In our ongoing quest to find shops we’d like to move into, we’re adding the New York SoHo store of Jonathan Adler to the list, which I visited when on holiday there last week.
Jonathan Adler is a talented ceramicist, interior designer and the partner of our favourite window dresser Simon Doonan. His New York Soho store has the pair’s witty and eccentric style written all over it’s colourful layout. Apart from the incessantly upbeat colours, the manifesto, painted in coordinating hues at the door, sums up nicely the mood of the store, see above left (it seems everyone needs a store manifesto nowadays, Mary had one too). We think it’s time for the word ‘groovy’ to come back into everyday word play.
The shop is a little like stepping back into a smart 60s TV set, something from Bewitched for example- with added needlepoint. The embroidered cushions are great. So are the salt & pepper sets, I wanted to buy a squirrel match holder, but Middleagedad thought it was naff, which firmly proved point point one from the manifesto.
There is a UK store now in Sloane Street, which I will head to shortly to view, although I note the prices (viewed on the UK website) are alarmingly high, in the US it’s quite a reasonably priced brand (for those who consider a squirrel match holder ‘essential’) but it leaps a level here, taking it to designer prices. The squirrel was $28 but is £42. I wish they wouldn’t do that.
The books Adler and Doonan have written are joyously upbeat reads and show you how to handle colour. quirky style mixing and a bit of home-humour with aplomb.
oh I LOVE this! (The husband won’t, but who cares? I so wish he were gay so he’d appreciate it fully and we could have a blast browsing the site!). I’m going to have to splatter the Jonathan Adler 10 commandments all over the social media platforms and then some! Fabulous! Has totally cheered me up this dreary Halloween Monday morning.
x
I love that word “groovy” it just conjures up the sixties all by itself. There was an American programme from the sixties (can’t remember its name) – they would refer to the “Groovy Guru” – I love it.
The store looks fab too. I was going to write fabulous but thought “fab” much more sixties/seventies!
Glad to see there is a London store.
Really liking the look of this shop – thanks for another great tip-off! How did I ever live without a birds salt and pepper set in my life?! And I totally agree about the sterling upcharge – that rate is surely not just down to duty/imports costs.
(‘Groovy’ always makes me think of Nana Mouskouri).
OK ladies, we’ve put groovy back in the daily narrative then, I have been humming that song ‘groovy kind of love’ since writing it actually, can anyone remember who that was by? Mama’s and Papa’s? Ax
“The Mindbenders” Amanda – strange what a menopausal memory does ( I did WHAT yesterday?).
Love , LOVE Adler – hate what American (or Danish, French etc) sites do with pricing – yes, I’m looking at you Eileen Fisher, J Crew, Day Birger, Bompard etc. We all have computers, calculators and some of us can even do the maths inside our head as we know our times table – so why, oh why do they do that thing of $=pound?
Sigh…angry rant over…
Monix
Thank you Monix! You are welcome to rant anytime you like here…..A