The first thing you notice when you walk into the bright and airy Collina Strada flagship store on Canal Street is the unusual plaster-cast crown molding. “I really wanted to do crazy crown molding that dripped like Dalí, but apparently it was physically impossible,” explains designer Hillary Taymour, sitting on one of the two “boyfriend couches” inside the shop. The couches are covered in her corduroy Watercolor Floral fabric, the same material that makes up the cargo pants she’s wearing. So while there are no dripping clocks or sliced-up eyeballs, there are “flowers, fruits, frogs, turtles, pomegranates, and peppers”—all plastic toys and knickknacks that were lying around the studio, plastered, and carefully turned into molding by Ryan Petrus.“We wanted it to feel like a Collina salad,” Taymour says. Petrus also hand-molded plastered ribbons into letters that spell out C-o-l-l-i-n-a S-t-r-a-d-a. “We’re bringing crown molding back.”
The second thing you notice inside the shop is the amorphous stone table that anchors the space. It was specially made by Taymour’s friend, artist Misha Kahn, and it has a playful, mushroom-like shape. “I wanted to collaborate with friends who are also in the same level of business that I’m in and can create amazing things but also make it feel approachable and accessible. I want people to feel welcome,” Taymour explains. Another friend, the artist Justin Hager, hand-painted and shellacked the floor in the same Watercolor Floral print, adding an artful touch that is warm and inviting. “People expect it to be crazy on the walls, but with the revolving door of colors and patterns we have here,” she says, gesturing to a rack full of wonderfully alluring blues, “we can do crazy things elsewhere. Clothes are always going to look best against white.” A painting by Hager titled Roller Coaster also hangs near the cash register.
Taymour founded her label in 2009, but it was in 2019 that she zeroed in on the colorful, nature-forward, and sustainable themes that propelled her into becoming one of New York’s most influential designers. Her shows have since become celebrations of all the good things that make humanity great and life worth living. As a designer—and a person—she’s known for wearing her heart on her sleeve (and her layered cargo pants). “I had been looking for a space for four or five years, and then I stopped, but once I saw this space was open, I thought, I’m gonna be really sad if I don’t get it,” she says. The store officially opened yesterday, but she soft-launched the space in December, not long after she had signed the lease: “The block is very friendly, and even though it’s such a gentrified area, it feels really welcoming–our landlord grew up in this building.”
In the little over a month since the shop has been open, she’s learned plenty of new things about her customers. “It’s really interesting to see the retail version of sales and the e-commerce version of sales—they’re completely different girls,” she says. “But we’ve also seen that the e-comm sales in New York have gone up since we opened.” Rounding out the selection of ready-to-wear are her iconic bedazzled reusable water bottles; copies of her Rizzoli monograph, I Care a Lotta, I Wear Collina Strada; and her jewelry and shoe collaborations. The store is also the perfect place for one-of-a-kind creations that are too hard to sell online. “It’s a really good way for me to continue to work on our upcycling and deadstock and really have people be able to purchase a true original Collina that I can’t mass-market and sell,” she adds.
With her new store, Taymour joins a cool roster that includes Eckhaus Latta, Batsheva, Sandy Liang, and Telfar, which have outposts in the vicinity. The boomlet of independent designer outlets is making for an exciting time to shop in New York City.
