Still Here Opens First Retail Store in New York’s NoLIta
It’s the quintessential feel-good story.
Two best friends who grew up in Brooklyn, N.Y., became high school sweethearts, attended college together, got married and had a baby, have also created a successful, independently funded denim brand called Still Here that is carried in leading retailers including Saks Fifth Avenue, Bergdorf Goodman and Farfetch.
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The husband-and-wife team of Sonia and Maurice Mosseri created the brand shortly after their wedding in 2018, building on Sonia Mosseri’s hobby of hand-painting vintage jeans she’d been collecting since she was a child. A lightbulb went off when the couple was invited to bring the jeans to the Capsule show and they found themselves fielding requests from retailers who wanted to buy the collection. That included the-then Barneys New York, whose merchant team asked for a line sheet.
“What’s a line sheet?” Sonia Mosseri recalled asking.
They did their homework and drilled down to learn everything they could about the denim industry. “We spent a year on research and development,” she said, studying patterns, fabrics, fits and washes. “We invested our wedding gift money into the product.”
One year later, they went back to Barneys after creating that elusive line sheet and the buyers were still interested, allowing them to launch their brand. The first order was for 250 hand-painted jeans, which sold out in less than two weeks, she said.
They then traveled to Los Angeles to figure out how to scale their newfound denim collection and picked up other retail customers, including Net-a-porter. And the brand was on its way.
Enter COVID-19.
Although they had no e-commerce business, Maurice Mosseri, who has a degree in business, knew the brand would need a backup plan as all their wholesale clients were forced to close because of the pandemic — and Barneys would, of course, go bankrupt. They created a makeshift website to connect with their consumers and that channel now represents 40 percent of Still Here’s overall sales.
Creating connections with their customers has been a hallmark of the brand since the inception. It’s not unusual for interested shoppers to knock on the door of their office in Industry City and ask to come in and try on jeans. That’s one reason the couple decided to open their first retail store.
The shop, which opens officially on Thursday, is on Elizabeth Street in Manhattan’s NoLIta — a 380-square-foot boutique that they have leased for the next six months with an option to renew. It’s next door to Rag & Bone and close to Buck Mason, Cezanne and other stores.
The shop is inspired by 1970s dens and features Donald Judd-style custom furniture and chrome accents. Classic American materials such as dark walnut stained wood are contrasted by subway tiles and a colorful lightbox menu displays Still Here’s fits and painted styles that are available for purchase at the store.
“We jumped at the opportunity to open in New York,” Sonia Mosseri said, adding that the “marketing opportunity” for the brand was vast since the neighborhood is full of its customers just walking down the block. “We felt the community was itching to connect with us,” her husband said.
What customers respond to is Still Here’s classic styles that have been updated with a modern aesthetic. There are only six styles including the original, The Tate, which is the one that sports the hand-painted Rainbow strip that set the direction for the brand. It’s a button-fly, classic high-rise. The Childhood, which is more relaxed, is the most popular fit right now, and The Subway, midrise with a wide leg that is reminiscent of a carpenter, is among the newest additions. Then there’s The Cowgirl, a model inspired by riding jeans with a cutout on the side.
The plain jeans retail for $235, while the hand-painted styles sell for $280.
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As the brand has grown, Sonia Mosseri has had to expand beyond painting every style herself and has added a team of designers in L.A. to replicate the samples she still produces in New York.
They have also branched out into complementary products such as a denim jacket and a line of knit sweaters and loungewear. The first T-shirt will be added this summer. But the goal is not to expand into too many categories too quickly and instead “make really good jeans first,” Maurice Mosseri said.
Although the brand is marketed to women, many of the jeans can also be worn by men and they purposely offer larger sizes to accommodate the male consumer.
As part of the brand’s thrust to be as sustainable as possible, the couple has limited the number of styles and finishes available. Every jean is made from 100 percent cotton deadstock, upcycled or BCI-certified materials and they work with production facilities to decrease water consumption.
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Although Maurice Mosseri admits that it’s impossible to be completely sustainable, they’re doing what they can. “It’s such a hard industry to be sustainable in as a small business,” he said. “So we’re trying to find ways to be better and only use 100 percent cotton and limited the number of fits and washes.”
Another thing they’ve done is create the Still Here Café. The company partnered with its fabric mill, The New Denim Project, and a coffee farm in Guatamala to grow a Still Here coffee bean using composted materials from its denim production process. The medium roast blend is sold in the store — $24 for 12 ounces — and samples are free.
If the store is successful, the Mosseris hope to eventually replicate the concept in other locations such as L.A., Aspen, Colorado and other cities. “It’s definitely a concept we’re excited about testing,” Maurice Mosseri said.
His wife is a little more reticent. “I would want to test pop-ups first,” she said. But they’re both hopeful that their first store will be a success. “We’re really excited to finally be calling the shots,” she said.
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