Oct 7th 2013, 16:48, by Katharine K. Zarrella
Following their blockbuster Spring ’14 outing, there’s no doubt that Proenza Schouler’s Jack McCollough and Lazaro Hernandez are New York’s designer darlings. The pair has mastered a sophisticated cool girl aesthetic that appeals to the uptown and downtown sets alike. So it makes sense that on Friday, Proenza Schouler opened a flagship at 121 Greene Street to complement its Madison Avenue location. Like the uptown boutique, which became the brand’s first retail endeavor when it bowed last year, the 2,500-square-foot Soho shop was designed by David Adjaye.
With an affinity for contrast, McCollough and Hernandez gave their Madison store a gritty, downtown sensibility. And naturally, they’ve infused the Soho space—which boasts concrete accents, mirrored panels, and hardwood floors—with some UES panache. “One of the key elements references vandalized urban walls, but they are executed in veined marbles that speak to something urbane but in a polished way,” the designers told Style.com. Set inside an historic cast iron front building (just feet away from Saint Laurent, Chloé, and Warby Parker’s recently christened outposts), the Greene Street location will house every single product that Proenza produces—from runway looks to small leather goods. The latter will be showcased in the designers’ favorite room: the accessories garden. “The original architecture of the space made it possible for us to do serious planting in the back of the store, which brought life and color to the space. It’s important for us to always have a bit of the outdoors, a bit of a natural element, to everything we do.” Here, Lazaro and Hernandez talk to Style.com about the new boutique, Soho’s thriving retailscape, their plans for further brand expansion, and why, more often than not, it takes two.
—Katharine K. Zarrella
Why did now feel like the right time to open your second store?
We have always known that we wanted a presence both uptown and downtown. The question was, which one would come first? When we found a location that spoke to us uptown first, we decided to pursue it. Soho seemed like a natural fit for us. It has become a real center for luxury brands over the last couple of years and we knew we wanted to be a part of that landscape. The brand experience felt incomplete with just one location uptown, and this new epicenter downtown completes our vision. One is complete because of the other. Sometimes things really are better in pairs.
Do you have any other plans for brand expansion in the works?
Retail expansion is definitely on the forefront of what we are working on at the moment. We have a language now that we are keen to explore and adapt to individual locations. Retail not only supports our business, but it is an incredibly fulfilling creative project that we are so happy to be able to work on, and there are definitely more [projects] on the horizon. Bergdorf Goodman just unveiled its new Proenza Schouler shop-in-shop this week using the DNA from the Greene Street location. The opening of these two spaces within one week’s time has been an incredibly fulfilling experience that we feel so lucky to have been able to do. We are currently opening stores in Singapore, Bangkok, and Hong Kong.
How does the design of the store reflect the Proenza Schouler aesthetic and ethos? And in what ways does it differ from the Madison Avenue flagship?
The ideas of contradictions and juxtapositions, of something precious but undone, are all values that ring true to the Proenza Schouler brand. The store brings together the ideas of high and low design juxtaposed—matte and shine, artificial elements enmeshed with completely organic ones.
When we were creatively exploring the concept for Madison Avenue with David Adjaye, we knew we wanted to bring something a little “undone,” maybe even a little “raw.” We wanted something that felt different from any other shopping experience uptown. We established many codes that we knew would become a kind of language for our retail expansion moving forward. Keeping that in mind, we wanted to take those codes and do something decidedly more polished downtown, something a bit cleaner.
Why did you choose this location? And what do you think about Soho’s expanding retailscape?
Our design studio is right in the middle of Soho, so we have been in a position to really live in this evolving landscape—to see how many people roam the streets, especially on weekends. We’ve seen it become a central location for out-of-towners to explore shops, restaurants, galleries—in essence, New York. More and more luxury brands have started to infiltrate the area with great success. We wanted a chance to be part of this conversation, of this evolution of yet another New York neighborhood, but to do so with great respect for what has been there before. We kept many of the original features in the location and actually used them to highlight the design of the store, such as the great skylight at the back of the store that floods the accessories garden with natural daylight.
Photos: Kenny Komer, Courtesy of Proenza Schouler
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