Band of Outsiders opens store in New York with an L.A. vibe
Although the L.A. brand Band of Outsiders’ first stand-alone boutique in the United States is nestled at 70 Wooster St. in SoHo, it has a decidedly West Coast vibe and open feel.
The 2,400-square-foot space (with another 2,400 square feet in the back that serve as a combination wholesale showroom and office) is dominated by a sprawling 58-by-19-foot mural that fills the back wall of the store. It depicts a man, suitcase slung over his shoulder, holding hands with a woman as they wade waist-deep through an expansive blue-green surf, the words “This is where you should be for Band of Outsiders” superimposed in the center in the label’s familiar font.
“It’s the South of France,” founder and creative director Scott Sternberg said at the grand opening party on Sept. 6, during New York Fashion Week. “It’s Jean-Paul Belmondo and Anna Karina in a publicity still from ‘Pierrot le Fou.’”
Although the imagery on the mural is expected to change on a seasonal basis, the wide-open seascape vibe is part of what Sternberg hopes to achieve with the space. “I wanted this feeling of breadth and the sort of openness that you feel looking at the ocean in L.A., looking out at [the] canyon view in L.A.,” he said. “There’s so much noise and rushing [around] here, I just wanted this chill vibe. If you were here tomorrow and heard the tunes, it would be Dennis Wilson, the ‘Ladies of the Canyon’ — [an] L.A. in the ‘70s vibe but with all this stuff that’s purely from the future.” Sternberg said that he wanted the space to feel organic and that he purposely avoided trying to create an air of faux nostalgia. “There are no props, none of those ‘retailisms,’” he said.
The space is a collaboration with architectural design studio LOT-EK, Band of Outsiders’ partner on the brand’s first store, which opened in Tokyo in November 2013. It has a cool, completely reconfigurable modular interior that consists of large crates — part old-school steamer trunk and part rock band road case complete with hinges, handles and caster feet — that serve as a central 35-foot-long display case.
The New York store, which comes as the brand marks its 10th anniversary, will stock the entire breadth of the men’s and women’s collections, a rotating range of exclusive and collaborative products with brands like Sperry Top-Sider and Wm. J. Mills & Co. and Band of Outsiders’ new footwear collection, which is officially due out in November.
The wares on display, much of it from the fall and winter 2014 collections, included luxe heather gray sweatpants, newsboy caps, polka-dot-covered blazers and repp stripe ties for the guys, Fair Isle sweaters depicting galloping horses, floral blocked trapeze dresses, a zip-front “B” sweater and floral print lace-up shoes for women, and a range of fun accessories (think belts, baseball caps appliqued with a backward “B” and rainbow knit hackey sacks right off the college quad of yesteryear) for both.
With the first U.S. store now open on the East Coast, when might we see the Band brand opening a retail space closer to home? “We’d love to open in L.A.,” Sternberg said. “But there’s really no rush right now. The focus right now is to get things right in New York.”
Follow me on Twitter: @ARTschorn
