MARCH 2–15, 2020 | THE CUT 31Visiting Hong Kong in 2002.Crosby Street in Soho.
Periodically, men would come into
the store confused and ask Carol
for a massage. She would refuse.
Claire Danes:I grew
up on Crosby ... [The flagship]
was a special little spot. By the
time you finally got there, your
mind was happily blown.
JuneHumberto throws himself
a raucous 27th-birthday
celebration in the empty space. It
turns into a demolition party when
guests tag the walls with graffiti
and jump from the balcony,
breaking through to the bathroom.
SeptemberThe store opens its
doors. Michael Stipe is one of
the first customers. Carol and
Humberto work the floor, ring up
sales, take out the trash, and even
chase after shoplifters.
C:For a long time, even if we were
both there, we would greet the
customer and then we would go to
our office in the back. We wanted
to let people look. We thought it
was totally normal until one day
someone stole five
leather pieces from the
mezzanine. I started
crying.
The Diamond hoodie,
which they sell for $60,
is their first hit.
H:Carol and I are
from Southern
California, and having
a sweatshirt in your
car is absolutely
essential. My mom is
an amazing
seamstress—she worked in
garment factories—so we enlisted
her to help us. We wanted
something really graphic that
could stand out without actually
having to print anything, which
would require extra money. We
started with a run of 50; theywere there with us on the first day
the store opened, and they sold
out within the first week.
Patrik Ervell,designer and
friend:When the store first
opened, it was also a place to hang
out. People would come by and
play music. There were always
people working in the back.
It was almost a weird precursor
to WeWork in a strange way.
Kidsstar Leo Fitzpatrick would
use their fax machine and have
scripts sent to the store. Designer
Benjamin Cho would come in to
sketch, while his sister, Cathy,
studied for her medical exams.
Shu Hung (who would go on to work
at Nike and then Uniqlo as global
creative director) starts a magazine
calledInwith Ken Miller, which is
based in the back of the store. Brian
Phillips, who would go on to found
Black Frame, the fashion
PR firm that also represented
the brand, starts an art-consulting
company there.
Brian Phillips:You’d come to
figure out what was happening
that night. Pre–social media, if
you wanted to know what the
cool kids were doing, you’d go
and chat with the sales associates.
2003 Year of Brazil
JanuaryThey travel to Brazil
on a buying trip, find plastic
flip-flops called Havaianas in a
grocery store, and fill their
suitcases with them.
MayOlivia Kim is hired as the
first employee. (In 2013, she would
join Nordstrom and is now VP
of creative projects.)
Olivia Kim:The first day they left
me alone in the store, I was by
myself and like a thousand people
came in, so I locked the door. I was
like,What if all these people just
grab clothes and run out of here!
2004 Year of Germany
MarchThe store makes its first
$1 million in total sales.
H:Carol and I had a really crazy
idea that the minute we ran up that
millionth-dollar transaction, we
were going to throw confetti
at this person. We had also been
collecting this goody bag of
everything we loved that we weregoing to hand them. It happened
to be someone we knew. She
bought a pair of sneakers for her
boyfriend and was like, “Hey, I’m in
a rush.” When we went to ring her
up, we were like, “Oh my gosh ...
she’s the one.” And so Carol and
I, of course, acted insane. As soon
as she paid and we rang up her
credit card, we threw all this
confetti over her head. She was just
like, “What is going on, guys?” And
we were like, “Congratulations!”
She was all dressed
up for dinner for her
boyfriend’s birthday.
It was kind of a
hilarious mess.
AugustAfter
working with only their friends,
Carol and Humberto do their first
brand collaboration, with Nike,
for the 2004 Olympics. They
invite each designer and artist
they carry to create a unique item,
turning the entire store into a Nike
shop called Souvenir.
2005 Year of the U.K.
They bring Topshop to the U.S.
C:When we approached
[Topshop], the idea was
completely foreign to them
because they had never
wholesaled their clothing before.
They were confused why we
wanted them next to emerging
brands like Gareth Pugh, Peter
Pilotto, and Peter Jensen. But
to us and our friends, Topshop
was a crucial part of the London
fashion experience.2006 Year of Sweden
They bring Acne and Cheap
Monday to the U.S.C:I first noticed Acne when we
were in Berlin in 2004. We started
selling the whole collection at the
store, along with other Swedish
brands like Cheap Monday. We
actually became for a while Acne’s
retail partner in the U.S., helping
them open a Soho store.2007 Year of the USA
FebruaryThey are one of the first
to sell Alexander Wang, who
shopped at the store while a
student at Parsons.
AprilOC opens its first branch in
L. A. in Charlie Chaplin’s former
dance studio on La Cienega
Boulevard.
C:We didn’t believe in making it
a store with only textbook L.A.
summery jersey products all
year round.
About this time, back in New
York, they realize the staff seems to
be letting OC’s status as the “It”
store go to their heads.
H:We had to have a lot of talks
with the staff. We would go in and
have to tell them, like, “Don’t
think you’re cool. What’s cool is
how not cool you guys are.”
C:We had to have a big staff
meeting in New York. We’d gotten
maybe four or five texts in a row
from friends saying, “Your staff is
horrendous,” and we’d seen it too.
We had a major conversation. We
said, “You have the choice today:
You can either walk out, or you
can change your attitude.” It was
intense. It was the first time I’d
seen Humberto cry
in all the years I’d
known him. We were
so pissed! We took it
so personally.
MayJacky Tang is
hired as manager.
Jacky Tang: It was
an intimidating storeThe OC office in 2010.With Claire Danes at a 2010 dinner
in L.A. for Alexander Wang.PHOTOGRAPHS COURTESY OF OPENING CEREMONY
2004
Nike collab.2003
Introducing
Havaianas.2002
Diamond
hoodie.FEED