NEW YORK — Greg Chait is nothing if not meticulous.
When the founder of The Elder Statesman decided to start looking for a permanent New York City store in 2019, he scoured the city for just the right location. The pandemic caused him to take a pause for a couple of years, but three years ago he finally found his forever home: 101 Crosby Street.
“We identified it, and it took me a long time to convince the wonderful landlord that we were the right people for this space,” Chait said during a walkthrough Tuesday morning. “They’ve owned it for a really long time, and it hasn’t been a retail space. It was kind of a gallery/live-work situation for a family member of theirs. That’s also what I loved about it. We’re bringing our energy into the building, and it was a family member space, which is cool.”
The Elder Statesman has had a store in West Hollywood in L.A. for a decade, and over the years has operated a number of “winter” pop-ups in the New York City market. But this marks its first permanent location.
Although it took a lot of time and patience for interior designer Isaac Brest to reimagine the 1,500-square-foot space, Chait was in no rush. “At the end of the day, it worked out well,” he said. “This is a long-term game that I’m in and I imagine myself doing this for 30 or 50 years.”
Travis Kelce of the Kansas City Chiefs in a patchwork jacket from The Elder Statesman.
Lauren Leigh Bacho/Getty Images
The front entrance of the store, which is located between Spring and Prince streets in SoHo, features an installation space in the front window, separated from the main store by a green powder-coated metal screen. The initial installation features a quilt and a few stuffed animals and balls made from scraps from the brand’s Los Angeles factory, where it makes its colorful cashmere and home goods.
Brest, who had worked with Chait to create the millwork featured in the company’s Los Angeles flagship, replicated the process in New York, using industrial materials such as Sheetrock, Plexiglas and plywood. Chait also collaborated with Michael Bargo to source the furniture and other decorative objects in the space, which includes a resin sconce from Moch Hahn, a lighting designer in Brooklyn.
Upon passing through a plaster arched vestibule, shoppers see a Murano glass pendant that is intended to evoke a West Coast-style warmth. Ditto for the cedar wood paneling and off-white terracotta tiled floor.
Before deciding on the terracotta, Chait said he and his design team “agonized” over the floors, but “I think those are the important things to agonize over when you’re talking about design and something that’s meant to be there forever.”
In terms of product, The Elder Stateman’s cashmere expertise is on display on everything from sweaters and robes to accessories for men and women. The apparel collection is complemented by an array of home products including blankets — the category that started it all for Chait 17 years ago — along with one-of-a-kind patchwork curtains and a stacked cashmere bed that can be custom-ordered.
Chait believes that this is “the perfect time” to open a store in New York, not only because the merchandise is centered around cozy cashmere fabrics, but also because the mix has expanded enough in recent years to warrant the creation of a true retail expression.
“We feel like we’re actually ready for it now,” he said. “The company has come a long way. It’s been 17 years since I started the business, it took a long time to get the factory running and going and cruising, and then we had our store in Los Angeles. Some of my mentors have said when you find the right space, you need to work on the timeline of this space, and this is the right location for us.”
He felt that way about the company’s L.A. store, whose backdrop is the Pacific Design Center “and it looked like mountains. I’m not just thinking about inside the space, I’m thinking about the touch points around it too.”
For the New York store, it was the proximity to the Sant Ambroeus restaurant on Lafayette Street that was another selling point. “Whether you’re from New York or Japan or Germany, I can explain exactly where our store is by saying, ‘if you’re sitting in Sant Ambroeus and you look across the street to the parking lot, there’s a building with windows behind it, and that’s us.’ Everyone says they know exactly where that is.”
In addition, the space has windows on three sides and features an open and airy aesthetic that is large enough to allow the brand to continue to grow, Chait said. “I started with blankets, so to really showcase the breadth and depth of the company, we needed a significant size space.
“We can always change it, and adapt to new categories that we come up with,” he said. “I think that’s really important too.”
Looking ahead, Chait said there are still a few categories he’d like to add. “Socks, I’m obsessed with socks,” he said. And because the brand is based in Southern California, he sees the opportunity to offer more warm-weather clothes in the future. “When I first started Elder, I imagined it in seaside villages and mountain towns and doing it for a few months a year, but because I didn’t understand fashion. Our store in L.A. does really well, and when we get in front of people — when we’re able to express ourselves properly — we feel like we have a winning hand. But I don’t want to get into something we’re not good at,” he said.
His new partners undoubtedly agree. In March, Emma and Jens Grede, the entrepreneurs behind Kim Kardashian’s Skims and other brands, acquired a minority stake in The Elder Statesman. They were joined in the investment round by the von Furstenberg family.
“I have a team of business partners,” Chait said. “But they’re people, not funds, and they see the long-term vision for the company.”
They’re also families, which is near and dear to his heart. He pointed to fashion industry luminaries such as the Zegnas, the Dumas of Hermès, the Wertheimers of Chanel, the Loro Piana family and the Starks of Chrome Hearts as among the businesses he most admires for their passion and longevity.
Next up, Chait said the company will open a long-term pop-up in Aspen in around 10 days. The store is expected to be open for two years.
While the focus right now is on direct retail, The Elder Statesman still has a solid wholesale business with customers such as Bergdorf Goodman, Neiman Marcus, Ssense, Mytheresa and Net-a-porter. “With the Aspen store, that would be three, so all of a sudden, the percentage of wholesale to retail shifts quite dramatically,” he said. “We’re also not on a mission to expand wholesale exponentially. We’re about growing but never getting over our skis, and making sure that everything we do is of a certain quality and is intentional.”
Much of The Elder Statesman’s apparel is unisex and the fabrics it creates are all proprietary and used in a variety of products. For instance, a Super Soft robe is offered in the same fabric as the Super Soft blanket. “I’m actually really grateful that we started with blankets, because it’s in our root DNA,” he said. So expanding into home and other design products allows the company to move beyond just the closet to become part of its customers’ homes. “It’s actually a really, really intimate place to be,” he said.
Looking ahead, Chait said the company is actively searching for the right spot to open another store and is exploring the addition of those new categories and the development of more fabrics.
He’s also hoping to further elevate The Elder Stateman’s visibility. “We are a company that a lot of people know, but not everybody knows us, so there’s still a lot of sense of discovery.”
