When French clothier Carven opens its first US boutique, it will be at a très approprié spot: 83 Mercer Street. The former occupant of that address, Curve, was one of the original retailers in America to carry pieces from Carven’s insanely in-demand collections.
For those in need of a quick refresher course, Guillaume Henry, a former senior stylist at Givenchy under Riccardo Tisci, took over as creative director at the storied 1940s French couture house in 2009. Almost overnight, he led Carven to a devoted fan base of fashion girls who live for his slightly awkward touches (think oversize pocket flaps on belted pastel coats) that give a joyful middle finger to hyper-tailored silhouettes. Henry’s schoolboy good looks are gushed about on style blogs as often as the clothing he creates, adding a dash of romantic swoon to the fervor.
Fashion maven Alexa Chung has been championing him for years — she hosted the first New York dinner in his honor back in 2011, and recently wore a stunning steel-gray and navy lacework dress from Carven’s 2014 resort collection to the launch party for her book, “It.”
The Soho store is Carven’s 16th stand-alone boutique, and carries both women’s and men’s collections. The 1,636- square-foot shop was originally slated to open Nov. 14, but the debut was delayed by construction issues, a testament to the brand’s careful attention to detail.
Henry collaborated on the space with French designer Eric Chevallier. “I’ve known him for many years,” Henry says. “In our ready-to-wear vocabulary, there is always the idea of mix and twist, and Eric is very aware of that. One piece of clothing combines words such as rich and poor, day and night, casual and sophisticated.”
To translate that philosophy into store design, Chevallier paired slick marble surfaces with utilitarian red plywood, and the arena is populated with his Saint Sulpice benches — a minimalist French schoolroom archetype coated in luxurious leather. “Everyday elements like light bulbs get multiplied in order to make the functional become aesthetic,” says Henry. (For those counting, the final number of bulbs on the store’s ceiling burns out at 200.)
“New York City is a shopping paradise,” he says. “And we want our space to be a shopping experience.”