Batsheva Hay is opening a store. On an unassuming corner in New York City’s SoHo neighborhood, the designer—and her dad—have been hard at work, turning what was once a takeout spot for a buzzy restaurant, into a Batsheva flagship of her own. “I was truly the [person] most scared of a staple gun that you could imagine, and now I am like a staple gun monster,” she says, showing off the lime green fabric treatment that covers the interior of the shop, which she designed alongside Adam Charlap Hyman of Charlap Hyman & Herrero. “I loved the idea of a store, but the space intimidated me because I’m used to dealing with throwing things on the body; and Adam was like, ‘you work with fabric, we should just use a lot of fabric!’”
In addition to softly draped and shirred green walls, the store features glossy red ceilings, gilded clothing racks (“they feel very Henri Bendel, very fancy”), and a floor hand-painted by Hay’s friend, the artist Tim Snell, with an abstract animal-ish print that’s a bit like a leopard print but with very punk blue splotches. “I wanted to have a beautiful carpet, but then the door wouldn’t open,” says Hay, riffing on the perils of remodeling. “I was like, ‘what a bummer!’, but then we were just like, ‘oh, we can paint it’.” The space is a reflection of Hay’s unique aesthetic, while also bringing to mind the feeling of stores from designers like Betsey Johnson or Anna Sui in the ’90s. High femme—but with an edge.
“I see there are a lot of stores that are gathering places, but they all seem very masculine, like Aimé Leon Dore and Supreme—what is the version of that with a different kind of energy?” Hay asks. “I think most people who will come here will be specifically looking to come here—although there’s great foot traffic and already we’ve had people walking by and asking what’s happening—but I want a reason for people to come here rather than just scrolling whatever online store.” Aside from her collection she’s planning on expanding her one-of-a-kind offerings, and incorporating vintage, and other objects unique to the Batsheva universe. Hay already feels her creativity unleashing in new ways. “I’m actually thinking of making things in this leopard print,” she says, pointing to her patterned floor. During the pandemic she began upholstering vintage furniture in her signature patterned fabrics, which she’ll also likely bring to the store. “We’re trying to figure out the space, and see what exactly is going to fit, but I have a chair that matches the space, and if it sells then maybe I’ll bring more.”
Though Hay had been looking for a space “for years,” the timing of this one certainly feels serendipitous, in light of the ongoing disappearance of some of the big multi-label stores. She describes being “bothered” by the way that dealing exclusively with wholesale accounts can shift the perception of the brand since ultimately, the big stores are the ones that control what product gets to go on sale. “It was a little bit like a feeling of wanting control,” she says. “This is how I want to present my stuff. I had stopped making some one-of-a-kind pieces, that are more fitted and tailored, or were too challenging to photograph when you’re only presenting stuff online; so here I can put things out and just see if they work.”
The Batsheva store, at 166 Elizabeth Street, in New York City, will be open to the public beginning on Friday, March 22, from 11:00am to 7:00pm.
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