls. "He was the top seller for Lauren, a very business-oriented person. He was like, 'Oh, hey,' and moved on. I had met so many people on my first day, but the only person I talked about when I got home was him." They became fast friends, spending weekends antiquing together. "Three months later we started dating, and within nine months, we were engaged. We eloped on New Year's Eve." Crawford Brock lured the pair to Stanley Korshak, where Ed opened a Ralph Lauren in-store shop and Gable worked in womenswear. On the day Gable gave birth to their first daughter, they decided to open a made-to-measure business from their former Kessler Park home. "Hadleigh was such a dream, who would ever want to leave her?" says Gable. "We'd talked about opening our own store before, so this was a good time to do it. Ed went home from the hospital that night and wrote a beautiful letter to Hadleigh telling her we were going to name the store after her." Seven years — and two more babies later — Hadleigh's is a multimillion-dollar enterprise that, like their daughters, is growing by leaps and bounds. Expansion plans for the store and their wholesale division are on the drawing boards, including talks of opening stores in other cities. This spring, their first home collection debuts and includes cashmere blankets, pillows, lamps and — soon to come — a fragrance. T here's no mistaking that cobalt blue. Hadleigh's is awash in it: From the lighting to the logo and packaging to select pieces every season, the hue has become their trademark. Inspired by the vibrant blue on a tiny Italian sparrow, the color has become a part of the DNA. "Every season, we have a cobalt-blue collection," says Gable. "People love it! Cobalt goes with everything and works in every season — gray flannel in winter, white in summer. And pink, which is my other favorite color. There's a touch of it in everything we do — bracelets with a cobalt thread, the inside of a jacket, the underside of a lapel, the interior of a piece of luggage, shoe laces." For the Leukemia & Lymphoma Society's Saint Valentine's Luncheon this year, Hadleigh's designed a separate collection that included a cobalt- blue bikini piped in yellow. The striking color also makes a spirited statement at home. Dror Benshetrit's iconic felt Peacock chair, designed in 2009 for Cappellini, unfurls its cerulean plumage in the entryway. It's Ed's favorite. In the front living room, a pair of oversized Edwardian- style silhouettes of Hadleigh and GG is rendered in cobalt by Dallas photographer Fredrik Brodén, who also shoots Hadleigh's catalog. The portraits are a play on the brand's logo, which depicts an Edwardian couple standing face to face with outstretched arms, to create the initial H. Traditional black silhouettes — on the logo or at home — would never do. There's not a speck of black at home or a stitch of it in their clothing collection. "Black is too easy," FEW WALLS CAME DOWN, ALONG WITH THE HEAVY PLANTATION SHUTTERS. NOW YOU CAN SEE THROUGH THE ENTIRE HOUSE. MY MOM WAS WORRIED ABOUT THAT, BUT WHAT WILL PEOPLE SEE IF THEY LOOK IN? ALL OF US IN OUR MATCHING PAJAMAS?" "A — Gable Shaikh In the front living room, a pair of vintage sofas covered in men's flannel suiting from Hadleigh's. Jonathan Adler pillows. Tables, Ghost chairs and floor lamp from Scott + Cooner. Flor carpet squares. Silhouette of GG by Fredrik Broden. In the entry, coat rack from Design Within Reach. Paint by Numbers photograph by Fredrik Broden. Felt Peacock chair by Dror Benshetrit for Cappellini, from Scott + Cooner. Vintage table painted cobalt.