David Adjaye Has Built a “Cathedral” for The Webster’s New L.A. Outpost 

Last year, The Webster celebrated its 10th anniversary. It was the same year that Barneys New York shuttered after nearly a century in business, and two years after cult concept shop Colette closed for good in Paris. Last week, Opening Ceremony announced that it too was calling retail quits. But 2019 also saw the opening of Dallas-based boutique Forty Five Ten on the top floor of Hudson Yards, and the soft opening of the behemoth mall American Dream. So what gives with bricks-and-mortar these days?

Some say off-line retail is dead or dying, but others say it’s thriving. Web and mobile shopping threw a wrench into the sides of big-box department stores and traditional malls, presenting new ideas about where and how to consume. And on the other end, some of the smaller, independent boutiques have seemed to struggle with the competitive balance between a profitable operation and a conceptual selling approach.

Laure Heriard Dubreuil, founder of The Webster, has been on the upswing for a decade. This week, she opened her seventh space, designed by famed British-Ghanian architect David Adjaye, in a corner of L.A.’s Beverly Center. The blush pink concrete building features few materials but striking geometry with its terrazzo floors, curved walls, and cylindrical pillars. The front of the building features an LED screen, which will display rotating artwork and act as a public forum for passersby and those who want to sit and stay a while. That, in fact, is the entire point of The Webster, says Dubreuil. It’s a community gathering space, a place not only to shop but to linger and discover, which is the formula that has allowed Dubreuil to continue opening stores around the country. Outside of Miami and L.A., she has spaces in Houston, New York, and Costa Mesa, California.

“I recently moved to Los Angeles,” Dubreuil told Vogue. “It’s very important for me to really have an understanding of the surroundings when we are opening a new store somewhere. I want to understand the people, the lifestyle, the rhythm of the city. I moved to Miami when we opened Miami, and I moved to New York when we opened New York; now, L.A.”

The plan for L.A. was to build what Durbreuil calls a “Webster 2.0, The Webster of the future.” That meant stripping back some of the inherent glam of the Miami and New York flagships, as well as creating a structure totally from scratch, as opposed to the architecturally historical buildings she is used to occupying. “The building is serene and warm,” Dubreuil said. “That’s what we want even though it sits on one of the busiest intersections in L.A. We want visitors to be transported somewhere they can relax, contemplate, meditate, and enjoy in a peaceful way.”

Adjaye, who is best known for the Smithsonian National Museum of African American History and Culture in Washington, D.C., liked Dubreuil’s take on building a community space. “I think the most interesting retail spaces right now are those that are acting as social centers that people remember and want to go back to,” he said. “The store will, of course, have this amazing collection of objects and clothes, but also there’s a hope that it will become a place for people to gather. The most beautiful part of the store, the entrance, has been given over to the public.”