After years of cultivating a stream of shoppers to its men’s store, Kith is diving more into the women’s business with a new store and the first creative director of Kith Women.
As many Kith shoppers can attest, the store already attracts plenty of non-male shoppers and browsers. To help commandeer the women’s side, Daniëlle Cathari is taking on the role of creative director of Kith Women. She will work alongside Kith founder, chief executive officer and creative director Ronnie Fieg and the Kith Women team to help define the brand in different capacities, with a rollout planned for late 2024.
Neither Fieg nor Cathari were available for interviews, according to a Kith spokesperson.
After winning VFiles Runway during New York Fashion Week in 2017 — the first student to have done so — Cathari started her own label that same year in Amsterdam. In the years that followed she has worked with such brands as Adidas Originals, Clarks, New Balance and Woolrich, among others. Through a partnership with Adidas, she attracted a lot of attention for deconstructing one of its tracksuits. That was an example of her partialness to “complementing contrasts,” as in repurposing classic designs subversively. Her experience included collaborating on eyewear with Retrosuperfuture and designing uniform for employees at Tony’s Chocolonely.
As part of the women’s focus, Kith Women will open at 644 Broadway on Friday in the heart of SoHo at Bleecker Street. The site is a homecoming, considering the first Kith store in Manhattan bowed there in 2011. The historic Queen Anne/Romanesque Revival-style location was designed and completed in 1891 by Stephen Decatur Hatch for the Manhattan Savings Institution, which later became the Manhattan Savings Bank. Decades after the bank branch closed, the red sandstone and brick building was converted into residential lofts in the 1970s and then luxury apartments in the 1980s. The eight-floor building was given New York City Landmark status in 1999, and it still has wrought iron gates at the entrance.
The assortment in the new store will include Kith Women and various brands of apparel, accessories and footwear. Fieg designed the women’s flagship with signature elements of Kith’s retail concept. The main room has Venetian plaster walls, suede wallpaper with a Kith monogram pattern and oak-patterned flooring with walnut trim.
There are also three custom display cases in walnut with Rosa Aurora stone display tops from the Brooklyn-based woodworker brand Mark Jupiter. In the footwear area, there is a grand arched ceiling, a custom chandelier from Italy by Viabizzuno and travertine shelves. Nearby fitting rooms have walnut frames and custom walnut benches by Mark Jupiter.
Just as other retailers like Ralph Lauren have added coffee and other indulgences to entice shoppers, Kith Women will have an in-shop café and greenery space through a partnership with PlantShed, the New York-based flower and plant retailer with multiple locations. At Kith Women’s PlantShed Café, customers will find beverages and light fare, as well as floral arrangements to purchase. They can also retreat to the outdoor courtyard. The café will open daily two hours earlier than the retail space.
To mark the store’s opening Friday at 11 a.m. EST, Kith Women Winter Monogram 2023, an assortment of outerwear, shirts, pants, accessories and other items, will be sold in Kith’s seasonal Monogram design. The range will also be sold at that time via Kith’s other shops, e-commerce and app. As online Kith shoppers can see, there are also coats, leather pants and jackets, sweaters and other items being sold for women.
