PANELISTS AND PARTIERS: NORWEGIAN WOOL’S DOWNTOWN STORE OPENING

Last week European luxury brand Norwegian Wool marked the grand opening of its second New York City store – this new downtown one at Brookfield Place mall has an older sibling at 554 Fifth Ave – with a panel of notable names who discussed the state of luxury menswear in front of a rapt audience.

Moderated by Heather Kaminetsky, President of Mytheresa, the panel included actor Brian Cox of TV’s Succession and Ryan Serhant of Million Dollar Listing along with Ivan Shaw, Photography Director of Condé Nast, and Michael Berkowitz, CEO & Founder of Norwegian Wool.

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Among other topics, the panel discussed the direction of men’s fashion and how it has evolved. Shaw said, “We’re all back and there’s this tremendous energy out there and I think men really want to dress again”. He also spoke of how “…clothes can really bring you joy and I think we all are really needing that.” Continuing, he added, “I don’t think it’s about getting back to where we were, it’s about getting to a new place. It’s about embracing the new life. The hybrid life…and that doesn’t mean you can’t dress up for work.”

Continuing discussions of the dress code for work, Serhant added, “If you’re not careful, your first impression will be your last impression… When I would show up in a suit during quarantine, even now, and I looked professional, people were so surprised that I didn’t show up in a sweatshirt and were like ‘oh, you must take yourself seriously, you’ll take my building seriously, here is our $2 Billion sellout’ and I really credit the outfit, it has nothing to do with me.”

Berkowitz noted, “If fashion can’t actually be worn, it’s not so meaningful to me. Our mission is to create products that merge performance and luxury for all of us, that can actually be worn in real life.”