Lauren Manoogian Opened a Store and It’s an Oasis of Calm
BY LAIRD BORRELLI-PERSSON
Lauren Manoogian and Chris Fireoved, purveyors of subtle and sophisticated knitwear that has wide appeal and garners insiders’ esteem, are growing their universe; they’re opening their first store in the “floating world” that exists on the borders of Soho, Little Italy, and Chinatown. Located at 407 Broome Street, just down the street from their showroom, the shop is on the ground floor of a century-old building, and the space is long and narrow, a bit like a piece of yarn. It seems that there is more than a strand of kismet in this project. Fireoved explains that he and Manoogian had been looking elsewhere, then on “the day we looked at each other and said, ‘We have to move on here,” they stumbled upon this place while sulking around the neighborhood. “It felt right, right away.”
That sense of rightness pervades the light and calming space with its medley of tonal garments. It really feels like a home for the brand rather than primarily a transactional space, fulfilling Manoogian’s remit. “I’m interested in interiors and spaces,” she explains, “and I think we always were like, ‘We want to have our things in an environment.”
Adding to that personal element is that the interiors were created with friends. “Even though this whole process for us felt scary and new and risky and uncomfortable,” notes Fireoved, “there was something really comfortable about working with all of our friends that gave us confidence to keep pushing forward.” Rodrigo Santillán Barcellos, a skater/architect from Peru, where the couple spend much of their time, did the layout, and Luren Jenison hand-plastered the brick wall that runs down the right side of the space. The red oak floors were stripped and given a light white-wash. “We wanted to have everything be clean and open, but then each individual thing has its own weird irregular patina or surface or something about it. Not everything is super-slick,” Manoogian says. The floors and brick wall reveal textures and patterns that mirror the way the designer works with stitches and yarn.
Drawing the visitor deep into the space is a matte white and backlit monolith at the center back. The shrine-like structure cleverly conceals changing rooms with pull curtains made of a hand-crunched, paper-like cotton, a texture echoed in the crinkled coated linen totes on the racks, which hang with in-season and archive pieces. The store has a both smell and a sound. The former is provided by Japanese incense and the latter by a deejay friend who has created a 48-hour playlist based on Manoogian’s seasonal inspirations.
“The way that we built the furniture and the racks and did the walls [reflects] the way that we make the collection, [which] is mostly by hand. It’s one person spending their time on that one object, and that sort of energy that they put into it goes to the final customer,” notes Fireoved. “I think it makes the space feel really cozy and really soft and very comfortable. And I hope people can feel that.” That aura is palpable, as is the sense of momentarily stepping out of the city’s chaos and into a Zen-like oasis. The idea, Manoogian says, is that you “feel like you are immersed in a different environment, have it feel calming, and that you have the space and time to look through things.” Slow fashion has found its home.
https://www.vogue.com/article/lauren-manoogian-opened-a-store-and-its-an-oasis-of-calm
