![]() ![]() “Since the beginning we were looking for a place that was more of a home-not a gallery for sure,” says Dubern-Mallevays. That too wasn’t a fit for the founders’ vision. On the other side of the coin, with its rare objects, high prices and focus on design as art, The Invisible Collection could have gone to Chelsea and positioned itself as a gallery. Left: The space features a curated array by Olivier Garcé & Clio Dimofsk Sean Davidson | Right: The Mimi Table and Taylor sofa by Garcé & Dimofski pair nicely with Brian Rattiner’s painting and Se Yoon Park’s sculpture Sean Davidson For our designers, it would be impossible to be in a design center-they need to express something in a real space.” Perhaps unsurprisingly, she’s not a fan of using the term “showroom” to describe her company’s new location (“townhouse” or just “space" is preferred). “I love design districts they’re super efficient, but it’s not at all our mode. “We couldn’t imagine it,” says Dubern-Mallevays. But though the founders take pains to point out that the townhouse is only a 10-minute walk from the D&D Building, they’re just as adamant that The Invisible Collection doesn’t belong there, or in 200 Lex either. With its focus on the trade, customization and a wide range of furnishings, the site feels in some ways like a multiline showroom-one that might be at home in a design center. It’s tough for any digital brand, but choosing a brick-and-mortar location was particularly challenging for a platform like The Invisible Collection, which resists easy categorization. “Obviously we won’t be able to show them all, but with the selection we’ll do in that space every month, we’ll be able to convince that everything is at that level.” “Designers want to see some of the pieces, which is quite fair,” says Zaoui. The hope is that, by beautifully showcasing a rotating selection, an aura of quality will carry over to the stock that won’t fit in a 1,700-square-foot townhouse. One of the rooms, a small, street-facing alcove, has only two objects in it: a stool and a delicate mirror. The Invisible Collection has taken the opposite route, opting for a small, almost minimally appointed space. But with nearly 200 designers and 2,000 SKUs, displaying even half of it would take a warehouse.įaced with a similar dilemma, 1stDibs opted for a “more is more” strategy in 2018, leasing a 44,000-square-foot space on the far west side of Manhattan with 50 vendors and thousands of objects (it shuttered less than a year later, citing issues around the development of the building). In the rarified air The Invisible Collection occupies-armchairs can run into the tens of thousands of dollars-customers often like to see the merchandise in person before they click to buy. Just this month, The Invisible Collection opened its first, a quiet two floors of a townhouse on Manhattan’s Upper East Side.įor digital-first marketplaces, opening a brick-and-mortar location presents some unique challenges. comes the pressing need for an IRL location here. Business growth has been quick: The Invisible Collection now employs 50 across three offices in Paris, London and New York. Representing a murderer’s row of contemporary French designers-many exclusively-the site is a go-to resource for pieces by the likes of Pierre Yovanovitch, Charles Zana and Aline Asmar d’Amman. Launched in 2016 by Zaoui and her partners, Isabelle Dubern-Mallevays and Lily Froehlicher, The Invisible Collection has quickly established itself as a presence in the trade (designers, the founders say, make up roughly 90 percent of its business in the states). “But knowing closely now, we’re not surprised. “It came as a surprise at the beginning, that America was our best market,” co-founder Anna Zaoui tells Business of Home. ![]() So it was with The Invisible Collection, the London-based e-commerce platform dedicated to ultra-high-end, mostly European furniture and decor. The best surprise an entrepreneur could ask for: finding out a wealthy country of 300 million wants what you’re selling.
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