FiT A PERFECT
The heir apparent to an internationally lauded fashion boutique, established in Naples a half-century ago, has comfortably slipped into the role of CEO, considering it the opportunity of a lifetime
BY GAYLENE SALOMONS PHOTOGRAPHY BY ANNA NGUYEN
Shot on location at Marissa Collections, Naples
The chances of Jay Hartington being born to Burt and Marissa Hartington and then becoming the CEO of their family-owned business, now celebrating its fiftieth year, are, when expressed as a percentage, minuscule. First, there is the generally accepted probability of a specific individual being born as one in four hundred trillion. Second, the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics reports that very few businesses make it to 50 years, suggesting a number less than 5 percent. Those that do are part of an elite group. Jay’s father Burt, originally from Bennington, Vermont, studied accounting and hotel and restaurant management at Paul Smith’s College in New York and the University of Wisconsin. Along with seven friends, he moved to Marco Island in 1973 to start his career in the hospitality industry. Finding it too desolate for young men, the group gravitated northward to Naples. His mother, Marissa, originally from Poland (where she graduated with a master’s degree in clinical psychology), was living and working in Saratoga Springs, New York, when she visited Naples with a girlfriend one year. After touring the town, Marissa suggested the pair should open a boutique. Young and unencumbered, they did just that in 1975, establishing a small shop on Fifth Avenue South in what is now Osteria Tulia. Marissa eventually bought her partner out.
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7/24/25 10:33 AM