Approximately 300 of New York’s most stylish waited hours in Soho on Saturday morning to enter the first brick-and-mortar store for Telfar, the Beyoncé-beloved brand with a giant cult following.
The line, which wound down Broadway and spilled into the alley, began to form hours before the 11 a.m. ribbon-cutting as throngs of well-dressed fans eagerly awaited a rare chance to get their hands on one of the bags. Telfar’s coveted, nicknamed “Bushwick Birkin.”
Janya Conyers, a 14-year-old New Yorker, arrived at 8 a.m. and was the first customer to make a purchase once she finally got inside.
The fashion-forward teenager even got a chance to meet designer Telfar Clemens himself.
Meanwhile, Queens native Skai Karim, 20, was the fifth person from the front of the line, shopping a black shopper at the bag bar on Saturday.
“Why not experience the first time by going to the grand opening of the first flagship store? This is a memory to create,” Karim, a Fashion Institute of Technology student and content creator, told The Post.
Being at the grand opening, she said, was a must “if you’re a big fan.”
She went on to call Clemens an “icon.”
Inside the sleek 10,000-square-foot vessel, the front door opens to a news desk followed by clothing racks hanging from the ceiling and a dazzling bag bar that runs the length of the store.
Customers were handed “menu bags” or asked to scan QR codes to view bag offers and make their selection at the bar, which was stocked with every bag ever made by Telfar.
“It screams New York,” Karim said of the store’s layout. “Screams Telfar.”
After operating as an online-only retailer for nearly two decades, the permanent location at 408 Broadway marks a new chapter for the buzzy brand, offering New Yorkers the chance to experience the clothing or grab a bag with an embossed “T” without expected one. from long-awaited online discounts.
“The store tells the whole story,” designer Telfar Clemens told The Post before the opening. “It’s not just bags, it’s a cultural phenomenon and it’s a total look – 20 years in the making.”
After the brand’s previous pop-ups were mobbed by overzealous fans in years past, this time around, Clemens required RSVPs for entry. That, he said, would be “different.”
“This is our flagship store in NYC — we want to spread that energy to the other 365 days of the year,” said Clemens, who has built an atelier to produce “full 360 collections” and thus “100% independent.”
“That’s why the store is so central – you’d never know Telfar walking into an existing store.”
Additional reporting by Robert Miller.
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Image Source : nypost.com