This may be the very first luxury sticker shop in the world, let alone New York City, but Anya Hindmarch knows how to make a leather sticker you d be willing to slap on a Birkin (beware: They’re made to stick—for good). Barneys inaugurated its exclusive boutique with the London-based accessories designer with a lively soiree that embodied the puckish spirit of Anya herself. Why stickers? “It was the only way I could do fashion when I was young," Hindmarch explains. "I was at a really strict convent school. Now I like the fact that you might take a really beautiful bag and then slightly mess it up and make it really personal.” Hindmarch seems to design for the woman who wants her bag to wink a little (or actually stare at you through its cartoon eyes) and the crowd at Barneys, which included Mamie Gummer, Sofía Sanchez de Betak, and fellow accessories designer Waris Ahluwalia, was ready for this devil-may-care approach. To that end, there was a literal scrum—which formed at the beginning of the party and did not abate until the end—around the sticker shop table, where women were excitedly snatching up whatever they could get their hands on and affixing it to their phones, bags, you name it.
The new Hindmarch niche on the first floor of Barneys is chock full of playful totes with embossed rainbows and sneering metallic emoji peeping out from the shelves. There s even one bag (with a giant leather pencil-shaped pochette hanging jauntily from one strap) that s completely overtaken by the whimsical illustrations. But they’re completely sold out of the spring collection (except for the stickers); never underestimate the power of leather googly eyes.
Meanwhile it was all about prettiness down at Saks Fifth Avenue as Fabiola Beracasa-Beckman hosted an intimate trunkshow and meet and greet with Emanuel Ungaro creative director Fausto Puglisi. Puglisi’s haute crew, including Zani Gugelmann, Jamie Bochert, and Riley Montana, took in the scene before moving to Wallsé for an intimate dinner.