#15 | August 2011

Mott Street Bake-OffAll photographs by Erica Simone

In early June, we bade a fond farewell to our premises on Park Avenue and 57th Street, and opened our brand new store on Mott Street in SoHo. I took on the renovation and entire re-design of the boutique myself, and I’m not going to lie: it was exhausting. After months of wandering through almost every single fabric, wallpaper, furniture, antique and lighting store in Manhattan, the new shop is finally complete—even adorned with latest art pieces from the Bryce Wolkowitz Gallery.

The goal was to make the customer feel like they are visiting a friend—to feel right at home as soon as they step foot through the door. And so, a sofa and two generous armchairs occupy the center stage, set on top of a handwoven Nepalese rug and surrounded by vari-ous side tables and lamps of every shape and size: some of my favorites being a collection of lighted perspex books, by the artist Airan Kang. Then to the right of the central ‘living room’ is our ‘kitchen’: a Jay Kos Green glass-top breakfast bar and work counter (courtesy of G.D. Cucine), where I spend most of my time nowadays making lunch for my local friends and favorite customers. Last but not least, we have a private room downstairs, kitted-out especially for custom fittings; complete with a fully stocked humidifier and bar—for those gents who just need a little break from the day-to-day madness.

With the store set up in its new downtown location, I feel like I am really getting to the heart of what my definition of fashion and style really is. People always ask me what fash-ion means to me, and honestly, I really don’t have a simple, straightforward or predictable answer. You’d probably expect me to come out with something like, “It’s all about color and texture, and wearing your clothes with confidence, and not being afraid to take risks,” and so forth.

Before...

After.

But it’s really not about any of that.

To me, fashion is about experiences. It’s just a small part of a greater whole, which also includes food, travel, art and nature. But most importantly, it’s about who you share those experiences with.

I was at a dinner one night, sitting next to my friend Yvenga, and we were discussing the same points: our love of both food and fashion, and how they continually overlap in our daily lives. I was also complaining about the fact that the magnetic stovetop cooker that was just installed in the kitch-en of the new store was on the blink, and so I was being forced to cook in the oven instead. I much prefer cooking on a

stove top versus the oven. Simply because: I don’t bake.

I don’t like to be so precise when cooking; having to use exact measurements and in-gredient amounts sort of bores me, as it can be slightly formulaic.

However, as it turned out, Yvenga is a nat-ural-born baker! And so we planned to have a ‘bake-off ’ to christen the Mott Street kitchen, and give the oven a proper go.

When it came to deciding what to make, we couldn’t agree on just one thing—there were too many delicious options. We end-ed up settling on a flourless cherry cake and a flourless rhubarb, strawberry and

pistachio crumble—partly because the in-gredients were in season, and also because the red and green colors were in keeping with our brand colours. Perfect.

A few parts of each dessert had to be pre-prepared at Yvenga’s because our kitchen wasn’t completely equipped yet, but she was unphased by the disjointed nature of the bake-off and ran with it like an expert pastry chef.

Cooking in the store during working hours brings an exciting and unique ele-ment to the new boutique, which I’m sure will make many happy appetites. Everyone thought I was loco for wanting to fit a fully functioning kitchen in the new store—they couldn’t understand why or how it would work. And now all anyone wants is a piece of my pie...

The first dessert went into the oven, and soon the sweet aroma started to take over

the boutique. “I could get used to this,” I thought, along with my entire staff. Once we had all tasted the cake and the crumble—“delicious craziness,” raved one of my employees—we served them up in vintage green champagne glasses for customers to enjoy as they cruised the shop.

And that’s exactly what I wanted the new store to be about: fashion, food and friends—a place where people not only come to browse the latest patterns and fabrics or have a custom suit made, but also a warm, friendly environment where they can come have a chat or a laugh, a bite from a freshly-cooked dish, and maybe a cigar or a glass of scotch—piece of cake!”

Raw Japanese Denim Jeans

New in store.

Hand-Painted Monkey Leather Jacket

Python Jacket