Dries Van Noten, the celebrated Belgian fashion designer, has a treat in store! He’s just about to open his newest store on Mercer Street in New York City. Fortunately, this concept creative retail space is a monumental achievement for Van Noten. After 15 years of looking, he’s finally found the ideal spot for his vision within the city. Nestled among prestigious neighbors like Alaïa, Balenciaga, Marni, and Khaite, the new store promises to be a significant addition to New York’s fashion landscape.
The Mercer Street store is a brutal 30 meters deep. It looms 7 meters tall with a 6 meter sweep. Van Noten had personal control of its design, down to the rounded corners, just to make sure that it definitely looks like him. He continued that focus on the experiential with his lines about doing spaces only you can do, saying, “Every store for us has to be special.”
The space has real art gallery vibe, and makes sense given Van Noten’s artistic directorial eye and personal approach to expanding his eponymous brand. He and his husband, Patrick Vangheluwe, also a designer, curated an impressive collection of antiques throughout the space. Some of the treasures are English and French masterpieces of 16th-century painting. You’ll spot a stunning pair of torchères from the late Iris Apfel’s collection. Plus, the shop is peppered with Italian 1960s tables, setting a scene that is chic and swanky.
On trying to convey the atmosphere of the new flagship, Van Noten said, “It’s much more like a stage. This declaration serves as an overview of his design philosophy. He’s intentional with and considers each detail to craft a more experiential shopping in-store experience. The addition of a gold-leafed wall only adds to this theatricality, recalling Van Noten’s masterful show last June.
Since the beginning of the year, Van Noten has personally overseen the creation of five new stores. In his role as president of SCAPE, he is intimately overseeing their interior design. The recently opened outpost in New York is totally different from his chain but still reflects his one-of-a-kind vision. The Hanover Square store in London, housed in a former bank, showcases Van Noten’s flair for transforming spaces into artistic environments.
The Mercer Street spot is a testament to Van Noten’s wondrous design prowess. It boasts beautiful works by Belgian artist Ben Storms, effortlessly mixing striking art and high-end luxury. You can feel his fingerprints around the whole space. They compound his determination to build out a unique shopping district that really captures visitors’ hearts.
Van Noten and Vangheluwe are already hard at work on this fall’s equally thrilling sequel. We’re told that they’ll release it to the public later this year! You could feel his excitement over this new undertaking. He thinks it will be a wonderful opportunity to exhibit again their creativity and design sensibilities.
“We have another project, which Patrick and I are working on now really hard, and which we think that we can start to communicate later this year.” – Dries Van Noten