shopstory // nepenthes // garment district, new york

in

i work full-time in the garment district of new york city and nepenthes is one of the best spots in the area. i recently sat down with the manager, takuya yamamoto, and chatted with him about his background as well as the shop's concept. the store originates from japan where there are five other locations. takuya also hails from japan and wears many hats as the manager, buyer and merchandiser of the store. his background includes a stint at what goes around comes around as well as his own brand, repo. i've always wondered about the name of the store and takuya explained it comes from the name of an exotic plant. ninety percent of the product is nepenthes' own; nepenthes also runs brands engineered garments and needles. the store aims to pioneer an eclectic mix of merchandise and surprise the customer with a unique selection one won't find anywhere else. takuya says the store's goal is to express individuality through clothing and accessories without buying into a bigger image, which often happens when buying from a bigger name brand. nepenthes also hosts art exhibits and pop-up shops every two to three months. this summer, they hosted "hell's kitchen book store" in collaboration with japanese bookstore kinokinuya, another one of my favorite stores in the area. this pop-up featured beautiful books and stationary. for each pop-up shop, nepenthes collaborates on a new screen-printed tote bag. i'm excited to see what they have coming up next.

* photos + video by alix h. luntz *

shopstory // coming soon // lower east side, new york

in

a few months ago, i stopped by coming soon new york and chatted with the boutique's owners helena and fabiana. the two super cool ladies met while working in the gallery world and now run this inspiring orchard street shop together. they spend many mornings doing studio visits with local designers and then head to the shop where they befriend customers and host events with other local businesses like mission chinese food and dimes. their shop features an eclectic mix of artful objects, home goods, jewelry and accessories. they are constantly moving around the whimsical merchandise, tweaking the lay out just like a house. i love the aesthetics of their store and the curated selection of quirky meets cool stuff. when fabiana and helena decided to open their shop, they knew orchard street was the place. they mentioned the close-knit relationship between all of the shops on the street and orchard street has now become a favorite of mine. i saw their rad multi-sensory installation of grace villamil's work a door within a door within a door at spring/break art fair in march. there's an installation of villamil's work in their shop and these "silo kits" are for sale so you can easily recreate one in your own home for $240.

be sure to visit their store at 37 orchard street!

small talk // kiosk // concept store in reyjkavik, iceland

in

* on a recent trip to reykjavik, i discovered a dreamy shop called kiosk *

kiosk is a co-op store owned by nine different fashion designers. most of them graduated from the icelandic academy of arts in reykjavik and one studied in milan. the store was opened in 2010 and was voted the best place to stock up on local icelandic fashion design by grapevine in 2011, 2012, 2013 and 2014.

cultureisland: tell us more about kiosk?

eygló // kiosk: the way we run the store is that we split the rent and all work in the store at least once a week. we´ve found it good to be able to meet the client once in a while. and it seems the clients like to meet us, the designers, as well.

cultureisland: what kind of products do you feature in the store?

eygló // kiosk: we have mostly womenswear, dresses, swimsuits and accessories. all designed by us (some of it made by us as well).

cultureisland: i noticed in reykjavik there aren't many commercial stores. instead there are more small, local boutiques. can you tell us more about the shop culture?

eygló // kiosk: most of the commercial stores are in the big malls, fortunately we have smaller shops and they are mostly on our main shopping street in reykjavik. we´ve heard it´s quite unusual in other cities.

cultureisland: what are your favorite places to see art in reykjavik?

eygló // kiosk: sparkdesignspace which is a shop on klapparstígur, nýló (the living art museum) and kling og bang, a gallery on hverfisgata.

cultureisland: what kind of music are you listening to right now?

eygló // kiosk: i've been listening to these artists a lot lately: jef barbara, moodoid, and blood orange.

small talk // jonah leslie // shop owner of ibiki montreal

in
ibiki // montreal

ibiki // montreal

* on a recent trip to montreal, i discovered a neat avant-garde concept shop called ibiki *

owned by artistic director jonah leslie, ibiki is located on boulevard saint-laurent in the heart of montreal and features internationally designed, hand-curated apparel, accessories, books and magazines //

about jonah leslie: while jonah has lived in montreal his entire life, he's been traveling globally since a young age. the son of two contemporary dancers, he often went on tour with his dad to the united states and europe. after college he dabbled in dj'ing and promoting/hosting parties. he saved up some money and took trips to brasil and asia. in asia, he visited bangkok, tokyo and hong kong. there, he found the market culture very inspiring and collected cool product he bought on the streets and through out his travels. he sold his collected treasures out of a friend's shop in montreal and in 2006, jonah opened his own store, old gold boutique. old gold was a space where imagination and creativity ruled supreme. to trigger people's curiosity, the shop was devoid of any outside signage and the window displays showed elaborate, wacky surrealist art created by jonah himself. they were totally unrelated to the product in the shop. many objects in the store weren't actually for sale and the merch was constantly re-arranged in whimsical ways. the store had an online presence and served as a place for creativity, showing videos, dj mixes and photoshoots by jonah and his friends. old gold was part counter-culture retail and part art project. when his lease was up, he found a larger space which is now the home of present day ibiki...

ibiki2

cultureisland: tell us more about ibiki. what is the concept?

jonah leslie: ibiki is basically a modern day imports shop with a focus on apparel, accessories, publications and apothecary. the flavour gravitates towards scandinavian and north asian design. reasons being the climate of those areas are similar to ours and therefore the products apply in a practical sense to the lifestyle of montrealers. and also i like the pared down design sensibility which both these regions share.

ibiki3

cultureisland: what kind of products and brands do you feature in the store?

jonah leslie: some brands include our legacy, won hundred, hope, filippa k, cheap monday, saturdays, minimarket, ymc, porter, sisii japan, black crane, new balance and more. another important feature of the shop is the inauguration of a small homewares section with companies such as: maison martin margiela objects, areaware, l'atelier d'exercise, seletti, and normann copenhagen, as well as both a book and magazine section. the publications consist of art and design subjects which correspond to the aesthetics and philosophies of the shop: architecture, photography, painting, fine arts, industrial design, graphic design, dance and many other subcategories by publishers like moma, lars muller, and schrimer/mosel to name a few. magazines include: apartamento, acne paper, alpine review, bad day, Bauhaus, elephant, pin-up, encens, domus, tunica, day job, Saturdays, monoculture, printed pages and many more.

ibiki4

cultureisland: what does ibiki stand for?

jonah leslie: it is a name which transcends language, and deliberately has no inceptive meaning, no psychological association, leaving room for the brand's visual image, recognizable graphic to be the main connection to the word. an entity that speaks of perpetual creativity and of the overall philosophy of the creative rule, which has always been the underlying drive for this business.

ibiki

cultureisland: where do you find inspiration?

jonah leslie: in fine arts, astronomy, nature, people, architecture, dance.

ibiki5

cultureisland: where are your favorite places to see art in montreal?

jonah leslie: the mac, dhc, gallery antoine ertaskiran amongst other places.

ibiki6

cultureisland: what kind of music are you listening to right now?

jonah leslie: loving this mix by din daa daa on redlight radio lately.

* check out ibiki's website here + be sure to visit next time you're in montreal // 4357 boulevard saint-laurent, montreal, qc, canada *