“We are brutally honest! We say no as often as we say yes!” insists Kim Kassel, co-owner with Lizzie Tisch of Suite 1521, describing the special customer service they render to their fashionable clients.
In a retail landscape crammed with alternatives—from traditional shopping, to sample sales, to online high-fashion sites, to eschewing the current crop entirely and searching the Web for back-season bargains—arrives Studio 1521. The idea, dreamed up by good friends Tisch and Kassel, works like this: You join for $500; this enables you to attend a series of chic presentations featuring the complete runway collections from a roster of up-to-the-minute designers (the darlings of London Fashion Week are current favorites) at two-day trunk show marathons.
Usually the designer is present, and if not, someone from his or her atelier is there, allowing for a level of personalization and customization that is, according to Tisch and Kassel, what makes the business so unique. “When Giles [Deacon] was here, he brought someone from his production team, and you could really design your own piece with him,” Kassel recalls. “You get a toile, and he even comes back—he really gets into it!” There are benefits, as it turns out, for the designers as well as the customers. “It’s not just about how a buyer responds, but how a customer does,” she explains. “Sometimes designers are surprised that the age range we bring is both a 35 and a 65 year old.”
On the day I visit Suite 1521’s swanky Madison Avenue digs, Roksanda Ilincic, or rather her clothes, grace the spacious racks. The designer, busy opening her first boutique in London, sadly couldn’t make it, but her representative is cheerfully helping women decide on such delightful dilemmas as should a black shift be enlivened with a neon bright belt, lending a slash of hot pink or maybe lime? Some clients are lounging on the sofas and sneaking a Hershey’s Kiss from the mound under the glass top of the witty Wally Rizzo coffee table (Tisch found it on 1stdibs); one visitor has even brought her puppy. (Max is very well-behaved.)
Because Tisch and Kassel like to pair two designers, jeweler Ileana Makri is also here, presenting her trademark evil eye and snake-themed baubles, along with her newest collection called Geometry, which features diamond-laden delicacies that employ abstract shapes. Unlike the clothing, you can take these treasures home with you right away, though, if you decide your serpent ring should have emerald eyes, say, rather than ruby, you will have to wait a bit for your new pet. Makri says her customers love the privacy of shopping this way: “It’s a new idea—they create their own things. It’s more playful!”
Tisch and Kassel like to wear the designers they are touting, so this afternoon Tisch is clad in the Margot Lantern dress, so-called for the shape of its sleeves, and Kassel has a huge diamond Ileana confection, reminiscent of a snowflake, perched on one happy finger. The Lantern is a Roksanda classic, offered every season, and can be ordered with the waist and/or neckline subtly lowered or raised. Not least, the frock can be had in a spectrum of hues—there is a color card on hand to help realize your dreams. So if I want to have my Lantern with a tangerine and melon back and a hyacinth and daffodil front, would that be okay? “Probably, yes!” Tisch laughs.
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