\n\tThe 450-square-foot space between 88th and 89th Streets was designed by Handvaerk\u2019s creative director, Petra Brichnacova. It features a minimalistic aesthetic with natural materials including wood, concrete and lime-wash and furnishings from Frama and Audo.<\/p>\n
\n\t\u201cWe\u2019ve always preferred smaller spaces for two main reasons,\u201d said Esteban Saba, Brichnacova\u2019s husband and business partner. \u201cAs a small, independent brand, they\u2019re more practical for us. But more importantly, as true minimalists \u2014 where less is more \u2014 smaller stores challenge us to be very intentional about both the design of the space and the product curation. Everything has to earn its place.\u201d<\/p>\n
\n\tHe said that since creating the brand in 2013 as strictly a direct-to-consumer company, the duo has \u201calways been very data-driven \u2014 almost obsessive about understanding who our customer is and where they are located. Over the years, the data has been remarkably consistent: our core customer in New York lives on the Upper East Side. Opening on Madison Avenue<\/a> allows us to be close to that community and offer the kind of personal experience and service that\u2019s difficult to replicate online.\u201d<\/p>\n \n\tThe store<\/a> on Main Street in Southampton, which opened in May of 2024, provided the couple with a true sense of its customer base. They realized many lived in Manhattan and just spent the summers in the Hamptons<\/a>, so having a store on Madison Avenue allows the brand to service these shoppers year-round.<\/p>\n \n\t\u201cBeyond that, Manhattan is essential to our growth: our customer is a discerning professional, typically in their early 40s, with the means and mindset to invest in quality \u2014 someone who values substance and longevity over trends,\u201d Saba said.<\/p>\n \n\tHandvaerk also wholesales to some key retailers in Manhattan including Bergdorf Goodman<\/a>, C\u2019H\u2019C\u2019M\u2019, and Dot Reeder, \u201cso brand recognition is naturally strongest in Manhattan,\u201d he added.<\/p>\n \n\tSaba and his wife have been \u201cpleasantly surprised by the performance of our Southampton store \u2014 it really opened our eyes to the importance of having a physical retail presence. It allowed us to connect directly with our customers and observe how they experience and shop the brand.\u201d<\/p>\n \t\t\t\t\t\t \t\t\t\t\tThe Handvaerk store sports a minimalistic design.<\/p>\n \t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tCourtesy of Handvaerk<\/p>\n \n\tIn the Hamptons<\/a> store, the mix is more centered around warm-weather pieces, he said, such as Ts, polos and lightweight essentials. But on Madison Avenue<\/a>, knitwear \u2014 including alpaca pieces knit in Peru and merino styles made in Italy \u2014 will the hero.<\/p>\n \n\t\u201cThe fall and winter season gives us the opportunity to highlight these materials and showcase the depth of our craftsmanship. Looking ahead, the Madison Avenue store will also allow us to expand our ready-to-wear offering for both men and women. Petra is already hard at work evolving the collection in that direction,\u201d Saba said.<\/p>\n \n\tBeyond Madison Avenue, Saba said Handvaerk is \u201cactively exploring downtown, specifically TriBeCa,\u201d for additional units. \u201cIt builds on the same idea behind our Madison Avenue store: being close to our customer and part of the neighborhoods where they live and spend time.<\/p>\n \n\t\u201cOur goal is to selectively grow our retail footprint over the next few years in key markets, always in a thoughtful and deliberate way,\u201d he said. \u201cWe believe in small-format stores \u2014 intimate spaces that reflect our minimalist ethos and allow us to connect directly with our community.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Handvaerk has taken the leap into Manhattan. Just over a year since opening its first physical store in…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":30025,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[35],"tags":[18475,12185,75,84,83,9,24,63,2896],"class_list":["post-30024","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-manhattan","tag-hamptons","tag-madison-avenue","tag-manhattan","tag-manhattan-headlines","tag-manhattan-news","tag-new-york","tag-new-york-city","tag-nyc","tag-store"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/30024","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=30024"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/30024\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/30025"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=30024"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=30024"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=30024"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}![\"Handvaerk](\"https:\/\/wwd.com\/wp-content\/themes\/vip\/pmc-wwd-2021\/assets\/public\/lazyload-fallback.gif\")
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