and even snow globes—arrives at the newest Nordstrom,
where it will be installed in a tentlike structure rising to a
20-foot ceiling in the middle of the store’s main floor. This
cool bivouac will feature Louboutin-red carpets, along with
a display built from cargo boxes. “I’m bringing a part of
that dear museum to New York,” Louboutin says dreamily.
The cheerful mayhem of 57th Street and Broadway is
hardly dreamy, but that bustle is just what Pete Nordstrom
says he is looking forward to most. Nordstrom, a fourth-
generation member of the retail family and copresident of
the empire that bears his name, acknowledges the challenges
facing brick-and-mortar outposts these
days—which seem as daunting as
trekking across the desert in towering
Louboutins—but insists that planning for
seven years, spending a small fortune, and
building a 320,000-square-foot edifice
that is part new construction, part careful
restoration of three historic buildings is
the right move at the right time.
“New York is probably the most
important shopping destination in the
world, so it’s hard to imagine that we
wouldn’t want to be here!” he says.
Okay—but what about the fact that people are buying more
and more online and visiting actual shops less and less?
Nordstrom disputes this conventional wisdom, insisting that
having a physical presence actually drives online business.
“Sure, it’s a little scary,” he says, “but in a good way.”
Having offerings like the Louboutin collaboration is just
the beginning of what Nordstrom says makes his new store
so special. (The storied shoe designer joins other such fashion
luminaries as Burberry and Simone Rocha and rising stars
including Marine Serre and Bode in the new space.) There’s
also what he describes as an extraordinary level of service—
seven restaurants and bars, a second-floor spa where you can
pop in for a quick blow-out or spend an entire sybaritic day,
and—perhaps best of all!—the ready availability of cocktails.
(Wouldn’t a gin and tonic be a welcome addition when you’re
shoving your recalcitrant feet into endless pairs of boots?)
The store has no big windows facing the street—maybe
window displays are so last-century?—relying instead on a
glass façade and a spectacular shifting panorama of light
to seduce passersby.
The company is also opening at least two little satellite
shops that they call Nordstrom Local. Slated for the Upper
East Side and the West Village, these are spaces where, as
Nordstrom envisions it, you can meet up with a stylist or
bring in stuff you just ordered online—some turkeys that
just didn’t work, some things that you love but that need
tailoring. (Full disclosure—as a world-class department-
store shopper, but also a shameless serial buyer-and-
returner, I find this idea particularly magical.)
“We want to be the go-to place where you can grab a cup of
coffee and come with kids,” Nordstrom says. And maybe
some of those kids will end up falling in love with the wonders
of a department store—a retail palace that fuels childhood
hopes and dreams, as compelling in its own way as a Parisian
museum that once captivated a young boy?—ly n n yaeger
“Sure, it’s a
lit tle sca r y,”
says Pete
Nordstrom
of his new
store. “But in
a good way”
The Bright Side
Down the road
from the rambling
English garden at Charleston
Farmhouse—idyll and country
HQ for the Bloomsbury group
(Virginia Woolf, John Maynard
Keynes, Vanessa Bell, and
others)—the bohemian spirit
persists in the attic studio
of Madeleine Bradbury. There
the Sussex-based artist, who
describes herself as a disciple
of the movement in both
lifestyle (“I’m not married; I
don’t own much”) and aesthetic
principle (she invokes a post-
Impressionism whimsy), paints
lamps, lampshades, and furniture.
On the lamp’s wooden bases,
whittled by Bradbury’s life
partner, ethereal polygons and
storybook botanicals are
painted in muted colors. The
shades, handmade from book
paper, feature similar feathery
geometries. (Spot them dimming
the room at Keith McNally’s newly
reopened Pastis in Manhattan.)
“Turn on the light and see the
brushstrokes,” says Bradbury. “It’s
labor-intensive, but I’ve had to
learn to keep it loose.”—LILAH RAMZI
DESIGN
MADE IN THE SHADE
AN ILLUSTRATION OF THE OMEGA LAMP.
VLIFE
94 OCTOBER 2019 VOGUE.COM
DANILO AGUTOLI
