Telfar "conceptual yet egalitarian" New York flagship includes a TV studio

Fashion brand Telfar has opened its first brick-and-mortar store, located in Lower Manhattan and featuring a public-access television studio.

The brand founded by American-Liberian designer Telfar Clemens chose the busy corner of Canal Street and Broadway in Tribeca as the spot for its physical retail space.

The team described the location as the "current epicentre of counterfeit bag sales (including our own)" and relished in this irony.

"The Telfar Store is an all-in bet that there is still a difference between fake and real," said the brand.

Designed in-house, the 10,000-square-foot (929-square-metre) flagship features a stark white interior that allows the bright clothing and accessories to stand out.

The store primarily targets the brand's ardent fans, who contributed to its success by widely sharing social media content featuring Telfar products.

"This space is a gift to them," said the team. "It's something they can use — a space where they can kick it; a space where they can create — built for more than just a financial exchange."

Interactive elements include an area set up as a TV studio, from which Telfar will launch collections, film announcements, conduct interviews and air performances.

This comprises a horseshoe-shaped modular couch with tubular metal framing and white upholstery, as well as a news desk in front of a billboard-sized LED screen spanning the store's Broadway facade.

Customers are also encouraged to film their own content, and broadcast it via the brand's platform TelfarTV.

A doorway cut into the screen leads into the store, where a series of pods made from white vinyl stretched over aluminium frames present the collections.

These elements were constructed by local awning makers, while the illuminated signs on the ground were produced close by in Chinatown.

"These two common elements of any street in New York, deploy an interior program which is starkly conceptual, yet deeply egalitarian, familiar and real — creating nooks and jetties of private experience," said Telfar.

The pods are suspended from a fully gridded sound-stage ceiling, which also supports an array of screens that display a mix of polished and homemade videos corresponding to the garments below.

Customers can again upload their own videos to these screens via QR codes printed in the garments themselves.

"The emphasis here — as everywhere in the store — is to ground the unique social life of this brand into real space, real experience and real sociality," said Telfar.

An archway punched through a brick wall leads to the "bag bar", where all of the colour variations of Telfar's signature bag design are displayed on long rows of screens designed to look like a Chinese light-box menu.

A window in the centre reveals 12 checkout desks, and also serves as a bar during in-store events and parties.

Telfar previously created a collection of unisex uniforms for the Liberian team at the Tokyo 2020 Olympics.

Other major apparel brands to have recently opened or updated their New York flagships include Longchamp, for which Heatherwick Studio recoloured a sculptural steel staircase and added "three-dimensional carpets".

The photography is courtesy of Telfar.

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