Cult Shop: the unstoppable freshness of The Frankie Shop

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The sky is a shiny beige box,” declares Gaëlle Drevet, 48, founder of New York’s The Frankie Shop (simply “Frankie” to those in the know, including Gigi Hadid, Rihanna and seemingly every millennial Soho gallery owner). . The box in question is the fashion label’s flagship boutique on Stanton Street on New York’s Lower East Side, which has recently been renovated to double the space while maintaining its “super calm energy and clean lines.” “We want it to be very calm and welcoming”, says the Parisian, “because being cool is not being cool, what’s the word? intimidating. This store is homey, cozy and comfortable. It’s great.”

The clothes you wear and your private space at home are very connected.

drevet released franky in 2014, cultivating a brand DNA built on a male–female aesthetics and choosing beige as the brand’s official tone. As a budding TV news producer in the early 2000s, Drevet had wandered flea markets looking for vintage men’s jackets before realizing she’d have better luck making her own. It was these creations that inspired the store’s name – “between a boy and a girl” – and that gave the brand cult status. (Thanks in part to the continued rise of the “Chic French Girl,” Frankie’s store has amassed over a million followers on Instagram).

Today, the brand’s signature slouchy suits (pants from $99, blazers from $165) and skintight trench coats ($360) still account for the lion’s share of sales, but prepare to join a long waiting list: Drevet produces a number very limited pieces each season. . Elsewhere, jackets by JW Anderson ($356) and cropped knitwear by Coperni ($380) hang from ivory shelves, while dark lacquered shelves display geometric bags by Proenza Schouler ($375) and Ganni (€179).

Gelso oversized jacket, €399

TFS x Duvelleroy Fan to take away, €79

Frankie’s now has two boutiques in Paris and two in New York, with a London location on the way, but the Lower East Side flagship will remain the headquarters, says Drevet, and the place where collaborations, such as recent graphic T-shirts created with activists. Jeanne Friot to support reproductive rights ($70), will debut.

There will also be an expanded offering of lifestyle products, including deformed mugs and vases from Completedworks of London ($98 to $441) and a bottle of Frankie’s Larq water ($105). “The clothes you wear and your private space at home are very connected,” says Drevet. “Everything is aligned.”

That ethos extends to the boutique’s furnishings, including carved onyx tables and the DS-600 cushioned sofa by Swiss design studio De Sede. “I saw him at the Ludlow Hotel. [in downtown Manhattan] and I just fell in love,” says Drevet. “It looks like slices of bread [stuck] together.” A little stretch of Paris in New York.